Browser games don't often hit the mainstream like they used to. Long gone are the days where Miniclip and Newgrounds dominated schoolyard talk. Yet somehow, in this age of live-service games and huge AAA blockbuster experiences, there's one little browser game that's managed to take the temporary limelight: Wordle.
Wordle is a free in-browser game that can be accessed on both desktops and mobile devices. The puzzle game tasks players with working out one word per day, giving them six opportunities to deduce the correct word based on their previous guesses. The game is simple, accessible, and oddly addicting, and has become one of the biggest talking points on social media in the past month.
Explaining Wordle's Gameplay
Wordle's gameplay is deceptively easy. A player has six attempts to guess one five-letter word. With each guess that's made, the square that each letter is in will change color. These colors indicate whether or not the player has found a correct letter, and if it matches the sequence of the correct word.
If a letter's box turns green, then that letter is both correct, and in the right spot in the sequence. If the letter's box turns orange, then the letter is contained in the correct word, but it isn't in the right place. If the box remains grey, then that letter is not in the correct word at all.
After all six guesses have been made, that's it, the game's done for the day. Wordle only gives players one word per day, and that word is the same for all players across the globe.
Explaining Wordle's Popularity
While it released worldwide in October, Wordle truly gained its widespread popularity in the last few months, going from 90 players on November 1, to over 300,000 on January 2. The game's popularity may seem like a classic internet mystery, but there are some key aspects of Wordle that go towards explaining its widespread appeal.
The most obvious factor in Wordle's success is its ease of accessibility. All a player needs to do to play the game is hop on their phone, tablet, or PC, and type in Wordle into their search bar. Clicking on the first page will bring players to the game, and they can immediately start typing their words into the five-letter boxes. The game is completely free, with no ads at all.
What goes hand-in-hand with this accessibility is the game's inherent shareability. When the player finished their game for the day, they are given a six-line block pattern that showcases their guesses. This pattern is simple, showing just the grey, orange, and green colors of the grid. It takes seconds to screenshot or share the image to social media, giving the player bragging rights if they got the puzzle right, but not ruining it for others as the letters are blurred out.
This creates a snowball effect, whereby the more players see others' results shared around Twitter, the more likely they are to try the game for themselves so that they can join in on the conversation. This shareability is also emphasized by the game's self-imposed limitation, that only one word is available every 24 hours. This makes the game an event each day, sparking conversations on who managed to get it right and speculation on tomorrow's word.
This shareability also extends to players sharing tips and tricks with one another. When a player gets the word right, they've usually got a tale of how they got there, and that story tends to involve some unique trick they've picked up. If players are looking to try out Wordle, and want a few tips before they jump in, then Twitter is sure to have some great words of advice.
Wordle is available now on any internet browser.
