What is Wordle & Why Is Everybody Obsessed With It?

Why is everyone sharing different coloured square emojis on social media? Well, if you enjoy the occasional brainteaser, you could well be interested in Wordle…

In a time where video games are becoming ever-more realistic and the finer, more intricate details of online gaming are being fine-tuned, there will always still be a place for simple puzzles.

When it comes to mobile gaming, you’ll notice the most popular games over time – Candy Crush, Angry Birds, Flappy Bird, Fruit Ninja – have all been quite straightforward in their design, but that appears to be what makes them so addictive.

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Created by Josh Wardle, Wordle first appeared at the end of 2021. At the time of writing this, we’re actually on day 387 to be precise.

Owing to social media and the various other elements that determine whether something goes viral or not, it gathered around 3 million daily players – but what exactly is it and why is it so addictive?

What Is Wordle?

Accessible on a number of devices, Wordle is a free-to-play puzzle game that simply involves having to guess a five-letter word in no more than six tries.

If the letter from your guess isn’t in the target word, that letter will become grey. Wordle explains its rules in a helpful pop-up the first time you launch the game.

It will become yellow if it is in the word but not in the proper place. It will change to a lovely shade of green if it is in the word and in the proper location.

Only one puzzle is available per day, so once you’ve completed your attempt you have to wait until the next day for your next attempt.

Why Is Wordle So Popular?

Since everyone is guessing the same word, they are competing against one another every day. This game is so well-liked because it is simple to publish your results and prove that you were quicker than everyone else.

Don’t worry though, the share button only reveals where you made your first accurate guess and how many guesses it took you to correctly guess the whole word, rather than providing friends with the solution.

It is simple to play, easy to share, and it prompts online discussions about the answer and how well everyone performed.

Similar Games To Wordle

Fortunately, Wordle hasn’t merely thrilled users; a large number of game developers have been inspired by it to produce original takes on the enjoyable model.

There is a tonne of daily puzzle games available nowadays that ask you to guess the solution using letters, numbers, sounds, and even images.

Although not all Wordle-like games are worthwhile, you should definitely check out a handful of the hundreds that have come out in recent months.

Here are some of our favourite Wordle alternatives:

Heardle

Heardle is an option if you value sound above words. Your initial guess is based just on a one-second sound sample of the song’s opening, and you get six chances to correctly predict each song.

If you make a bad guess, you receive a couple of additional seconds. It is really rewarding to identify a song with only one guess, but it is also enjoyable when it takes some time to identify the music.

If you believe you recognise the singer but are having trouble recalling the song, an auto-fill function might assist you to make a decision.

Nerdle

Forget about letters, words, and audio: Nerdle is for fans of numbers. Each day, you use numbers and procedures to attempt to predict a new computation.

The Wordle rules are still in effect: any number or operation that occurs in the right location is green, it appears in the puzzle but in the incorrect position is magenta, and it doesn’t exist at all is black.

Additionally, it involves employing hints in addition to arithmetic, similar to Wordle. For instance, the = in the seventh space indicates that the answer is just one digit, which greatly helps in limiting the answer.

Worldle

In the game Worldle, you must identify the nation based on its form.

Each guess you make indicates the number of kilometres your guess is from the correct answer and the direction it is from the nation you picked, thereby helping you to focus on your next attempt.

For those of us who haven’t taken a geography lesson in a few decades, it serves as a wonderful refresher course on nation shapes, names, and locations. There’s also a handy autocomplete option, so spelling isn’t required to be your strongest suit.

Crosswordle

In Crosswordle, the solution is provided automatically at the bottom. Your objective is to combine all the wrong guesses together to finish the Wordle grid by filling in the remaining pieces of the puzzle from the top town.

A square that is green indicates that a letter needs to be placed there. A square that is yellow indicates that a letter needs to be placed there incorrectly.

It’s really cunning and difficult to come up with bad terms but nevertheless precisely fulfil the criteria. You may play the easy, medium, and hard modes as much as you desire in addition to the daily puzzle.

Waffle

Waffle provides you with a grid that already has all the letters, however many of them are placed incorrectly.

Three across and three down, totalling six distinct words, are your challenges. Instead of typing in the letters, you have to drag and drop them into the grid. Yellow letters are a part of the term but are in the wrong place, whereas green characters are already in the right places.

It resembles assembling a little crossword puzzle from a pool of letters. Additionally, there are many levels of success: Although there are 15 swaps overall, each Waffle may be resolved in only 10.

Therefore, try to make sure it’s a good move and the letter you’re exchanging for will also end up in the proper spot before you drag a letter somewhere else.

Jake McEvoy

Jake is a professional copywriter, journalist, and life-long fan of technology. He covers news and user guides for KnowYourMobile.