The online game Wordle has exploded in popularity; it is a challenging daily puzzle game on the New York Times’s website that works the brain and tests vocabulary.

As explained by cnet.com, the goal of Wordle is trying to reveal a five letter word through a series of other five letter word guesses. The player gets six guesses to reveal the word. If the player guesses a letter that is in the word and it is in the correct spot, the box will turn green. If the letter is in the word but not in the correct spot, the box will turn yellow. If the letter is not in the word at all, the box will be grayed out. The addicting game’s popularity has been rising through social media as well as through word of mouth.

When asking Daven Nelson, a student at SHS, when he found the game, he replied, “January 28th at 11:34 AM, because that is when I first saw a TikTok about it.”

Not only has the puzzle game gained popularity throughout social media, but it has also gained traction from being passed on at Sartell High School, and students have developed their own strategies for the game.

Some find the strategy of having a common starting word helpful.

Sophomore Wesely Johnson shared, “My family chooses a word each day so we are all on an equal playing field.”

Senior, Aiden Hilger said, “[I use] Crane because it uses common consonants and has two common vowels in it.”

Both students and celebrities take great pride in their Wordle scores.

When asking Nelson if he gets the Wordle every time, Daven boasts, “Oh yeah, most definitely.”

Some celebrities have been accused of lying about their score, such as Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl Anthony-Towns.

According to yahoo.com, controversy arose when Towns posted a screenshot of his result on twitter after playing what he thought was Wordle 237, which the mystery word for that day was “ulcer.” His screenshot showed results that were impossible letter combinations and fans were left suspicious. His tweet had so many replies in so little time, that he had to respond and explain himself in between games against the Kings and Bulls. The whole situation was a misunderstanding, as he accidentally posted results for the wrong day. Towns cleared up all the rumors of his Wordle cheating with a simple tweet.