The Wordle Craze
Claire Madachy '22 Copy Editor
Wordle has gained immense popularity in the past couple months. The daily word game has about 300,000 daily players, and that number is growing every day. “I like playing Wordle because it gives me a way to kind of relax,” says junior Melody Giannini. Senior Maggie Kreig agreed, saying, “I just like word games.”
The popularity of Wordle has inspired others to make similar games. Nerdle, a math version, and Globle, a geography version, are just two of many games based off of Wordle. Just because the games have a similar premise or mechanics to Wordle, though, doesn’t mean that people don’t enjoy playing them all. Giannini said, “I play the Globle every day, then my friend, she’s really good at math, so she plays the Nerdle.” Senior Stuti Rao said, “I play the Dordle sometimes, too.” Dordle is a double Wordle, where you have to guess two words in six tries instead of one.
The popularity of Wordle has inspired others to make similar games. Nerdle, a math version, and Globle, a geography version, are just two of many games based off of Wordle. Just because the games have a similar premise or mechanics to Wordle, though, doesn’t mean that people don’t enjoy playing them all. Giannini said, “I play the Globle every day, then my friend, she’s really good at math, so she plays the Nerdle.” Senior Stuti Rao said, “I play the Dordle sometimes, too.” Dordle is a double Wordle, where you have to guess two words in six tries instead of one.
ELLICOTT CITY, MD, FEBRUARY 15, 2021- Wordle players were stumped when there were two different answers depending on which website the game was played on. C. MADACHY/THE LION’S TALE
Wordle was bought by the New York Times from the original creator, Powerlanguage, on January 31, 2022. Since the game changed ownership, some players have had issues with it. February 15’s Wordle (number 241) had two different answers, “agora” and “aroma,” which confused many players who share answers or their scores for the day. The double wordle was a result of the ownership change, as that day there were two different websites hosting the games, the NYT website and the original Powerlanguage website. The problem was fixed after that day, but that is not the end of players’ frustrations. Many think that the quality of Wordle has decreased because the difficulty has increased in the time since the New York Times bought the game. “When New York Times first bought it [Wordle], I despised it,” says Rao. “They did a lot of double-lettered words the first few days, which was frustrating.”
Despite the frustration some might have, Wordle seems to be here to stay, at least for now. The term trends on Twitter nearly every day, and people are still as eager as ever to share their high scores with their friends.
Despite the frustration some might have, Wordle seems to be here to stay, at least for now. The term trends on Twitter nearly every day, and people are still as eager as ever to share their high scores with their friends.