What you need to know
- Copycat Wordle apps are plaguing the App Store.
- The original Wordle game is available for free on the games' website.
- At least one developer is charging $30 for a "pro version of its app.
Update, January 11 (9:00 pm ET): Apple appears to have removed the copycat Wordle apps from the App Store
If you have been anywhere near the internet recently, you have probably come across the word "Wordle."
Everyone isn't having a stroke. It's a new word game that has taken the internet by storm and grown in popularity like wildfire or, as we like to say, gone viral.
Wordle is a simple word game that can be played on the Wordle website. Each day, players have to guess a five-letter word in six guesses. After each guess, the game will give you clues to if you got a letter from the secret word and if it is in the correct spot or not. If you guess the secret word in six guesses or less, you win! Each player gets a new word every day.
The creator of the game, Josh Wardle, has made the game free on the internet for all to play. So far, Wardle has not released an app version of the game through Apple or Google's app stores. Unfortunately, a plethora of developers have ripped off Wardle's idea and released a plague of knock-off apps on Apple's App Store.
As reported by MacRumors, copycat Wordle apps are aplenty in the App Store and rising in popularity. One developer is even charging $30 for a "Pro" version of the app and cashing in on the games' popularity.
The #3, #7, #14, #15, and #16 best-performing word games in the app store right now are all Wordle clones that don't even change the name. It's disgusting! This guy is only unique insomuch as he's the only one bragging about it! pic.twitter.com/F3nWRI0gW1The #3, #7, #14, #15, and #16 best-performing word games in the app store right now are all Wordle clones that don't even change the name. It's disgusting! This guy is only unique insomuch as he's the only one bragging about it! pic.twitter.com/F3nWRI0gW1— Greg Karber (@gregkarber) January 11, 2022January 11, 2022
Apple has not taken these copycat Wordle apps from the App Store and it is unclear if they will since there is not technically an original Wordle app from the games' creator in the store. The best thing we can all do as a tech and gaming community in the meantime is to refuse to download any of the copycat apps and continue to play the real Wordle game on the Wordle website.
Update, January 11 (9:00 pm ET) — Apple appears to have removed the copycat Wordle apps from the App Store
In an update on Twitter, MacRumors has spotted that it appears that Apple has already removed the copycat Wordle apps from the App Store.
The Wordle clones appear to have been removed from the App Store. https://t.co/eF7SPBb0GnThe Wordle clones appear to have been removed from the App Store. https://t.co/eF7SPBb0Gn— MacRumors.com (@MacRumors) January 12, 2022January 12, 2022
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