Thousands of people are probably cheating to solve the daily word-guessing game Wordle on the first try 鈥� and many more players remain surprisingly loyal to their favourite words.
Wordle, now owned by The New York Times, challenges people to guess a five-letter word within six tries and has about 2 million English-language players alone. But every day, far more Wordle players solve the puzzle on their first turn than would be expected by chance, says at Stony Brook University in New York.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 understand the first-word cheaters,鈥� he says. Even though he has very occasionally failed to solve the daily puzzle, 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 resorted to cheating鈥�.
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Dilger decided to explore the subject when he discovered that daily data analysis of players鈥� word guesses 鈥� provided by the official WordleBot software 鈥� can be easily converted into a spreadsheet format. He then compiled and analysed daily data between May and August 2023.
The Wordle target word list contains 2315 words, meaning the odds of guessing the correct word on the first try should be about 0.043 per cent. At best, then, just 860 out of 2 million Wordle players should be getting lucky.
Instead, the daily percentage of first-guess solvers never dipped below 0.2 per cent, or approximately 4000 players. Some days it went as high as 0.5 per cent, or about 10,000 players.
Previous research by and at Arizona State University showed that residents of north-eastern states such as Massachusetts and Vermont were . They suggested that may be tempted to post their performance screenshots on social media.
Dilger鈥檚 study also showed how about one-third of Wordle players consistently use the same starting words. Most apparently remain loyal to their starting words even after that word has previously featured as a Wordle answer and so will not be the solution to the current game.
鈥淎 major contribution of Dr Dilger鈥檚 work is the fact that individuals have strategies despite the fact that these strategies may not be the most logical,鈥� says Wormley.
However, staying loyal to opening words can still have strategic value to quickly narrow down the target word, says at American University in Washington DC. She added that the smaller group of cheaters is probably 鈥渢here for something other than a playful challenge鈥�.
鈥淚 play Wordle every day,鈥� says Dunlap. 鈥淢y 7-year-old waits till I get it, so that he can get it right on the first try.鈥�
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