If you have been on any form of social media recently, you have probably heard about this game called Wordle. 

Wordle is a suspenseful guessing game where the goal is to guess the correct five letter word in six tries or less. As you guess words, the game will tell you if any of the letters you guessed are correct or not. If they are correct and in the right spot in the word, the letter will turn green. If the letter is in the word somewhere but is not in the correct spot, that letter will turn yellow. If the letter is not in the word at all, it will remain grey. 

This game originated from a love that Josh Wardle had for his partner. As a play on his last name, he called it Wordle.  Wordle was originally made just for his wife to enjoy during quarantine because she loved doing the New York Times daily mini crosswords. 

After sharing it with their close relatives, it was a big hit. Wardle and his wife then decided to share it publicly online in October. On November 1st, 90 people played. As of the beginning of January, more than 300,000 people play every day. 

This game has gone viral and is all over social media. After you guess the correct word, you have the ability to share how many tries it took you and a model of what letters you got correct without revealing the answer. Here is what it looks like when you share it:

Wordle 222 4/6

?⬜⬜⬜⬜

⬜⬜?⬜⬜

????⬜

?????

But why is there so much hype? The ability to share your score through messages, twitter, instagram, snapchat, email, and more spreads the word and convinces more people to play it. After seeing other people’s scores, the competitive nature encourages you to go play it. People also get so excited about Wordle in hopes to keep their winning streak alive, and to get a better score than they have in the past. 

Also, because only one word is released per day, it keeps people coming back. If you were able to do as many rounds as you wanted in one day, everyone would be over it. But because you have to keep waiting for the next word to be released, it is constantly on your mind. 

Wordle strategies vary from person to person. The idea is to guess words with common letters in the first few guesses so you can easily guess the correct word.People have run tests to see the best words to start with, including adieu, tears, and lares. Some people like to guess a word with a lot of vowels on their first try, a word with a lot of common consonants on the second try, then they can make a good guess on the third try. Others just try to guess the correct word on the first try. 

Wordle is a strategic, fun, and competitive game. Will you be playing in the next round?