The P-O-I-N-T of Wordle
It may be just a word game, but this game is still a big deal with over 2 million people globally playing the game on a D-A-I-L-Y basis. This may sound C-R-A-Z-Y but these numbers continue to sweep not only the nation but Carroll High School as well.
In a recent poll covering how many Carroll High School students play the wordle daily, 600 responses were submitted, and out of that number, 75 percent of students say that they play wordle. Almost 50 percent of students also say that they play 4 times or more a week.
Now, some students say that they can’t start their day without completing the daily wordle puzzle.
“It is a good de-stressor to start the day,” Charity Miers said. “It wakes me up puts me into a good mood.”
Wordle was started by a Welsh-born software engineer by the name of Josh Wardle who had originally made the game for his word game-loving partner. After he and his family grew a passion for the game. Wardle then went on to launch his game online where only 90 people started out playing the guessing game.
It has only been on a steep incline ever since. Only two months later, over 300,000 people were playing.
Keeping up with the game quickly became too much for Wardle and he sold his design over to the New York Times where now the popularity has reached an all-time high.
Still, the popularity of Wordle keeps rising. This once-a-day game gives players six chances to correctly guess a five-letter word. The virtual keyboard also provides hints to players by turning certain tiles grey, yellow, or green to indicate how close the guesses came to the real word. Grey tiles mean the letter isn’t used, yellow means that letter is used, but it’s not in the correct spot, and green means players hit the nail right on the head. The goal is to have all the tiles turn green before the amount of guesses is diminished. Wordle also has a share option that allows viewers to see what puzzle was played, how many attempts were taken, and when the tiles were their respective colors. Many people choose to share their winnings with friends, family, and even social media platforms. Just from November of 2021 to January of 2022, the word “wordle” has been mentioned 1.7 million times on Twitter alone.
With the influx of people sharing their scores to social media, it was only a matter of time before someone took to the books and started to crunch the numbers.
The New York Times themselves says it takes about 3.92 guesses before the average American citizen accomplishes the puzzle but in a race to the top, the United States doesn’t even measure up. Countries like Sweden, Switzerland, and Poland all rank in the top three from 3.72 guesses to 3.79 guesses. Israel sits at the bottom of the top ten with 3.84 guesses despite the wordle being based on the English language. 
Even though science has debunked myths that state playing Wordle daily makes you smarter, many Carroll goers continue to carve time out of their mornings to complete the word game.
“It helps me start off the day with some consistency,” Cameron Gregory said. “It gives me a challenge.”
Although some students might have a different outlook on the popular game. Senior Maddie Bloom said, “I’m sick of all of my friends sending the wordle in the group chat. Every morning the first thing I see on my phone is 5 different wordle blocks”.
Other than just wordle, the New York Times also has other daily games that might be worth looking into to start your day. Games like Tiles, Spelling Bee, Vertex, and many more can provide players with that same sense of accomplishment and reward as Wordle has been providing to the masses for so long.
If you want to take the acoustic route, options like making your bed, flossing your teeth, and doing 10 minutes of meditation daily offer the same feelings, but with actual real-life rewards.
Wordle 272 5/6
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