I saw a series of articles from different news sources — from NY Post to CNBC — that said cheating on Wordle is on the rise.
Why? What’s the point?
To be totally honest, I cheated once. I couldn’t figure out the word. I had four of the letters so I googled “Five letter words with R U P E….” rupee came up which I didn’t know was a currency from India — let along a word.
How did I feel after I cheated? Like there was no point in playing the game if I had to look up the answer. I haven’t done that again. I felt like a cheater. We had a t-shirt for our swim team that had this saying on the back: “Cheaters never win. Winners never cheat.”
In the NY Post there’s an article called “‘Everyone is cheating at Wordle’ and these are most guilty states: study” by Ben Cost.
Here’s an excerpt:
These are Wordle’s biggest cheaters.
A recent study by data compiler Wordfinderx found that online answer searches increased 196% since the Times acquired the puzzle, in which players get five attempts to guess a new five-letter word each day.“Cheating for the game is at an all-time high and only growing,” read the study.
Per the research, the US state that most frequently cheated was New Hampshire with the word “swill.” Coincidentally, the Granite State ranked third among US states with the most Wordle prowess, per a study last week by Wordtip.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/07/everyone-is-cheating-at-wordle-and-these-are-most-guilty-states-study/
CNBC’s article about Wordle cheaters by Mikaela Cohen was under the category “SUCCESS” and called “It seems like a lot of you are cheating at Wordle: Study.”
The jig is up — we know you’re cheating on your daily Wordle.
Or, at least, it would certainly appear that a growing number of people have been looking online for answers to the popular five-letter word guessing game — possibly to avoid putting a stop to a winning streak.
That’s according to a recent study by Wordfinderx, a reference website for word games like Wordle and Scrabble, which used Google Trends data to determine that Google searches for the answer to Wordle’s daily puzzle have nearly tripled ever since The New York Times acquired Wordle in January.
The study found that searches for Feb. 15′s “AROMA” and Feb. 19′s “SWILL” daily Wordle solutions reached a 100 out of 100 on Google’s search popularity scale, which compares search results on a topic and then rates them on a scale of 0 to 100 “based on a topic’s proportion to all searches on all topics,” according to Google.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/05/it-seems-like-a-lot-of-you-are-cheating-at-wordle-study.html
Why do you think more people are cheating at Wordle? One theory is that from the end of 2021 to today more people are playing, hence more cheating. But why does the cheating coincide with NY Times buying Wordle?
Have you cheated at Wordle or other games? Have you thought about cheating? Have you noticed a difference in Wordle since the NY Times took over? Do you have a strategy to play?
I haven’t cheated at Wordle, but I have cheated at Worldle because I’m really bad at geography outside of part of Europe and Africa. I see that as learning, not cheating.
I’ve never heard of Worldle before. I’m not good at geography either. I’ll have to check it out.
Learning, not cheating. My spouse has students use that line. We call that manipulative justification. 🙂
No, isn’t cheat at Wordle. What’s the point? I don’t think of of it as hard or easy…I think it’s just a fun little diversion. It doesn’t really blow my ego if I get it in five or six, though I admit when I sent my score to my friends today I said 4…😆 because I seem to hover in the 4 try range. I have no strategy. It’s just fun for me. As for cheating, when I do the crossword puzzle I have looked up definitions of words I do not know, and I’ve checked spelling…does that count as cheating?
I’m usually around four for Wordle too. I’m excited if I get three. As for crosswords my husband and I used to do them every weekend and a friend gave us a crossword dictionary. So I don’t think you’re cheating.
👍👍
I admit to trying to narrow down a guess on a few occasions when my brain seems frozen. Sometimes things just don’t click and I’m on my last try. Is it cheating- yes. Am I bothered by it at that point- not really. When I’ve tried and tried every letter combination I can think of even a little hint is nice. I love the challenge but sometimes you just want to be done and move on for the day. It’s a word game, not strategic planning that impacts or harms anyone.
You have a great point. It’s only a game.
Never played the wordle
It’s fun because it only takes a few minutes a day.
I’ve read a lot about it but never tried it. Perhaps because I’m already playing a lot of games including sudoku on my phone daily.
I used to have a word game on my phone that I enjoyed but the developers didn’t update it so it no longer works. I don’t play any other games on my phone.
I have a lot of solitaire type games on my phone.
I used to play solitaire on my computer. Thank you for reminding me. I could use some of that distraction.
Ah, that’s how I started. My dad was addicted to it too, free cell was his game.
I started playing solitaire as a kid with cards. 😀
Oh I did that too because my grandpa did it all the time.
Cheating (in any form) has two classifications of people: Those who admit they do it, and liars.
You gave me a good laugh!
🙂
I’ve kind of given up on Wordle…but I still like it. I’ve discovered Heardle. It’s music instead of words.
I love all these spin off game from Wordle. I’ll have to check out Heardle.
My daughter, her girlfriend and I share a text thread where we share our results each day. I don’t cheat. If I don’t get it, oh, well. Rupee was a hard one for me too. Now we do Quordle too and they do Octordle but I’m not going there!
I tried Quordle once. I had the whole thing and clicked on the wrong letter and lost. I may give it another try.
It seems odd that someone would cheat at Wordle… what’s the point? If someone cheats, how do they feel about themselves afterwards (“yay, I did it”?)? I have yet to lose a game after six tries but I’d feel worse if I cheated to win.
That’s exactly how I felt the one time I googled the answer.
Have you tried Quordle yet – it’s where you solve 4 words at once instead of just the one. I can see people feeling even more frustrated with that if it catches on more. Love all the other spinoffs others are mentioning – I need to look those up!
I tried Quordle once and was winning. I was down to the last couple tries and accidentally entered the wrong thing and lost.
I did one time and I thought I had it wired. Then I made a mistake and typed in a wrong word by accident and lost. I was so mad at myself. I need to try again.
I too have cheated once. And that’s because I had failed all my tries, and that feeling of not knowing was just gnawing at me, so I googled the answer, same as you. Didn’t bother playing again, lol. It’s super interesting seeing how Wordle has become the Sudoku of this time.
It is the Sudoko of this time. But so much easier. Maybe that is a statement itself.
I agree with LA…it’s a nice distraction that doesn’t take a lot of time. I hover around four tries but have gone to five and six at times. I don’t really care about streaks. It’s a personal challenge.
Exactly!