Is your Wordle different than your friends’? Here’s why and how to fix it
.png "Wordle’s display since being bought by The New York Times.")
On Jan. 31, the world was rocked by an announcement from The New York Times. Well, the Wordle-playing world.
The newspaper announced it had bought Wordle, the daily word game that skyrocketed in popularity in recent months, for a jaw-dropping price in the low seven figures.
Wordle had been acclaimed as a simple word game that brought a new sense of community among friends and on social media — each day’s answer was the same for everyone, and the results could be shared discreetly online without spoiling the day’s answer.
However, days into the transition to The New York Times, players began to notice the once-simple and unifying game seemed to have a new change.
“Wordle gave my husband and I two different winning words today and derailed the entire morning @nytimes quick question, IS THIS JUST A GAME TO YOU,” wrote one frustrated Twitter user.
This player’s experience was one others were having, too. Some players were noticing they were ending up with a different Wordle-winning answer than others.
While this is a very real phenomenon, don’t worry — it has an easy fix and a valid reason.
It appears that if a player has kept the browser open that they continuously use for Wordle and have not refreshed their page, they will be playing the original version of the game from before the Times’ purchase.
According to The Verge, on Feb. 15, the answers for the Times’ Wordle and the original Wordle became different.
“The New York Times version of Wordle and the original version hosted at powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle have diverged and will now continue forever out of step,” the news outlet reported.
Now, when the link above for the original Wordle is clicked, users are automatically taken to the Times’ new site.
Dedicated players called out the change on social media.
“So #Wordle has now split into two versions,” one Twitter use wrote. “I’ve seen a different solution for the one hosted on @nytimes and the one hosted on the original site. This is rubbish. (For what it’s worth) I’m doing the original which I still have cached in an open browser tab.”
One player who also experienced winning with a different word than another player emailed a New York Times representative who provided users with an easy fix.
The New York Times employee said the newspaper’s Wordle has eliminated a handful of the previous Wordle words, including some obscure and offensive words.
“Solvers on the old word list can likely update to the new list by refreshing their browsers,” the employee wrote.
If refreshing your browser does not work, clearing your cache might do the trick.
You will be on The New York Times version of the game when the Wordle heading font has been replaced with the typical Times game font.
Additional rumors have circulated that The New York Times has actually made the word game more difficult. This has not been proved, and the Times maintains that the only change to gameplay has been to take out select words.
However, if you wish to continue playing the old Wordle with an open browser, be sure not to refresh the game.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Is your Wordle different than your friends’? Here’s why and how to fix it."
