Unless you’ve been living in a place without internet, you’ve probably heard about or played New York Times’ Wordle, at least once. The premise of finding a five-letter word in six guesses doesn’t seem too difficult. Maybe you’re a continuous player or stopped once your starting word finally hit on the first try. However you play, it’s an understatement to say Wordle changed the narrative around gaming. Years ago, mobile games burst onto the gaming landscape with big hits such as Minecraft Pocket Edition, Clash of Clans, and Angry Birds. Now, a larger, more inclusive shift is happening in the gaming world. Let’s start from the beginning, including Wordle’s creation to today, where hundreds of “clones” (loose term to categorize all of these ‘quick’ mobile games) now see thousands of daily players.
Humble Begin(nings)
Josh Wardle (yes, that is his name) first created the game in 2013, but it was only made accessible to the public in October of 2021. During the COVID pandemic, Josh’s partner, Palak Shah, was given access, helping Josh limit the possible words from ~13,000 to ~2,000. This means that Josh was anticipating the game to conclude on October 20th, 2027. Of course, after New York Times’ acquisition, the word bank would expand. The very first word was CRANE, which hasn’t been reused since.
In January 2022, Wardle sold the license to his game to New York Times for an undisclosed price. He had stated he didn’t want to make Wordle his full-time job, despite the rampant success. At the time of writing this, October 15th, 2025, Wordle is now on #1579.
New York Times Era
The premise in Wordle is simple: guess a five letter word. It shouldn’t be too difficult, right? If you guess a letter in the right spot in the word, you receive a green tile. If you guess a letter correct, in the wrong order in the word, you get yellow. Gray letters mean the letter isn’t in today’s puzzle. Using those three directionals, Wordle should be a fairly simple concept, providing a fun challenge on certain days. Personally, my highest streak of playing is 104 days, and I lost to a word I didn’t previously know was a word. Sometimes, it’s just like that.
With Wordle acquired, New York Times had a gem on their hands that they most likely bought for cheap. In addition to the daily crossword and mini crossword, NYT expanded their Games app. Before Wordle came the Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles, and Vertex, all known for their new daily variations and challenges. Once Wordle was bought, it was added into the Games catalogue. Connections, a game where you connect different words into categories, was released in 2023. Then in April of 2024, Digits, a number based game, was released and later shut down in August after low player count. In 2025, a report on how often games were played in 2024 was released: Wordle was played over 5.3 billion times.
In 2024, Strands was added as a full-time game, and in 2025, Pips, the latest game, was released involving math using dominoes. As of August 2025, several games moved behind a subscription paywall, including Mini Crossword, Tiles, and Letter Boxed. Luckily, Wordle continues to be free (with ads, of course).
Wordle Clones
Many people tried emulating Wordle’s success, or at the very least, capitalizing on its success. Dordle and Quordle emerged as the first “clones” of Wordle, using similar mechanics as their model. Heardle then paved the way for games not completely based on words, using music to win. Hello Wordl, created by Zachary Shiffman, removed Wordle’s daily play boundary for unlimited usage. Squabble introduced a battle royale version, for those Fortnite and Apex Legends lovers out there.
I could go on and on about the hundreds, if not thousands, of clones of Wordle. However, what would the fun in me listing hundreds of websites be? Instead, I want to take the following section to talk about the games I play daily, if not close to.
My Daily Games
Outside of New York Times, there’s a plethora of games to be played on a daily basis. One of my favorites, as a geography nerd, is GeoGrid. In a 3×3 square, you’ll receive nine categories, and you have to think of a country/territory that fits two categories at a time. For example, today’s (October 15th, 2025) has “Borders 1-2 countries” and “In Europe”. The lower score is better. My strategy is to try to think of countries/territories that are lesser known, such as San Marino or Ireland (UK borders). Sometimes, you just have to use your brain to determine what might be the best country. It’s fun, fresh, and keeps me thinking critically.
Another geography game I enjoy (not daily, typically) is Travle. You’re given two countries on an empty map and have to name the countries connecting the two in the least amount of guesses. I’m still working on learning the world map to the best of my ability, which means I occasionally struggle on the best route. There’s different versions as well, for different countries, if you’re interested. If you’re looking for less geography, you can use your concentrated knowledge on other games. For example, I play a lot of Wizard101, so I play Wizdle occasionally.
The last game, and arguably the most difficult, is Contexto. Every day, a new word (it could be anything, literally and figuratively) releases and you have to use context to find what the hidden word is based on ratings on previous guesses. It’s extremely difficult to explain, so why not hop in and check it out for yourself!
I could go on and on, but instead, I’m going to link Medium’s article on *basically* every Wordle spinoff there is. Check it out and see which one you enjoy the most!