Last year, New York-based programmer Josh Wardle created a game for his partner Palak Shah, a big fan of crosswords and other word games. Fast-forward a few months, and Wordle is taking over the world. The free online game, in which users have six chances to guess a five-letter word, was made public in October and went from 90 users at the start of November to almost 3 million at the start of this week. Grids of blocks that users share to show how a game unfolded, with a green block showing where the right letter has been guessed in the right place, have become ubiquitous on social media. More:
- Not your usual online game. Wardle tells NPR that he put the game out without ads or any attempts to harvest user information. "Making Wordle I specifically rejected a bunch of the things you're supposed to do for a mobile game," including push notifications or options that allow users to play endlessly. There's only one Wordle per day and it is released at midnight. Wardle has said he wanted to create a game that was just fun and doesn't try to do "anything shady with your data or your eyeballs."