How Wordle Went Viral (And What We Can Learn From It)

Feb 3, 2022

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ANECDOTE

Haley's First Wordle Experience

Haley played Wordle for the first time and instantly got invested despite struggling a bit.
The competition with Miguel to solve it faster sparked her enthusiasm and daily engagement.

INSIGHT

Key Factors Driving Wordle

Wordle’s virality stems from simple social fun, where people compete unfairly with each other.
The game’s one-puzzle-per-day limit and unique sharing method fuel curiosity and communal engagement.

INSIGHT

Innovative Sharing Mechanism

Wordle's sharing function uses emoticons to share performance without revealing the solution.
This creates a shared experience that intrigues others without spoiling the game.

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You know it, you love it…maybe you’ve never heard of it. Regardless, it’s the first viral trend of 2022 and after a rough few years, embracing something as wholesome as a free word puzzle has felt uniquely refreshing. But what made Wordle the viral sensation that it is? And what’s the best way creators can capitalize on a free service without destroying what made it special to begin with?

Like every success story and every creator misstep, there are lessons creators can learn from the absurd virality of Wordle. From its simplicity and innocence to the big scary question of monetization, this app-less internet game is both fun and a rich topic for discussion amongst creators of every niche.

In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel discuss the wonder of Wordle, why it went viral, how the creator of Wordle can sustain its virality, and what every creator can learn from the success of a free word game taking the internet by storm.

Key Takeaways

[01:07] - Have you heard?
- [01:30] - TikTok is testing a paid subscriber model for creators.
- [02:22] - Instagram is launching subscriptions.
- [06:29] - YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote a letter to the YouTube community with a breakdown of YouTube’s priorities for 2022 and a recap of impressive creator stats from 2021.
[08:33] - Today’s main topic: what can we learn from the virality of Wordle?
- [10:59] - Wordle is an addictive game with no barriers to entry.
- [14:37] - Wordle has given people a lighthearted excuse to check in with one another.
- [15:26] - The sharing function and scarcity of a one-game per day limit also contributed to its virality.
- [18:05] - There’s a compounding effect on the relevancy of something by the size of its adoption. In other words, something can be very fun, but if it doesn’t become embedded within a cultural wave, it won’t take off.
- [18:57] - There’s value in something that doesn’t immediately concern itself with monetization.
- [19:41] - Wordle has a universality to it that creators can apply to their own services.
- [23:54] - Starting a consultancy, including a TiPJAR, and capturing email addresses are great ways to monetize a free service without sacrificing integrity.
[34:31] - Creator callout! Noah from ProvocaTeach is launching a new site and has learned to code.
[35:58] - A sneak peek at our next episode.

Quotes

[17:11] - “There’s something very interesting and special about the fact that this is a thing that’s going viral when the sharing link doesn’t include a link to the project itself. You have to be invested to figure out how to play it yourself.” ~ @charliprangley

[19:49] - “A lot of times we’re talking to creators and we’re asking them to niche down, get really specific to their audience and don’t worry about the size of your niche, and niche down, niche down, niche down. Wordle’s really interesting because it’s totally universal. Everybody talks, everybody uses words, everyone writes. So I guess my lesson for creators is: what’s universal inside your niche? What’s universal inside your small little audience?” ~ @haleyjani

[18:57] - “There’s value in the success of the thing itself and not thinking about the full monetized pipeline. If the creator had thought, ‘Before I release this to the public, what sort of thing can I build around it to make something that makes money?”; that would have made it less interesting to people, it would have created barriers for people, which then would have made it not as viral which then maybe would have made it never take off.” ~ @miguelp.img

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