The game’s concept is simple yet captivating: players have six chances to guess a five-letter word, with each guess revealing whether the letters are correct and in the right position (green), correct but in the wrong position (yellow) or incorrect (grey). Wardle was originally inspired by the guess-the-colour game Mastermind. The daily reset format for Wordle keeps players engaged, creating anticipation for a new challenge every day.

Wardle created the prototype of Wordle in 2013 under the name Mr. Bugs' Wordy Nugz. [Ed: Yes, it's true.] His idea was to develop the game as a private gift for his partner Palak Shah, who loved word puzzles. She was also a valuable contributor to the development process, e.g. who, other than someone who really loves you, would be willing to sort through the 13,000 five-letter words in the English language, to identify the 2,309 that weren’t too obscure to be widely known.

Positive feedback from family and friends encouraged Wardle to launch it publicly on a simple website with the not-at-all-memorable URL of powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle. Even so, Wordle’s clean, ad-free design quickly attracted millions of daily players. By January 2022, its popularity had soared to the point where The New York Times were inspired to acquire it for a seven-figure sum, seamlessly incorporating the game into its lineup of digital puzzles. (Josh was not at all interested in running Wordle as a business, so the marriage and its timing was perfect.)

Wordle’s cultural impact has been significant. It sparked a resurgence in word games, leading to an array of creative spin-offs like Quordle (guessing four words at once), Heardle (a music-based guessing game) and Worldle (focused on geography). These variations broadened Wordle’s influence, introducing new twists on its format and appealing to diverse interests.

A key feature of Wordle's success was its shareable results format, which displayed a spoiler-free emoji grid representing a player’s attempts. This allowed users to share their achievements on social media, sparking collaborative conversations and fostering a sense of connection among players. (See also Pebbling.)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wordle offered a welcome source of joy, routine and mental stimulation amidst widespread uncertainty. Its simplicity and daily challenges created a global community, bringing people together through a shared, low-stakes pastime. Adaptations in various languages further expanded its reach, enabling linguistic exploration and uniting communities worldwide. Its popularity extended into classrooms, where teachers used it as a fun vocabulary-building tool, and workplaces, where it became a lighthearted team-building exercise.

Wordle’s influence stretched into popular culture, appearing in memes, late-night TV sketches, and branded merchandise like mugs, T-shirts and word game books.

Wordle’s legacy lies in its ability to merge nostalgia for traditional puzzles with modern social connectivity, cementing its status as one of the most impactful digital games of the 2020s.

According to CBS News Sunday Morning, Wordle was played 4.8 billion times during 2023.

In 2024 Wardle delivered a delightful talk explaining the genesis of his game at a conference organised by the collaborative design tool maker Figma. Watch it HERE.
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References

wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordle
smh.com.au/culture/books/tips-from-an-expert-how-to-solve-everyone-s-favourite-game-wordle
nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-game-creator

Images

1. Josh Wardle. Montage credits: The New York Times and TIME
2. Wardle with partner Palak Shah
3. Rapid Wordle growth 2021/2022. Credit: Newsweek statista
4. Malala shares her Wordle score via Twitter, 25 January 2022
5. Actor Ben Affleck is part of a "celebrity Wordle group" with Matt Damon. Jason Bateman and Bradley Cooper, 2023
6. Wordle, The Party Game from The New York Times and Hasbro
7. Video: "Opting for the opposite" Josh Wardle at Figma's Config 2024