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Wordle was created by New York software engineer Josh Wardle this past fall, but Couts says the game really became popular in late December and early January, and now boasts more than 300,000 daily players.

\"It seemed after the holidays, everybody seemed to be playing this game and sharing it on Twitter, sharing it all over social media,\" says Couts, adding that Wordle's distinct visual style is key to its success.

\"It creates kind of a cool little pattern that the game makes it really easy to share on social media…so you can show people how well you did on the word of the day. And I think that's one of the big things that has made this game take off.\"

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