Wordle - The App Sensation of 2022
I’m pretty sure that you have all heard of, or are a daily player of Wordle, but if not, let me explain.
Wordle is a free-to-play word game, whereby players have six attempts at guessing a random five-letter word, with clues throughout this process signifying whether you got a correct letter, or even better, one in the right place. The game resets at midnight for all users, with no registration or login needed.
The game was originally made by software engineer Josh Wardle, and the game’s original purpose was to entertain his partner who loves word games. So how did it grow from 90 users in October to around 300,000 daily users?
You’ve probably seen tweets with coloured squares that say Wordle 3/6, and you’ve been intrigued and then found out about Wordle that way. This is an extremely effective use of viral marketing, as it does not cost them a penny, and the game does not force you upon completion to share it on Twitter; it will connect with the correct target audience, those who are genuinely intrigued.
This also solidifies the idea that Wordle is a global competition, as it encourages shareability with friends and other players, increasing the popularity of the game from this, essentially the same as word of mouth, but done tactically.
There is also the idea that you are playing against yourself, if you use the same browser daily, it saves your previous day’s scores, and this encourages users to beat these and share them online.
This technique proved extremely successful, as the owner sold the game to the New York Times for over 1 million dollars, which exponentially grew the game's popularity. The cynic would say that it is just another fad/trend that will lose its popularity and spark as people grow tired of the same old concept, however, it can be argued that it the free with no hidden fees, modest with no obligation for users to share model will only work in favour of Wordle and will keep users playing and become part of their daily routine.
Another way that Wordle encourages its users to partake daily is as users get the correct answer for more than one day in a row, it begins a streak, and this pushes players to keep returning every day because they do not want their streak to end, no matter how trivial this may seem, it is enough incentive for the 300,000 daily players.
The gamification of Wordle and its modest marketing techniques could be used as a great example for global brands to help develop themselves. Audiences are more inclined to partake in an activity surrounding a brand if it involves them playing a game or doing something, rather than just a simple call to action asking them to buy something. Wordle excels at this as it is so simple and easy for the players, not shoving anything down their throats, which is a big reason for their success.
Do you play wordle? If so, how did you find out about it?
