#6 - Global Trends

 Wordle

When asked, "What's trending globally?" my mind went immediately to Wordle. About two months ago, I was scrolling through social media, and I kept seeing these little green and orange squares. I had no idea what I was looking at until I looked at the comments. When I found out it was a game, I went straight to the app store, only to find different games with the same title, but not what I was looking for. This is when I found out that Wordle is only available to play online. My next question was, "why is this game so popular?" I soon found out after playing for a few days. 

The most intriguing thing about Wordle is that you can only play one puzzle a day. This attracted me because it reminded me of newspaper crosswords. You are playing the same puzzle as everyone else and can discuss the puzzle with your friends. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard, "have you done the Wordle today?"

The gameplay is simple. Players guess five-letter words until the word of the day is revealed. The orange blocks are the letters that are in the word but are in the wrong spot. The green blocks are the letters in the correct spot, and the grey blocks are the letters that are not in the word. 


Players can share their scores on social media and with their friends. When you share your score, individuals will receive a copy of your puzzle without revealing the word:

Wordle 257 4/6    

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The numbers above the blocks confused me for a while, but I eventually figured it out. The 257 is the puzzle number, and the 4/6 is which row in which I solved the puzzle. Although it seems confusing, it is relatively quite simple. 

According to the Good to Know, Wordle was being played by over 300,000 people at the beginning of January but is now being played by over 2 million people worldwide. Although Wordle's audience continues to increase, many are currently unhappy with the game. This is primarily due to The New York Times buying Wordle. Almost immediately after The New York Times took over the game, the words got significantly more difficult. I am in a group chat with my older sister and my dad; the chat is solely surrounded around Wordle and how difficult it has gotten. 

People have also voiced their opinions on social media, especially Twitter. 

Although The New York Times chooses some questionably tricky words, it does not stop people from enjoying the game.  

I have also found myself seeing Wordle-related videos on TikTok. For Example, many people will play Wordle on their live streams and have viewers guess words to solve the puzzle. My favorite Wordle TikTok videos are of kids trying to solve puzzles. Teachers have started to use Wordle in their classrooms, which is an excellent teaching tactic for spelling.

@miss__hunter Sometimes they need a little extra help from the teacher 😉🎉 #Wordle #teachersoftiktok #teachertiktok ♬ On The Dance Floor (Instrumental) - BLVKSHP
@rbteach4you I love their reaction 🤣 #teachersoftiktok #wordle ♬ original sound - Mr. B 

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing Wordle. My dad and I compete on who will guess the word fastest and consistently share our scores with each other. Wordle is a great discussion topic and a great way to talk to people from different places. I love that we can enjoy something together on a global front and suffer and enjoy the difficulty and amusement of Wordle together. 

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