What I Learned from Playing More than a Million Games of Wordle (2024)

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What I Learned from Playing More than a Million Games of Wordle? ›

The data presented suggests that starting with the right set of one or two words is better than relying on a good three-word set, because using a fixed third word means you will be ignoring useful information that can be gleaned from your first two guesses.

Most people should, on average, get it in at least 4, even on days where it is harder. Especially if you aren't making risky moves, four guesses should supply you with enough information to make a correct guess.

The US is ranked #18 in the world for Wordle, with a national average of 3.92. The American state with the best Wordle average is North Dakota (3.65). The US city with the best Wordle scores is Saint Paul, Minnesota, with an average of 3.51. Probability of guessing correctly in two tries is 6.4785%.

Luck is part of Wordle, so it's always possible to solve faster than the bot. But the bot's reliance on math instead of intuition means in the long run its paths to the answer are hard to top.

Key Takeaways. Americans who play Wordle spend an average of 12 minutes a day playing it. Baby boomers are the best Wordle players, with an average win percentage of 81%.

More people solve Wordle on their first guess than can be explained by chance. In the list above, we excluded first guesses that were that day's Wordle solution. That's because, about one game in every 250, a reader gets the answer right on the first try.

While breaking a long streak can be disheartening and frustrating — the current longest streak is 968 days, held by multiple people in Hoquiam, Washington and Willowbrook, Illinois — it's an inevitability.

According to WordsRated's analysis, the best starting words for Wordle are CRANE (based on all available solutions) and SAUCY (based on remaining solutions as of Feb, 2024). For Normal mode, SLATE, SALET, ROATE and STARE are known to be some of the best alternative starting words for Wordle.

Does being good at Wordle mean you're smart? ›

But does being good at Wordle mean you're smarter than the average person, or even a fellow puzzler? “No,” said memory and learning researcher Aaron Seitz, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, who founded the university's Brain Game Center.

“There are many cognitive benefits of playing Wordle. Regular play can enhance brain function by stimulating critical thinking, problem-solving skills and memory retention.”

Do Wordles ever have plural nouns? No. There are no plural nouns in the answer list.

The Absolute Best Word to Start Wordle. Statistically, the best Wordle starting word is CANOE. But, if you want to try other 5 letter words that have similar statistical effectiveness, your choices are ROATE, CRANE, RAISE, and TRACE. Doesn't hurt to give them all a shot at least once, right?

Of the top 30 starting words, ADIEU is the most popular but least efficient. Many, many words have been written about the best opening word for Wordle.

But statistics show that, on average, 0.2 to 0.5 per cent of people guess right on the first try – between five and 12 times more than chance would suggest. Put another way: Of the roughly 2 million daily Wordle players, about 860 people should be guessing the right word on their first try.

And the first result that popped up from Real Statistics Using Excel (which seemed credible) said: “Since there are 2,315 possible target words in Wordle, the probability that you will guess the target in exactly one try is 1/2315 = 0.000432.