Wordle, the online game — a puzzle that tasks players with working out a mystery word — has quickly become a viral sensation, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/11/wordle-creator-overwhelmed-by-global-success-of-hit-puzzle">with around 300,000 players</a> at the start of 2022. By late January, that number had surged to nearly <a href="https://theconversation.com/wordle-how-a-simple-game-of-letters-became-part-of-the-new-york-times-business-plan-176299">3 million</a>. It’s been deemed a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/01/13/wordle-word-game-pandemic/">“drug”</a> and an <a href="https://theconversation.com/codecracking-community-and-competition-why-the-word-puzzle-wordle-has-become-a-new-online-obsession-174878">“obsession,”</a> and was recently bought for at least $1 million by the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/crosswords/nyt-wordle-purchase.html">New York Times</a>. Wordle’s now-iconic grid has been used in ads for <a href="https://twitter.com/dominos/status/1486853886489026560">Domino’s Pizza</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MadOMarketing/status/1490534128743108610?s=20&t=Leyu_-sIU5bkmZis-7F46g">Guinness</a> beer alike. It’s even inspired imitators, like the cheekily-named <a href="https://brdl.glitch.me/">BRDL</a>, which asks players to guess the correct “banding code,” or four-letter nicknames for birds.

Wordle: The Game Everyone Is Playing

The game’s concept is simple enough: Once a day, players are given six chances to guess the correct five-letter mystery word. (If you guess a letter correctly, one of the tiles in the game’s grid turns yellow; if you guess the right letter in the right place, it turns green.) The same word appears for every player, anywhere in the world. And much like its game design, Wordle’s appeal might seem similarly straightforward — a dependable diversion for our <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.21.21263740v1">pandemic-addled brains</a>, releasing a rush of dopamine each time the game’s coveted green boxes pop up.

The Concept Of Wordle

As we get closer and closer to the answer with each new guess, we get a little bit more confident that we’re on the right track.Our brains are probably computing the likelihood that the next guess is right. Then, when those five green letters are revealed at the end of the puzzle — even if you didn’t guess them correctly — it gives players a boost that psychologists call a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963721410388803">sudden influx of fluency</a>. In other words, that satisfying ‘aha!’ moment that feels so good, and that we’re hard-wired to chase.

The A-Ha Moment

Another of Wordle’s uniquely compelling aspects is that a new puzzle is only offered once a day. That helps keep the experience fresh and novel and allow players to really relish the experience. Because you know that there’s only one [puzzle a day], maybe there’s some scarcity involved.This may be the only fun little thing you’ll do today, so maybe people savour it.

Only One Word A Day: Creating Scarcity

Those grey, green and yellow boxes populating your social media feed aren’t just visual clutter — they’re a testament to the game’s built-in shareability. Since everyone is trying to guess the same answer, Wordle has quickly become a virtual water cooler, allowing players to share scores with colleagues, friends and family members with ease. In short, it creates a <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html">common in-group identity</a>, which helps us forge stronger bonds with others.

Social Comparison: Those Squares On Twitter Feeds

There’s another reason that sharing our Wordle grids with others — and seeing them shared back — feels so good. It’s a striking example of what psychologists call the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-21802-010">shared reality theory</a>, or our need to align our own internal, subjective experiences with the experiences of others.  We want verification that our experience is similar to the experience of those we care about.

Sharing Reality

Unpacking the psychological science behind the popular puzzle game that's taken the internet by storm.  

Stashed ideas

Can't Stop Playing Wordle? Science Might Be Able to Explain Why

Brooklyn-based software developer Josh Wardle created it last year as a gift for his partner, who was obsessed with word games like the New York Times’ “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/puzzles/spelling-bee">Spelling Bee</a>”. Wardle put the game up for free online in October, and it quickly went all hockey-stick. There were <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/01/20/millennials-are-driving-force-behind-wordles-success-poll-suggests/?sh=70b6e76c6e72">90 people people playing it in November, 300,000 by early January, and only a few weeks later, about 2 million a week.</a> One survey estimates that 14% of American adults are playing Wordle.

