The phenomenon of the online game, Wordle, has made its way through all age groups. You can find grandparents completing this daily puzzle after their newspaper crossword, and elementary schoolers trying to figure it out on their ipad. 

The game was released in October of 2021 by creator Josh Wardle.Wardle originally came up with a prototype of this game in 2013 that went by his last name, Wardle. This version allowed for endless guesses, and players were able to complete as many puzzles in a day as they wanted. His idea was inspired by making a word based version of Mastermind, although it didn’t become popular until this past fall. After working to refine some aspects of the game during quarantine, Wardle re-released it as Wordle and the game exploded. As an online once-and-done situation, it kept players hooked and waiting to complete the next Wordle each day. 

The Wordle works by giving you six chances to guess a five letter word. After entering in words that you think it will be, the letters show up gray, yellow or green. If the letter in the word you guessed is gray, it will not be in the final word at all. If the letter shows up yellow, it is in the final word but you have it in the wrong order. And if the letter shows up green, you already have the right letter in the right spot for the final word. The words have varied from some so simple as share, to the near impossible ones such as swill. 

Then on Jan. 31, the New York Times bought Wordle for more than a million dollars. Now, players can keep their statistics. It will record your win streak, how quickly you complete it and allow you to share your attempt with friends without spoiling it. 

Junior Annika Chapman plays the Wordle almost every day. She’s played 54 Wordles consecutively so far, with an 89% win streak. “All my friends play it and we all try to see who can get the word first,” Chapman said. 

Wordle has introduced a quick and fun game that everyone can try and use to work their minds for a couple minutes a day. For some it can be too addictive and mildly frustrating. Junior Catie Russ has played 66 Wordles, and has a 100% win streak. “I do not like it. But it’s so addicting, at this point I can’t not do it,” Russ said. 

With the boom in popularity from this simple concept, others grew inspired and created new versions of the game based on the same concept. One of the more complex games created since the release of Wordle is Quordle. Quordle works as four Wordle puzzles being completed simultaneously. The player is trying to figure out four words as opposed to one, but with only nine tries total. This game has removed all of the simplicity out of Wordle, and offered an extremely difficult version for those who had outgrown the regular one. Junior Madelyn Lee had been playing the Wordle for a long time before she attempted Quordle. “It took me a long time to even figure out three of the four words. And the first time I got all four I almost cried,” Lee said.