Wordle

A daily puzzle game in which players must guess the five-letter word of the day within six attempts, with each failed guess giving them information as to whether the letters they have used appear in the correct word, and where.

Released: 1 October 2021
Platforms: Browser
Genres: Letter Puzzle Quiz Word
Developers: Josh Wardle
Publishers: The New York Times
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Text
Themes: Non-fiction Educational
Country: United States
Languages: English

About

Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. In the game, players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, receiving feedback through coloured tiles that indicate correct letters and their placement. A single puzzle is released daily, with all players attempting to solve the same word. It was inspired by the game Mastermind.

Originally developed as a personal project for Wardle and his partner, Wordle was publicly released in October 2021. It gained widespread popularity in late 2021 after the introduction of a shareable emoji-based results format, which led to viral discussion on social media. The game's success spurred the creation of numerous clones, adaptations in other languages, and variations with unique twists. It has been well-received, being played 4.8 billion times during 2023.

›Story

Wordle is a daily word puzzle game with no narrative component; players simply guess a five-letter word within six attempts.

Keywords

browser-based
word game
word puzzle
words
daily challenge
wordle
browser game

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Each day, a new five-letter word is chosen, and players attempt to guess it within six tries. After each guess, the letters are colour-coded based on their accuracy:

Green indicates a correct letter in the correct spot.

Development

In 2013, Josh Wardle created an early prototype of Wordle, initially calling it Mr. Bugs' Wordy Nugz. Inspired by the colour-matching mechanics of the board game Mastermind, the prototype allowed players to solve puzzles consecutively. Originally, the game included all (approximately 13,000) five-letter words in the English language, but Wardle found that his partner, Palak Shah, struggled with many obscure words; this made guessing feel as random as it did in Mastermind.

To improve the experience, he had Shah filter the list, reducing it to about 2,000 more familiar words—enough to last roughly five years at one puzzle per day. She categorized words into those she knew, those she didn't, and those she might have known. By 2014, Wardle had completed the prototype but eventually lost interest and set it aside.

Reception

Wordle has garnered generally positive reviews. The Guardian gave it five out of five stars, lauding it as "a five-minute conundrum that slots pleasingly into even the most harried routine" and likening it to a daily newspaper puzzle. PC Gamer rated it 80/100 and described it as "a fantastic, mesmerizing daily puzzle that's bundled to a community offering some of the best vibes on the internet". Charlie Hall of Polygon criticized the game's board game adaptation, describing it as a "cut-and-paste job" that simply replicated the digital game's mechanics without adding meaningful enhancements for a multiplayer party setting.

Following Wordle's rapid rise in early 2022, numerous clones emerged, some introducing novel twists to the game's logic. Absurdle, created by British programmer qntm, is an adversarial version where the target word changes after each guess while still adhering to previously revealed hints. Other clones retained Wordle's mechanics but altered the word list, including translations into other languages and themed variations such as Sweardle (featuring swear words) and Weddle (focused on NFL players, named after former safety Eric Weddle). The game has also been ported to older hardware, with versions like GameBoy Wordle for the Game Boy and Wordle DS for the Nintendo 3DS.