The Word About Wordle

Most successful ideas do not arrive out of nowhere; they’re extensions or riffs on existing ones.This is particularly true with games, where tinkering with an existing form of play can create something that’s i) delightfully new while ii) also being familiar. That combo of “new” yet “familiar” is pure gold. Do something too derivative and people yawn; do something too novel and they’re baffled. The path to wild success is hitting that midpoint.

Six Design Lessons from the Success of Wordle: No Need To Reinvent The Wheel

Living as we do in a capitalist society, it’s easy to assume the only reason people would engage in creative labour is for profit. But the world of culture doesn’t work that way. It’s always been full of creators who are<ol><li>astonishingly productive and</li><li>propelled by desires other than money.</li></ol>The sheer uncommerciality of the venture is weirdly refreshing. It stands in total contrast to the just-add-water hucksterism of today’s influencers and tech firms, who are constantly trying to shove sponsorships into their work or shake their audience upside down to see what loose change rattles out.

Six Design Lessons from the Success of Wordle: Making Something As a Gift is a Powerful Motivation

When we’re creating things, it’s normal to start worrying about how our audience will react. All those different people, with different aesthetics! Some of them are gonna love this part of what you’re doing, but hate this other part. Worrying about this can lead you into a rathole of self-censorship, where you try to satisfy everyone and wind up satisfying no one.Wardle was making his game for just one person. When you’re in a mental dialogue with a single person, your creative decisions are sharpened.

Six Design Lessons from the Success of Wordle: Make Things For An Audience of One

It’s frequently very valuable to pay attention how your audience is interacting with your work. They see things you don’t, and come up with ideas you can’t. In the early days of Twitter, it was clever users who invented the retweet and the at-reply. To their credit, Twitter’s engineers spotted the behavior and adopted them as native features, and they helped catalyze Twitter’s explosive growth.

Six Design Lessons from the Success of Wordle: Observe What Your Fans Are Doing

Anyone can play Wordle, in any browser. You don’t need to create an account or log in. You don’t need an app store. Wardle avoided every single digital walled garden, and instead went with the most wide-open field available: The web.﻿People are especially enthusiastic about things they can share without having to go through an App Store, or without being bogged down by having lots of their data captured during the experience.

Six Design Lessons from the Success of Wordle: Make Stuff On The Open Web

Wordle offers up only one new word everyday. That’s it. Once you’ve solved the day’s word, you…stop playing. You go do other stuff, like your job or hanging out with your loved ones. Sure, you might hanker to play more Wordle, but you can’t. You gotta wait until tomorrow.Unlike nearly all social media (and most video games), Wordle is not trying to get you narcotically addicted to reopening the app again and again, all day long, in an eye-glazed trance.

Six Design Lessons from the Success of Wordle: Don't Engineer For Addiction

Made me play the game! It's online on the web and free to play!

Brooklyn-based software developer Josh Wardle created it last year as a gift for his partner, who was obsessed with word games like the New York Times’ “Spelling Bee”. Wardle put the game up for free…

Six Lessons From the Success of Wordle

Wordle’s popularity is thought to be partly because, in an era of apps aggressively competing for your attention and time, the game was deliberately built to be played once a day, and without features designed to promote its growth such as push notifications and email sign ups.

What's the reason behind Wordle's popularity ?

Even though I play it every day, I still feel a sense of accomplishment when I do it: it makes me feel smart, and people like that.

The rules were also intuitive for people who grew up playing word games such as Scrabble, or a code-breaking game such as Mastermind. Wordle combined this familiarity with an opportunity to show mastery and to improve performance over time, a blend which enabled players to enter into a “flow state”.

Like the rest of the world, I have been playing wordle for a few days, it has been growing on me. It made me curious as to why it's such a hit. Turns out it's a combination of multiple things. 

Josh Wardle developed game to play with his partner – and now more than 2m others have joined in

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Can't Stop Playing Wordle? Science Might Be Able to Explain Why

Six Lessons From the Success of Wordle

It's time to

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Why is Wordle an online hit?

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

#wordle

IDEAS ABOUT #wordle

Can't Stop Playing Wordle? Science Might Be Able to Explain Why

Six Lessons From the Success of Wordle

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Why is Wordle an online hit?

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career