Housle: Wordle-like game that lets users guess prices of homes spikes in popularity
A new Wordle-inspired game lets real estate lovers guess the asking price of homes for sale, and it already has thousands of players just days after hitting the internet.
Much like the widely popular game Wordle, Housle gives players six tries to predict the asking price of any house currently listed in the United States. Every day, a new listing appears on the Housle website as players are given just one photo for their first guess.
With each wrong answer, new photos and details are revealed about the home, including its location, square footage, or number of bedrooms and bathrooms. After each guess, players are told if their answers are higher or lower than the listing price. To win, users must guess within five per cent of the home’s asking price.
House was developed by Los Angeles-based reality TV producer Doug Weitzbuch, who was inspired by his own experience working on Netflix’s Shark Tank-style reality show Buy My House, in which homeowners pitch properties for sale to real estate investors. Not only is Weitzbuch an avid Wordle player, but he is also married to a real estate broker.
“One day I just came up with the idea to marry the two,” the game developer recently told Insider.
Weitzbuch selects Housle’s home of the day himself after scouring listings all throughout the US. For example, Friday’s listing featured a $48.8m home in Laguna Niguel, CA spanning 14,500 square-feet on 13.29 acres.
Now, the web browser version of Housle has gained more than 46,000 users in just three days, while a Housle app is also set to be launched next week.
Last year, Wordle took the world by storm. The aim of the game is to guess a mystery five-letter word, known as the “wordle” in six tries. After each guess, the colour of the tiles will change to reflect how close the guess was to the word.
The word-guessing game, which was created by New York City-based software engineer Josh Wardle, first appeared in October 2021. By January 2022 it reached 300,000 players and one month later, it was purchased by The New York Times for a price “in the low seven figures”.
