Nerdle: The new viral game for your little math lover
Ever since Wordle, the viral word game created by Josh Wardle, took the internet by storm, various spin-offs have come into being. One among them is Nerdle, a daily number game available on its official website, https://nerdlegame.com/. For school goers who love tinkering with numbers and take delight in solving complex mathematical equations, Nerdle could be their ideal way of edutainment.
What exactly is Nerdle?
Launched on January 22, 2022, Nerdle is created by British data scientist, Richard Mann. This game was the result of his 14-year-old daughter’s request for a Wordle equivalent for Math lovers., Nerdle appears as a six by eight grid of grey coloured squares with digits from 0-9, basic mathematical symbols like +, -, *, / and = as well as the Enter and Delete buttons given at the bottom of the grid. The number game can be played via its official website on the on-screen keyboard, on a laptop/ tablet or any connected keyboard.
How is Nerdle played?
Just like Wordle, this number game too asks the players to guess the Nerdle in six tries by guessing the ‘word’ that appears on each of the eight tiles. Similar to Wordle, Nerdle too can be played only once a day. The colour of the tiles will change after each guess to illustrate how close the player’s guess is to the correct answer. Green indicates that the number is correct and in the proper location. Purple indicates that it is present in the solution but at the incorrect location. However, it's not in the word if it's black.
The grid contains eight letters where letters denote any of the digits or symbols as described earlier while word refers to a mathematically correct calculation. Players need to follow the standard order of operations or the BODMAS rule to arrive at the correct answer. The trick here is in getting the order of the numbers right. For instance, if the answer required is in the sequence of 10+20=30, then no amount of inputting 20+10=30 will get the players any points for arriving at the answer. Another important thing to note is that the number to the right of the equals symbol (=) is simply a number; it is not a new calculation.
What makes Nerdle so popular on the internet?
People have been reporting their Nerdle results on Twitter, much as they did with Wordle, since it first appeared in January. Fans have been quick to brag about their math prowess, posting daily successes on this social media platform. In a LinkedIn blog post, Mann wrote on January 26, “Watching our little game being played in 53 countries by day 5 and up to 800 users an hour has been absolutely fascinating.”
What are the different versions of Nerdle?
There are three types of Nerdle games available for users. The first one called ‘Classic Nerdle’ comprises of eight letters, whereas the ‘Mini Nerdle’ has six characters and is a bit easier than the classic version. The third one, called ‘Instant Nerdle’ allows only one guess to the player for solving the challenge. Instant Nerdles can be accessed via the game’s Twitter page.