Unless you’ve embarked on some sort of social media detox, you’ve likely seen people posting a bunch of random coloured boxes on social media day in and day out since early January. The game launched in October 2021 but surged to popularity at the start of the new year. 

Those boxes form part of a simple online game that has taken the English speaking world by storm: Wordle. 

So what exactly is Wordle? It’s a daily word game which is free to play and accessible on your web browser. Every day, players can open the browser and attempt to guess the world of the day. 

Here’s how it works:

• The game can only be accessed via the web page, which you can find here. 

• Every twenty-four hours a new word can be guessed.

• Players get no hints about what the word can be. Rather they’re given six tries to guess the word.

• After each guess, the tiles for the letters change colour. Here’s what they mean:

A green tile means the letter in said tile features in the word and is in the correct spot.

A yellow tile means the letter in said tile features in the word but is in the incorrect spot.

A grey tile means the letter is not in the word.

Players are able to share their results on social media without giving away the word of the day. 

So why is Wordle so popular?

If you’ve never played it, you may be confused as to why such a simple game could rise to the level of popularity Wordle has, with close to three hundred thousand people playing it every day. For perspective: Wordle developer Josh Wardle recently sold the game to the New York Times for a price tag in the low millions of dollars. He originally created the game for a friend who enjoyed Word puzzles. 

Wordle’s basic game design makes it extremely easy to understand and start playing. There is no need to download an app or log in to any account. The game remains fresh by changing up the word every day and takes only three to five minutes to play. Making it less likely to impact productivity, which is often why players avoid certain games. 

Every single player is attempting to guess the same word every single day. Players can also share their results to social media, as mentioned, without giving away the word. This community aspect allows players to engage with their friends and family who are also playing the game - even if they’re forced to be apart as the pandemic continues to keep many social distancing rules in place. 

Looking for more?

If you’re a bit of a Wordle addict and looking for similar games to play each day, here are three you can potentially check out:

Wordscapes

Wordscapes is an app that is a mix between an anagram and crossword. You’re given a number of random letters and then need to create words to fill up a crossword. There are more than 6000 puzzles you can play and the game is also free to play. You can download it for iOS and Android. 

Kitty Letter

This app’s art style might look familiar and that is because this free to play game was developed by the same team that came up with Exploding Kittens, the popular card game. Kitty Letter pits you against another player and you attempt to create words using the letters assigned to you. Each time you make a word, an army of cats is released. The cats then battle your opponent. The bigger the word, the bigger the army of cats. The first player to destroy the other player’s house wins. 

Get playing with Vodacom fibre

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