Wordle has taken over Herrin High School and the entire world. A simple software engineer from Brooklyn, Josh Wardle, created the game initially just for him and his partner. He eventually made the game public in October 2021, and over 300,000 had played the game just a few weeks later.

The game is a fun and (usually) easy word guessing game. The player has six chances to figure out the five-letter daily word by strategically guessing letters and words. If the word “STORM” is submitted and S becomes green, it means that it is in the word and the correct place. If S were to turn a yellow color, the letter is in the word but not in that specific spot. And if S is highlighted with black, it’s not in today’s word at all. This fun and simple concept had people hooked after their first play.

It would amass great traction worldwide. Even Jimmy Fallon played it on NBC’s “The Tonight Show.” Not only are celebrities getting in on this mind-boggling game but Herrin High School staff and students are equally bamboozled. Throughout the day, students chat with each other if they have gotten today’s word, asking their teachers as well. Even Mr. Mason gets in on the action!

You may have seen random tweets, texts, or Facebook posts featuring green, yellow, and black square emojis accompanied by something along the lines of Wordle 241 3/6. This is a quick and easy way for the players to show their friends how they solved the game without revealing any letters or the word itself. Don’t be alarmed by this, it’s no secret message.

Loving the game’s general idea, many people have created several “spin-offs” to the original: Taylordle features words that can be affiliated with Taylor Swift, Hogwartle is for all things Harry Potter, Wordle 2 features six-letter slots instead of five, Bardle brings English teachers together using Shakespearan lingo, and Nerdle exists for all math whizzes out there.

For players who don’t like the once-a-day aspect of Wordle, an archive with all of the game’s past words exists online. With a simple search of “Wordle Archive,” the website created by Devang Thakkar will come right up. This has the same format and words. It’s fun to play for hours with the option to replay rounds and try for better scores.

At the game’s highest peak of popularity, New York Times bought the rights to the game from Josh Wardle. Initially hosted by Powerlanguage.co.uk, fans of the game freaked out as their statistics had been reset with the move to the new powerhouse. Quickly, the team got the situation fixed, and everyone’s month-long streak remained untouched. Speculations that the New York Times will make the game “pay-to-play” also came about. If this were to happen, the number of players would drop significantly.

On February 15, 2022, a discovery had been made about the change in sites. Some players, who were able to continue playing on Powerlanguage.co.uk by leaving their tab open since before the switch, would discover that their word was different from the New York Times players. The two words would both feature double A’s, an R, and an O; however, powerhouse fans would end with AGORA while New York Times fans would finish with AROMA. This cause for confusion blew up even landing itself a CNN article. In the said article “The New York Times said it eliminated words it found to be too difficult. (It didn’t say which ones, but they include “pupal,” “fibre” and what would have been today’s solution: “agora.”). It also took out some rude or offensive words from the list of solutions. (It definitely didn’t say which of these were taken out, but they include “wench” and “slave.”)”

This new craze is definitely worth the time and effort. So, get involved and have fun!