Puppy. A terrible first guess to the sensational brain game: Wordle. Over the past few months, the web-based game centered around guessing a five-letter word has spiked in popularity. According to The Guardian, on November 1st, 2021, there were ninety people playing Wordle. Two months later there were 300,000 players. Now, the amount of people on this game has surged to over three million people, and it is safe to say that Wordle has taken CHS by storm. Hundreds of CHS students are playing this game, so what exactly made Wordle go viral? What even is it?

Walking around CHS, one is sure to see the distinctive green, yellow, and gray boxes on the screens of students’ devices. Wordle is an interactive game created by software engineer Josh Wardle. Players have six attempts to guess a five letter word, and feedback is given to the player to help them guess the correct answer in the form of colored tiles. One important factor that makes people come back to this game is that there is only one word to guess each day. Making it a daily game, allows anyone to take five minutes out of their day to play. The game also provides an engaging aspect of competition: players can send their Wordle score to friends, family, and any social media platform, which encourages communities to try out the game and attempt to best one another. Freshman Talula Clark shares her opinion on why Wordle is so engaging.

“People have always liked those games, that’s why the New York Times has them,” Clark said. “But then also it’s just something new and interesting to do. You can do it with other people or share your scores, and be competitive about it as well. Since it’s daily, you can’t just do a bunch in one day and then get tired of it. It’s kind of like the anticipation for each day.”

It is clear to see that although the game is simple, Wordle still requires brainpower to solve. Wordle’s easy format and mind-challenging aspects have certainly drawn the attention of students at CHS. A poll taken by the Wolfpacket Instagram page shows that out of 83 students surveyed, 61 students (73%) have played the letter game before. Wordle is sensational and many students on campus are starting to hop on the bandwagon.

On January 31, 2022, The New York Times purchased Wordle from creator Josh Wardle for an amount “in the low-seven figures” (via The New York Times). The popular newspaper is known for already featuring several riddle-like games on it’s website page; however, almost all of those games have a paywall. One big factor that plays into the likability of Wordle is because it is free of charge and free of ads. Slapping a price tag to the game would significantly reduce the number of players. As of right now, The New York Times has stated that the game will initially be free for new players and current players.

Wordle is a quick and engaging game that has taken off at CHS. Spin-off versions like Nerdle (a math equation Wordle) and the Taylordle (words related to Taylor Swift) are also gaining traction. Students and teachers alike are interested in this fascinating game. It’s as easy as typing Wordle into a search engine. Now, what would be a good starting word?