Are you a Wordle cheat? If so, you’re not alone – thousands of people are, research suggests.
Invented by software engineer Josh Wardle for his puzzle-loving partner in 2021, Wordle enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity as the world was still buffeted by waves of Covid lockdowns, providing a daily dose of fun competition with socially-distanced friends and family.
It became so popular in fact, the New York Times snapped up the simple idea for an undisclosed seven-figure sum in January 2022.
One five-letter word, six guesses.
Or perhaps just one guess, if you already know the answer.
That’s the theory put forward by James Dilger, professor emeritus at Stony Brook University who has done the maths.
There are 2,315 options on the target word list – that’s right, the game will end on October 20, 2027 when that list runs out. But that’s a problem for another day.
With 2,315 words to choose from, the odds of guessing the correct word on the first try should be about 0.043%, meaning, at best, 860 of Wordle’s daily two million English-language players should score first time.
However, Professor Dilger’s numbers, provided by the official WordleBot software, showed that between May and August of this year, first-guess solvers never dipped below 0.2%. That’s 4,000 players.
Some days, as many as 10,000 people guessed correctly first time – or 0.5%.
Even accounting for the solutions that have already been used and that players may remember, statistically the explanation for this boom in one-turn geniuses is they cheat. Which incidentally has not been an answer yet.
Why players cheat is a puzzle for another day, although Alexandra Wormley and Adam Cohen from Arizona State University have previously suggested it may be to post humble-brag screenshots on social media. Their research showed residents of north-eastern US states, such as Vermont and Massachusetts, were most likely to search for answers on Google before playing.
Professor Dilger’s work also showed around one-third of players use the same starting word every day – even after it has been an answer, meaning they will never be right the first time again.
Tips and tricks for a top Wordle score
Start with the same word every time According to the New York Times, this gives you a ‘baseline strategy’ for every game
Make sure it contains lots of vowels Knowing which vowels (if any) are in the letter will give you a head start. Some players use words such as ‘adieu’, ‘audio’ or ‘canoe’.
Pick two very different words on the first two goes Well, unless you nailed it and have two or more green tiles. Otherwise, be bold.
Don’t waste guesses on a plural In almost two years no answer has ever been a plural noun, so even if you know there’s an S in there, it likely won’t serve that purpose. That doesn’t mean answers never end in S – think ‘amiss’, ‘mossy’ and, er, ‘truss’. There was no political meaning there though, it was long before her days as PM.
Remember those pesky double letters Yes! You have a green tile, that’s that. Now what are the other letters? Well, it could be the same again, something easy to forget – and they may not be together, like ‘atoll’ or ‘motto’, think ‘lilac’ and ‘khaki’.
American spellings It’s an American game, so be warned. UK Wordle fans had a major sense of humor failure the first time they came a cropper over this, so do yourself a favor and be ready.
MORE : If you thought Wordle was hard you need to try The Password Game
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