So, The New York Times hasn’t made Wordle harder – we’re just a bit stupid

When The New York Times acquired Wordle, the brainteasing sensation that has gripped the globe since December, eyes have been rolled and suspicions have been raised. Wordle started as a small private game that creator Josh Wardle made for his partner to pass the time with – and blew up into a viral sensation that eventually lead The New York Times acquiring it for “a figure in the low seven digits”. With the transition of Wordle from its own website to The New York Times’, it has felt like the words got instantly harder. Words like “ULCER”, “ULTRA” and “AROMA” have incensed Twitter – but did Wordle get harder at The New York Times, or is it all just a placebo?

The NYT is actually innocent

Whilst it really has felt like the latest onslaught of evil Wordle answers have been the fault of some nefarious word selector at The New York Times, in actuality, the words that come up as the solution have been preselected since Wordle’s creation and they are actually built and embedded into the game’s Javascript. This effectively means that The New York Times do absolutely nothing to the game, they just now host it on their own servers.

There has been some drama with players on Twitter claiming they have received different words. The New York Times has claimed this is because they made adjustments to the words Wardle initially included to get rid of more obscure words or any that might cause offence.

Whilst Wordle has really felt harder over the last few days, especially today’s – a word I’ve never heard and never wish to hear again, it seems that we’re just under the effect of remembering the hard ones and forgetting the easier results. Since the NYT acquired Wordle, we’ve also had words like “SHARD” and “THOSE” that definitely sit on the simpler side of the spectrum. So, nope, The New York Times hasn’t made Wordle harder – we’re just all a bit stupid.

Play today’s Wordle on The New York Times and see if it’s harder than usual for you here.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Here’s how to tell if someone has fake followers on TikTok

• This is how to see if someone has blocked you on Instagram

• This is how to watch someone’s Instagram story without them knowing you’ve seen it