Do You Play Wordle? Here's Why Your Answers Might Have Been Different Than Your Friends' in Recent Days (2024)

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If you love Wordle as much as we do, chances are you've been following its recent sale to The New York Times closely. The game, which gives players six chances to guess a five-letter word, took the internet by storm in recent months and has only grown its fanbase since its initial launch in October of 2021. Since then, the brain teaser has undergone some changes, including a very recent one that has left some participants rattled: The daily word is no longer the same for everyone.

The game was designed to feed players all over the world the same five-letter word to solve, but on Tuesday some people noticed there were two different versions of the game, meaning there were also two different solutions. According to a report by CNN, some people have been using The New York Times hosted site to play, while others continue to play on the games original site. This loophole is possible for players who kept the old Wordle version open in their browser rather than refreshing or opening a new tab to play every day. Users who refresh or open a new browser are automatically redirected to The New York Times' version. This is why two versions of the game can simultaneously exist.

On Tuesday, most Wordle fans attempted to solve solution 242 on The New York Times page, but users playing on the old version were fed solution 241. This is because The New York Times has eliminated certain words it deemed to be too difficult, like "pupal" and "fibre," as well as words it found to be rude or offensive. Players using the old version were given a solution that was removed by The Times. "We are updating the word list over time to remove obscure words to keep the puzzle accessible to more people, as well as insensitive or offensive words," said Jordan Cohen, spokesman for The New York Times, in a statement.

Some Wordle fans aren't happy about the recent changes, taking to social media to express frustration that the words are more challenging than they were on the old version. According to The Times, this is just a coincidence. Until Tuesday, the solutions were the same as the game's creator, Josh Wardle, intended them to be. The answers to the original game were scheduled through October 20, 2027, but The Times hasn't said if it plans to make more changes to Wordle's initial list.