This month, what seems to be a simple game involving yellow, green, and gray squares has very quickly turned into a worldwide fixation. 

Wordle is a game where the player must guess a 5-letter word in six or fewer tries. Every day a new word is released, and thousands of people log on and rack their brains, thinking hard about what the word might be. 

The rules themselves are quite simple:
Once the players enter their first guess, each square will either turn gray, yellow, or green. If it is gray, then that letter in the square is not in the word. If it is yellow, it is in the word, but not in the right spot. Finally, if it is green, it is in the right spot.

Using this information, the player will be able to narrow down their choices by avoiding the letters that were eliminated and mixing around the yellow letters. 

While there are no hacks or tricks to this game, the first word you use could be very helpful in narrowing down choices. For example, some will use words with lots of vowels.  

“I start off with different words every time. I’ll usually do whatever I’m feeling in the moment,” said senior Victoria Reyes. 

If you’ve recently seen a weird looking post with a bunch of gray, yellow, and green squares, then chances are that you’re viewing someone’s Wordle results.  This is because once people guess the correct word of the day, they’ll usually share it onto various social media platforms. This helps to connect players around the globe and gives them an open space to talk about how hard or easy the game was.

Gabriela Hernandez, a senior at ILS, said, “I love going on Twitter and seeing everyone post their scores. It’s cool to see how everyone did!”

In addition, The New York Times has recently purchased Wordle and added it onto its platform. The purchase occurred on January 31st, and the game was sold for a price “in the low seven figures,” according to the Times. 

Many worry that this will result in the Times forcing people to pay in order to play the game. 

“If The New York Times made us pay for it, I wouldn’t play it,” stated Ms. Lexie Quintero.  However, no confirmation of this has been released.

If word games are your thing, or you are simply willing to try new things, then head onto Wordle.com and try to guess the daily word! If by that point you realize you love the game, then check out Wordus, an app where you can play with various words, not just one a day.