Freshman Avery McCracken turns on their phone first thing in the morning and goes to “Wordle – The New York Times.” In front of them is a keyboard where they will enter in their starter word: weary. Within the word, one letter highlights green while two others become yellow. After the first word, they have five tries left and one of the colors will show up on each letter. If gray, that letter is not in the word; if yellow, it is in the word but not in the correct place; if green, the letter is in the right place. They switch around the letters, using context clues until finally, at the last try, they succeed. 

The game can get competitive between peers and family, which could contribute to why it rose to fame. “My family thinks they’re better than me, so every single day I challenge them to “Wordle” to feel superior,” McCracken said, “I need to be better than them and get more ‘Wordles’ than them.”

Software engineer Josh Wardle released his famous game back in Oct. 2021. On Jan. 31, the New York Times bought the game and stated they purchased the “Wordle” “in the low seven figures.” Since the end of 2021, the game has gained millions of daily players. Previous “Wordle” words have been as common as “movie,” “tiger,” and “panic,” or as obscure as “knoll,” “cynic,” or “proxy.”

From a survey of  162 students who play “Wordle,” 38.3% of Rock Ridge students play “Wordle” everyday, 18.5% play it five to six times a week, 22.8% play it three to four times a week, and 20.4% play it one to two times a week. 

The survey also shows that 75.3% of “Wordle” players play for fun or entertainment, while only 26.5% do it to widen their vocabulary or learn new words. 49.9% of them may also do it for miscellaneous reasons. 

Some may say this is a luck-based game, while others use strategies, such as starting with words chock-full of vowels, like “adieu” or “irate.”  Sophomore Arjun Seshadri begins by finding vowels as a main strategy. “I use ‘route.’ If that doesn’t work, I use adieu, and it usually has good vowels,” Seshadri said. “That may be one of the biggest strategies, but there are still others.”

 Along with using many vowels, freshman Jessica Valdov tries to use many different letter combinations. “Use as many words with different letters as possible; [don’t] repeat words or repeat letters as much if you’re [trying to] figure out the word.”

Although “Wordle” is a game meant to be played once a day, users can challenge themselves to past “Wordles” on the “Wordle” Archive. In addition, there are also similar games like “Wordle 2,” which has the same concept as Wordle except it uses six-letter words. Players can also build up a streak to show how many past ¨Wordles¨ they’ve gotten correct. The competitive and strategic nature of these games continue to make them favorite pastimes of students and community members alike.