Five letters, a love story, and over a million dollars—this is the story of the unanticipated success of the online word game Wordle. Towards the end of 2021, Josh Wardle created Wordle as a game for his partner to pass time during quarantine, not knowing that the game would eventually evolve into the global phenomenon it is today. Wordle has evolved from an activity for a few hundred players to indulge in to a worldwide competition. Every day, a new five letter word is introduced. Players have six chances to guess the word. Each letter that is correct and in the right position in the word is highlighted green. Letters that are in the word but not in the right position are in yellow, and letters that are not in the word are gray. 

A play on his last name, Wardle initially came up with the concept in 2013 but ended up rejecting it. However, his partner’s love for the New York Times’ “Spelling Bee” and “Crossword” grew, inspiring him to pursue this game. 

With a simple layout, no ads, and the limit of one game per day, Wordle promotes a sense of scarcity and leaves players wanting more, while still being user friendly. Additionally, the word game only requires a few minutes out of one’s day, encouraging many to take their shot at guessing the word. In the middle of December, Wardle observed that while there wasn’t a way from the website to share results, several would use different squares to indicate what they had got without giving the exact word away. Later, this feature was implemented into the website, contributing in part to the game’s mass popularity. 

The New York Times purchased Wordle for “a number in the high seven figures” towards the end of January 2022, which caused a bit of controversy when fans of the original Wordle found that the layout and word arrangement had changed. The transition left some players frustrated, but this change has largely not impacted Wordle’s popularity or success. The game continues to see profound success and popularity among players of all ages and backgrounds across the world.