Wordle Game: everything you need to know

If you’ve spent any amount of time on social media lately, you’ve definitely heard about the Wordle game.

Posts on Facebook, Twitter and other websites featuring those little multicolored tiles are taking the world by storm.

It’s a huge phenomenon, but some still aren’t entirely sure what Wordle even is, much less what makes it popular. In case this is you, here’s a rundown on what Wordle is and where are the best free alternatives.

Wordle is an online letter game by the New York Times, serving as a brain teaser for puzzle fans. Every day, a brand new 5-letter word is chosen, and players get six attempts to figure it out.

You are given five empty tiles to fill up, each representing a blank space for an alphabet. With that, you’ll need to figure out what the new five letter word is by guessing your way through.

To do this, you’ll fill out each tile with an alphabet that you think fits.

There’s no time limit, so you really get to stretch things as much as you’d like. Once you’ve chosen a five letter word as your answer, you submit it. Then, the tiles will change color depending on the alphabet inside and how close you were to the answer.

If the tile stays gray, then your alphabet is completely incorrect and doesn’t fit anywhere in the word. Getting a yellow tile means the alphabet IS somewhere in the word, just not in the position you selected. Green represents the best outcome, meaning you got the right alphabet in the correct spot. You repeat this six times, with the hopes of getting the right word before running out of guesses.

As you can see, it’s a generally a pretty simple game, which explains why it’s got such a grip on the nation. The overall simplicity of Wordle means anyone can play it.

Do keep in mind however that you can only play Wordle once a day. This means if you get your Wordle wrong, you have to live with the shame (unless you don’t tell anyone).

The thing about the Wordle game is that it’s only playable troughs the browser, but don’t worry there are plenty of free Wordle app alternative to play with.

On of this is Word Journey a free Wordle app alternative (proudly made by us) that has improved on the original Wordle game idea whit new amazing features.

Word Jorney removes the limits of the original Wordle game by giving you the possibility to find as many words as you want and it will take you literally trought a journey because you will unlock amazing scenarios while progressing trought the game.

If you don’t believe me, here is what the users think about the game.

Well, If you a looking for a Wordle experience that you can play right in you phone at any time, then try Word Journey now for free:

Now that you know about Wordle game, you may be wondering why exactly it’s so popular. After all, it’s a relatively simple game, why do you keep seeing it everywhere? What’s so special about Wordle that seeing it is almost unavoidable every day on the internet?

To put it simply, Wordle’s success boils down to three key points.

Simplicity is good when it comes to a puzzle game like Wordle. It’s a very basic premise, one that anyone can understand. Having such a low barrier of entry means anyone can play it, and this leads to basically everyone playing it. After all, it’s a short, quick experience, why not share in on it for a bit? Results are also easy to share on social media, taking the simplicity even deeper.

Accessibility is the next huge selling point for the Wordle game. All you need to play the Wordle game is an internet connection and a device that can go online.

This means anyone can play, and because it’s so short it doesn’t take much time to play either.

Finally, there’s the underrated competitive aspect of the Wordle game.

While there are no leaderboards or anything, Wordle motivates players to get the word as fast as possible.

How does it do this exactly? By giving you a bigger flex when you go to share your results later. You get to see how well your friends did, and then compare it to your own results. Everyone’s playing the same puzzle after all.

All of these points come together to make the Wordle game a great little time waster.

There’s no reason not to play it, and it’s easy to hop on-board the bandwagon now that everyone’s in it. People have even been sharing tips and tricks, even videos showing the best method to solve a Wordle. It’s staggering how many people embrace Wordle as a part of life now.

While many attribute Wordle to the New York Times, the game’s actual beginnings are more humble. Wordle was originally created by Josh Wardle, a software engineer at Reddit. Wardle had successfully created social experiments before in the form of Reddit’s popular r/place, so he had the experience. Wordle however was never meant to be big, being created mainly as a puzzle game for his wife.

Originally Wordle stayed true to its roots, not really changing too much. With the addition of the share button however, things took a big turn. Suddenly, everyone and their mother was jumping on the Wordle game trend, and Wardle found himself with a huge hit.

It saw unparalleled levels of success that almost no one could have seen coming.

Wardle, despite the game’s success, kept his game clear of advertising. The clean aesthetic and huge emerging player base was proof of Wordle’s success, and he knew this.

Soon enough, the New York Times would approach Wardle on purchasing the game from him, and he obliged.

Now, Wordle NYT is a known abbreviation, though Wardle still remains as the original dev behind the project.

The plan for Wordle now is that it will eventually become part of the New York Times subscription puzzle service. Thankfully however, Wardle also made sure that Wordle would remain free-to-play, keeping its accessibility intact. On top of that, Wardle also confirmed that all current streaks would be preserved in the move to NYT’s puzzle service.

"It is important to me that, as Wordle grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone," Wardle said. "Given this, I am incredibly pleased to announce that I've reached an agreement with The New York Times for them to take over running Wordle going forward."

To their credit, the New York Times haven’t really made any sweeping changes to Wordle. The game remains as it’s always been, a simple and easy word game anyone can play. It owes its success to these labels after all, and we’re sure the New York Times knows this. We’ll see how things go moving forward, but for now Wordle is here to stay.

The big thing about Wordle is that its success is, on paper, easy to replicate. This leads to many people asking just what the next Wordle-like game to hit it big will be. Wordle itself has seen many variants of itself pop up since its success. Many of these also achieve success, using the same strategy that Wordle does too.

But the big thing is, none of these are truly as paradigm shifting as Wordle, at least not yet.

We’re sure soon enough a game will come around to challenge Wordle’s throne.

After all, for as charming as Wordle is, people are already getting tired of it. People are always looking towards the next big thing. While Wordle itself won’t disappear, the game’s popularity will probably be supplanted soon enough.

Where to go from here:

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