Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 03, 2025

The deceptively simple secret to Wordle's social media domination

The deceptively simple secret to Wordle's social media domination

How Josh Wardle's 30 boxes became a social media phenomenon.

Wordle! One word, five letters, six tries, once a day. If you’re on Facebook, Twitter or really any kind of social media, you’ve almost certainly seen these white, yellow and green boxed letters, almost always posted without commentary. For a game, the rules are simple enough to understand. But that simplicity disguises a surprisingly stimulating exercise: Letter elimination is as important as (and sometimes more than) actual correct guesses. And it’s one of 2022’s hottest fads.

The game is available free on a website (there is no app to download). There are imitators who tried to make monetized versions to sell on Apple and Google Play. (They were shut down after thousands reported them.) There are unofficial spinoffs like Absurdle and math editions like Primel. It’s already a meme on social media. Twitter even had to go so far as to ban The Wordlinator, a bot that figured out the (actually quite simple) code and threatened to spoil the fun.

But what is it about this simple black screen with 30 empty boxes that has enticed millions of players globally?

Perhaps it’s the color block motif that provides a letter-less way of sharing your results. (Josh Wardle, the inventor, released the game back in October, but it didn’t go viral until he added that update, inspired by one of the game’s users.) This letter-less way of posting your results allows people to talk about the game without spoiling it for others — only people who have played the game that day understand what they’re looking at. It’s speaking in a code that only other players can understand, a universal language of white, yellow and green.


That universality (at least for English speakers) is key. As we round into Year Three of the pandemic, we have become desperate for communal experiences. The media landscape splintered long ago, with the proliferations of cable channels and then streaming services and the siloing of radio stations. And now millions of us work from home, without even casual interactions at the water cooler to sustain our social appetites. Throw in dozens of news sources insisting we are all further apart in values than ever before, and it starts to feel mighty lonely staring at a blue screen all day.

Perhaps it's how easy it is to join in. It’s like the sourdough starter craze in April 2020, without the homebound connotations. It doesn't take a genius to play, it's not complex like a crossword, and it makes us feel safely together even as we're upping our mask games and testing ourselves at every cough. Is posting a small block of colored emojis actually being social? We’ll take it.

In the Discord channel where I post my daily results over breakfast, there are people who proudly discuss their strategies and how to pick popular consonants. Is using “ADIEU” (which sorts most of the vowels in one go) better than “TEARS” (which contains some of the most popular letters in English) or “HORNS” (which hits a lot of popular two-consonant combos)? Then there are people who insist “vibes” should guide you — the words you “feel” in the moment. Everyone can agree that double letters are a typographical abomination, while the Brits, the Canadians, the Australians and the New Zealanders grump about our Americanized spellings.

But most of all, Wordle feels like the perfect game for a collective, and perhaps global, sense of burnout. So many of us simply don’t have the time or the energy to pour into a new hobby as we wait for the dreaded announcement that schools are closed once again or that plans have been dashed at the last minute because of positive cases. After all, it's only once a day, and then you forget all about it until tomorrow. It's not an endless road, like “Two Dots,” or a money suck, like “Candy Crush.” It’s just all of us, playing the same word, in our homes, on our phones, trying to best ourselves and our scores as much as we are one another. No matter who you are, every Wordle player can agree that the word “KNOLL” is outrageous. And if you didn’t succeed in six tries this time? Don’t fret! There will be another fresh puzzle again tomorrow.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Dutch government falls as far-right leader Wilders quits coalition
Harvard Urges US to Unfreeze Funds for Public Health Research
Businessman Mauled by Lion at Luxury Namibian Lodge
Researchers Consider New Destinations Beyond the U.S.
53-Year-Old Doctor Claims Biological Age of 23
Trump Struggles to Secure Trade Deals With China and Europe
Russia to Return 6,000 Corpses Under Ukraine Prisoner Swap Deal
Microsoft Lays Off Hundreds More Amid Restructuring
Harvey Weinstein’s Publicist Embraces Notoriety
Macron and Meloni Seek Unity Despite Tensions
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Newark Mayor Sues Over Arrest at Immigration Facility
Center-Left Candidate Projected to Win South Korean Presidency
Trump’s Tariffs Predicted to Stall Global Economic Growth
South Korea’s President-Elect Expected to Take Softer Line on Trump and North Korea
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Ukraine Executes Long-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Airbases
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Study Identifies Potential Radicalization Risk Among Over One Million Muslims in Germany
Good news: Annalena Baerbock Elected President of the UN General Assembly
Apple Appeals EU Law Over User Data Sharing Requirements
South Africa: "First Black Bank" Collapses after Being Looted by Owners
Poland will now withdraw from the EU migration pact after pro-Trump nationalist wins Election
"That's Disgusting, Don’t Say It Again": The Trump Joke That Made the President Boil
Trump Cancels NASA Nominee Over Democratic Donations
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OnlyFans for Sale: From Lockdown Lifeline to Eight-Billion-Dollar Empire
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
×