It is extremely hard to get through a day at the Academy without hearing about Wordle. Perhaps someone will ask you if you have figured the word out yet or you will see people playing it during a break in class. No matter how this puzzle affects your day, it has certainly taken over in recent weeks.
This game, in which players get six chances to figure out a five letter word that changes every day, was created by software engineer Josh Wardle back in October 2021. The program displays a yellow brick if the letter in your chosen starting word is in the word, but in a different spot, a green brick means the letter is in the right spot, and a gray brick means the letter is not in the word. It had 90 total users on November 1, but has hit a spike in popularity with millions playing the game daily now in February 2022. The website allows players to share their performance with rows of five bricks that indicate how they finally were able to guess the word of the day. People all over the internet are sharing their daily Wordle encoded bricks, but as 11th grade history teacher Danny Packer says, “the rule of Wordle is that you cannot say the Wordle.” It is important to many people across the Academy community that the Wordle of the Day is not spoiled, and there is even a fair amount of judgment of those that use starting words such as “irate” or “adieu,” with students saying this calculated approach to the game is cowardly.
The increase in players has inspired many spin offs of the game including variants in other languages, such as Spanish Wordle, which 11th grade English teacher David Gray plays every day, and themed Wordles like Taylor Swift, BTS, and Lord of the Rings that have words related to the subjects.
All the buzz of Wordle in mid January sparked the interest of the New York Times, which announced their purchase of the game on January 31. They will be adding the puzzle to their portfolio of other games, which include The Daily Crossword and Spelling Bee. The purchase itself, described by the Times as being “in the low seven figures,” sparked a bit of panic in daily Wordle users. The company has said that the puzzle “will initially remain free,” but the Times’ quest to increase digital subscriptions to 10 million by 2025 reflects the importance of games and the possibility that Wordle will be put behind a paywall in the future.
For now, however, Wordle remains on its original website free for users to play and bond with others over the daily challenge.