Millennials Are Driving Force Behind Wordle’s Success, Poll Suggests

Topline

The success of Wordle, the popular five-letter word guessing game that’s taken social media by storm over the last month, has largely been driven by millennials, according to a Morning Consult poll published Thursday.

This photo illustration shows a person playing online word game “Wordle” on a mobile phone in … [+] Washington, DC on January 11, 2022.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

The poll, which surveyed over 2,200 people this week, suggests as many as 14% of American adults play Wordle.

Millennials play Wordle more than any other age group: 26% of the generation plays the game, compared to 18% of Gen-Zers, 9% of Gen-Xers and 5% of Baby Boomers.

Nearly 75% of players said they always or sometimes solve the puzzle, compared to 17% who said they rarely solve it and 9% who said they never do.

Out of people who have heard of Wordle, 43% first found out about the game on social media, compared to 21% who heard about it through word of mouth and 12% heard about it on the news.

Wordle has a feature that allows players to share their results on social media, which 59% of players said they do “often” or “sometimes.”

Big Number

2 million. That’s how many people played Wordle as of last week, according to The Guardian.

Tangent

The goal of Wordle, which is played on a website and not on an app, is to guess a different five-letter word every day. Users have six tries to guess the final word. When a player guesses the word, or ultimately fails to do so, they can share their results with a grid that shows how they did.

Key Background

Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle created the game in October for his partner, who enjoys word games, according to the New York Times. In November, 90 people had played the game, a number that ballooned in early January to 300,000 and has continued to rise. The game’s popularity skyrocketed in late November after a group of friends in New Zealand continually tweeted about it, according to Buzzfeed News. Most of the tweets about Wordle now come from the U.S., U.K. and Canada, according to the outlet.

Surprising Fact

Wordle does not make Wardle any money: it’s free to play and has no ads, and will remain that way, the creator told the Wall Street Journal.