Wordle seeing massive popularity gain
Every morning for the past several weeks, the first thing Kara Turner does is have a cup of tea.
And then the Mahone Bay resident turns to her computer and begins playing that day’s edition of the most recent viral sensation known as Wordle.
The web-based word game was only publicly released last October, but in the past few weeks, it’s seen an explosion of popularity, going from a mere 90 daily players in November to more than two million by mid-January, according to many media reports.
Players have six chances to guess a mystery five-letter word. After each guess, the game board will indicate correct letters and whether they’re in the correct placement.
What is unique about Wordle is that you can only play once a day and all users play the same word.
“It’s like the olden days with the newspaper and you do the crossword (each day),” Turner says. “This is kind of similar. The brain gets engaged; it’s more healthy than most online games.”
WHY IT’S LOVED
Part of Wordle’s huge rise in popularity is undoubtedly the feature allowing players to share their results in a spoiler-free way.
Sharing it on Facebook, for example, allows people to see the grid, as well as the yellow and green coloured squares, but not the letters themselves.
Avid Wordle players agree there is something special about the fact that players from all over the world are competing to get the same answer each day.
“Even my dad is doing the same word as us,” Turner said, noting her parents live in France.
“It’s a good intergenerational game (and) it’s a way of connecting.”
ALL ABOUT TRATEGY
Strategy is an important component for any game, including Wordle. Turner says one key element of gameplay is deciding what one’s starting word will be.
In Turner’s case, she originally used the word ‘weird,’ but as ‘w’ turned out not to be a common letter, she settled on the word ‘raise’ as it contains three common vowels.
“(Your starting word) can have a really big impact on the rest of the game,” she said.
Michelle Greek of Barss Corner, N.S., is so hooked on the game that she is seeing potential starting words and answers in other aspects of her everyday life.
“I have noticed as I am reading throughout the day, whether it be news articles, work documents or a book, I’m picking up on five-letter words and saying to myself, ‘That could be tomorrow’s word’ or ‘That would be a good starting word tomorrow!’”
One thing Greek appreciates is the game is free to use.
“There are no ads or requests for you to purchase a subscription or requirement to enter an email address,” she said.
POSITIVE DISTRACTION
Overall, Wordle players see this new craze as a glimmer of optimism during these extraordinary times.
As Greek points out, “It’s creating positive and uplifting conversations with people all throughout my day. It’s much more positive to open my Facebook newsfeed to a flood of Wordle grids (rather than) today’s COVID headlines.”