A word game… for everyone? Not just old people?

“Wordle,” an all-new browser-based word game, has taken the school by storm in the past few weeks. 

The game is fairly simple. You have six tries to guess a five-letter word that changes daily. When you guess a word, any letters that are in the answer light up as yellow if they are in the word, but in the wrong place, or green if it is in the word in the right place. 

The game has grown more and more popular over the past two weeks, gaining new players every day. The original discovery mainly came from the popularity it gained from “TikTok.” The simple concept of the game along with the once-a-day answer combines to keep players drawn in and invested every day. 

The senior class has stayed the most invested in the game so far, updating one another on how many tries it took for them to get the daily answer. “One of the first things I saw when I come into school every day is, ‘how many tries did ‘Wordle’ take?,’ to all of my friends,” senior Carson Bryant said. It has added some friendly competition to the senior class and has given many people a commonality with their classmates.

Some ‘veterans’ to “Wordle” have gotten much quicker at guessing the daily answer since they have started. “I have gotten up to a six-day streak this week of guessing it in three tries in a minute or two. When I started, I was taking so long to even get it in five tries,” senior Tyler Bass said, “It gets even more fun when you start to get that good at it.” One of the most intriguing aspects of the game is also how quickly one person can get the answer compared to their classmate who may take way longer. 

Bryant said, “I have started doing it almost first thing in the morning. It’s been good to start my day with it but I just wish I could do it more than once.” Due to this, many have resorted to the mobile app, “Wordus,” which is the same game essentially, but it allows players to play multiple times a day.

As time goes on, “Wordle” will continue to gain popularity throughout the school and only be positive for student cognition and mental awareness. Starting your day with a word game that requires that amount of thinking has proved to be beneficial for mental and social skills so far in those students who play.