There's a Reason So Many People Are Obsessed With Wordle — It's Genius

Word games are oozing with reasons for people to love them: they're quick and relatively easy to play, and they quench a dormant thirst to solve a puzzle. Josh Wardle, a software engineer, knew his partner loved word games, so he created one, according to "The New York Times." "I wanted to come up with a game that she would enjoy," he told the publication. From there, a no-frills word game called Wordle was born, which Wardle and his partner played — just the two of them. Later, in October 2021, he released Wordle publicly. Since then, what started as a loving gesture has amassed thousands of players worldwide and was even acquired by "The New York Times."

A simple, daily word-guessing game, Wordle's premise is straightforward. You have six tries to guess the five-letter word of the day. After each guess, Wordle will color code the letters of your word. Gray signals those letters aren't in the word of the day. Yellow means the letter is in the word, but you don't have it in the right spot. And green signals that the letter is both in the word of the day and in the correct spot. With each guess, you're meant to strategize based on the letters you've used, the letters you have left, and the color codes provided.

"I think people kind of appreciate that there's this thing online that's just fun," Wardle said. "It's not trying to do anything shady with your data or your eyeballs."

The one catch? You can only play Wordle once a day — a cruel yet genius choice that likely plays a large part in why people can't wait to play this game every day. The anticipation is real as ever, as is the desire to guess the word in fewer tries than you did before.

You can play Wordle here and kick-start what will absolutely become the bright spot of your day. It has certainly become mine.