Wordle, the web-based word game that is considered the purest pastime in the English-speaking world, has been named Google's most-searched term in 2022. The popular online game Wordle topped the list globally, according to the search giant's annual "Year in Search 2022" report.
On the search chart, the game was followed by India vs. England, Ukraine, and Queen Elizabeth.
Searches for the five-letter guessing game peaked in February this year. It is a simple, shareable, and completely free word-guessing game that has suddenly gained a lot of traction on Twitter of late. The rules of the game-a brainteaser-are simple: players have to guess a five-letter word by entering characters in boxes. They can see which letters they got right or wrong through colour coding. If the letter from their guess isn't in the target word, that letter turns grey. If it is in the correct word but in the incorrect position, it will turn yellow. It will turn green if it is in the correct word and location. Players have six chances to get it right.
Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, designed the game for his partner, Palak Shah, who enjoyed word games, according to a report in The New York Times. As a result, he devised a unique guessing game for the two of them. Mr Wardle called the game Wordle as a play on his surname.
Mr Wardle thought he might be onto something after he and his partner played the game for a couple of months. Then he introduced it to his relatives on their family's WhatsApp group. There too, it became an obsession. Finally, he released it globally in October 2021.
However, according to a release by Google, in 2022, India recorded all-time high search moments in cricket and football, celebrated diversity in film and sport, and rediscovered fun experiences in the outside world, while also asking questions about global and local news events, emerging concepts in tech and finance, and helpful government schemes.
"India's passion for sport reached new heights this year in Search. The Indian Premier League led the pack of trending searches in India, while queries for the T20 World Cup and Asia Cup reached an all-time high," the release mentioned.
"Not only on home turf, India dominated sports trends globally, securing all top 5 slots in the global trending matches list; football saw similar excitement, with searches for the ongoing FIFA World Cup peaking this year and making it to the year's trending searches, along with the Indian Super League."
The top ten Google searches worldwide were:
- Wordle
- India vs England
- Ukraine
- Queen Elizabeth
- Ind vs SA (a cricket match between India and South Africa)
- World Cup
- India vs West Indies
- iPhone 14
- Jeffrey Dahmer
- Indian Premier League
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