Wordle is the most searched word on Google for 2022
If you have spent some time on the internet in 2022, you must have played wordle or heard about it. Well, it’s a web-based word game that was developed by a Welsh software engineer named Josh Wardle who later sold its rights to the media giant New York Times for over a million dollars. In fact, wordle became an overnight sensation and has now been declared as the most searched word on Google for the year 2022.
The game’s instant, global popularity owes to its easy-to-play style and ready and free accessibility. For those unaware, players must guess a five lettered English word within six tries. The best part is the game offers feedback every step of the way in the form of coloured tiles, when alphabets match or occupy the correct position. While green coloured tiles indicate that the letter is in the right position, yellow suggests that the letter is correct, but its position needs to be changed. Meanwhile, there’s also a grey coloured tile that suggests that the alphabet is nowhere in the word. Interestingly, there’s a single word daily with all players around the world attempting to guess the same term.
What made the game a worldwide phenomenon is that people of all ages and backgrounds can play it, engage in healthy competition and in turn get entertained while doing so. In fact, wordle has brought people closer and has even provided a much-needed distraction in these unprecedented times.
Sources cite that the game was influenced by the 1955 American pen and paper game Jotto and its TV equivalent Lingo. The creator came up with this word-guessing game for himself and his partner amidst the Covid-19 surge, but soon made it public in October 2021 realising its addictive potential. However, it wasn’t until December 2021 that the game received its due recognition when players could copy their daily results in the form of emoji squares and share them with their friends and families on social media, especially Twitter and WhatsApp. What’s interesting is that several variations of the game have been developed ever since, but none got its predecessor’s fame.
Like every year, this year too Google has released its annual list of the ‘Year in Search 2022’ and unsurprisingly, wordle took the lead. In fact, wordle was not only the most searched word throughout the year, but also for the entire month of February, when New York Times released it on their portal. In July 2022, New York Times joined hands with popular American game maker Hasbro and turned wordle into an offline board game. The other trending words on Google’s radar for 2022 are: India versus England, Ukraine, and Queen Elizabeth II among others.