Wordle: The Internet’s New Favorite Game

Summary:

• The internet is obsessed with Wordle, a daily word-guessing game that has taken social media by storm with colorful grids.

• Players have six tries to guess a five-letter word each day, leading to social media sharing of scores and strategies to win.

• Wordle’s simplicity and challenge have made it a viral sensation, even being used by political figures to engage with current events.

If you have been perusing the internet lately, you might have noticed your friends posting their “wordle” of the day, accompanied by multicolored squares forming grids. Or, perhaps you are the friend posting their wordle, who played it one day and started anticipating every day’s newest Wordle.

Finished the Wordle at 12:06. Now the next 23:54 are pointless.

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) January 19, 2022

The game, which has become the internet’s favorite as of right now, is a word game, where you have six tries to guess the five-letter word of the day. In each guess, it will tell you if your guess has the right letters in the right placement, the right letters in the wrong placement, or if the letter was not right at all. Each day brings a new Wordle, which depending on who you are, is either incredibly easy or the worst game you’ve ever played, but you can’t stop.

@drag.onite

i have the mind of a mastermind #wordle #nyt #gay

♬ original sound – Devin Halbal

Many love to post their score on social media, especially if it shows they guessed the word of the day in three tries or less. Many believe the game became popular as it is a simple concept, but is not always an easy game, as there are so many words with only a few tries. On TikTok, many share their secrets and strategies in order to win the game every time. However, many wonder if that defeats the purpose, as it is a word game and not necessarily a strategy game.

@wordswithkhai

Reply to @user5923111957536 this is true! Here’s Wordle strategy 2.0! Creds to you for leading me here. I’m now fairly certain I’ve identified the absolute best start possible #wordle #wordletok #nytspellingbee #puzzle #puzzlegame

♬ Love Lost – Mac Miller & The Temper Trap

This is not the first time we’ve seen games take off and trend due to the Internet, with examples like Angry Birds or Flappy Bird. But, this game is even easier to share on the Internet, as when you are done it automatically creates a grid to show your friends how you did today on Wordle. What starts off as bragging rights encourages others to play the game as well in order to feel included.

wordle tried to break me today

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

— blaire erskine (@blaireerskine) January 19, 2022

Now, even political figures are using the Wordle trend to convey their messages, like in regards to the voting rights debate occurring right now in the Senate. Many compare this to the 2016 election when people used Pokemon Go as a strategy to promote young voters.

Wordle of Wisdom 3/6 #VotingRightsNow pic.twitter.com/72F1MOvyx5

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) January 19, 2022

Using Wordle for political messaging is the 2022 version of Pokemon Go to the Polls

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) January 19, 2022

But, as hard as it might be to admit, the game accidentally becomes addicting, because almost everyone likes winning and bragging to their friends, which is even easier to do when the game autogenerates a sharable score for you.