Wordle: The six-letter word Britons were obsessed with in 2002

A simple online game that became everyone's obsession during the COVID-19 pandemic was the most popular internet search term on Yahoo UK this year.

Wordle even outranked "coronavirus", "Ukraine war", "the Queen", and "cryptocurrencies", which says a lot about the international phenomenon the game has become.

Here, Yahoo News UK takes a look at the meteoric rise of Wordle, and some of the controversies it has run into along the way.

What is Wordle?

Wordle is a deceptively simple game created by Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle to play with his partner, Palak Shah, who he knew loved word games.

It was originally created to be played just between them - which may seem strange considering it now has three million players across the world.

Wardle originally started working on it in 2013, but he revisited it and perfected the project during the pandemic.

Shortly after playing the game with his girlfriend, he sent it to his family's group chat and - after seeing how much they loved it - he decided to open it to the public in October 2021.

Read more: What is today's Wordle word? December 13 hints and answer

How do you play Wordle?

The aim of the game is fairly simple - guess a five-letter word in six tries.

Even if you've never played it before, there's a good chance you've seen the game's distinctive grid of grey, yellow and green squares shared on social media by players.

After each guess, the blocks change colours, with a green tile meaning its the right letter and is in the right spot, and a yellow tile meaning it is in the right letter but in the wrong position.

One of the key attractions of the game is that only one puzzle is released each day - giving players a sense of community and shared experience.

The game also captures a player's overall win percentage and their streak of correct guesses in succession - another ingredient to its addictiveness.

Read more: The best starting Wordle word has been revealed

How much was Wordle sold for?

Given Wordle's rapid rise in popularity, it isn't surprising that it soon became an attractive business investment.

By the end of January 2022, it had been sold to the New York Times, with the company only revealing that it had paid an “undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”.

What games did Wordle inspire?

There are plenty of other games that have taken a leaf out of Wordle's book, while adding their own twists.

For example, there's Waffle, which tells users what letters they need, but challenges them to solve six words at once in 15 tries.

Nerdle is a maths version of Wordle and requires players to guess a daily equation, rather than word, in six tries.

Heardle, acquired by Spotify in July, challenges users to guess the song of the day based on its opening few seconds.

Quordle works in a very similar way to Wordle, but requires players to guess four five-letter words in nine goes.

Worldle asks players to guess a country based on its outline.

Wordle controversies

Following Wordle's migration to the New York Times website, some players became frustrated by the game, with many complaining it had become “too difficult” and “elite”.

However, the NYT denied it had made the game any harder and said it had removed some words from the list that it thought were too obscure in a bid to make it more accessible.

"Homer", meaning a home run in baseball, was the answer for 5 May, leaving many British players feeling cheated, while they were also frustrated by the American spelling of "humor".

Read more: Wordle frustration lies behind Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year

It works both ways however, as on 24 February, Brits were given an easy ride with the word 'bloke', which left many American players scratching their heads.

In May the New York Times apologised after some players found out the solution to the daily puzzle was the word "fetus".

According to The Times, the word was loaded into the game last year meaning its selection predated the leak in May of a draft decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The landmark decision overturned a 1973 ruling which made abortion legal across the US, giving a number of states the power to ban it. This remains an incredibly divisive and thorny issue for many Americans.

Here is Yahoo UK's full list of the most searched terms of 2022

1. Wordle

2. Coronavirus

3. Ukraine war

4. The Queen

5. Cryptocurrencies

6. Prince Andrew

7. Vladimir Putin

8. Donald Trump

9. Quordle

10. Transport strikes

11. Liz Truss

12. Meghan

13. Boris Johnson

14. Catherine

15. Novak Djokovic