Many students at Lewiston High School either know of or play Wordle. Those who do participate know how amazing it is. Created by software engineer Josh Wardle, the game “Wordle” was released in October of 2021, and started gaining popularity in November, quickly reaching 300,000 participants and growing, according to nytimes.com. Now, millions of individuals across the globe play it, including LHS students.
It wasn’t meant to become such a world-renowned game. Originally, it was a sweetly romantic gesture for Wardle’s partner at the time. The couple shared an interest in games that had a word-like spin to them, and because of his own last name, he named it “Wordle.” What became of this sweet gesture was money (and a lot of it) as it began gaining traction among the people.
A player gets six chances to guess a five-letter word, with the colors gray, yellow and green to indicate the placement of a letter. Gray indicates that the letter is not included in the word. Yellow means it’s in the word but has the incorrect placement, and green tells the player that the letter is in the correct spot within the word. If the player does not guess the correct word within those six tries, then the game is over, and then, displayed on the screen, is the answer.
As of 2022, Wordle had been adapted to 20 different languages and then some. The game’s low stakes make it enticing for those who aren’t word enthusiasts, and its once-a-day availability keeps people coming back out of excitement.
Zephryn Murillo, a Freshman at LHS, says, “Without Wordle, class would be so boring.”
Many other students at LHS share the interest in this simple game.
Ashlynn Knight, a Freshman at LHS, says she loves Wordle because, “I get to beat my dad ‘cause I know more words than him.”
According to literaturelust.com, a digital website containing entertaining and educational stories about science and technology, if a person completes a Wordle, it releases a chemical in their brain called serotonin from winning. When serotonin is released within the body, one can experience feelings of happiness or excitement. This can become routine: every day, the person opens Wordle to solve the daily puzzle, receives that feel-good feeling and builds up excitement as they wait for the day to pass and the next puzzle opens.
According to psychologytoday.com, a large mental health and behavioral science destination online, humans have the natural tendency to involve themselves in competition, though some more than others. But with the additional information that everyone shares the same rules and word, that, alone, creates community for those who play. This also benefits them, as humans are naturally a social species. Also, when thousands of individuals speak about this game they’re playing every day, it incentivizes those around them to check it out, leading it to grow more notably.
In January 2022, Josh Wardle sold the game to the New York Times for roughly seven figures. As of 2026, approximately 10.7 million play monthly.
