The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-06)

E12 PG EE THEWASHINGTONPOST.SUNDAY,MARCH 6 , 2022

videogames

BYAMANDAFLORIAN

S

teven Cravotta isthe

lone creator of “Wordle!”

—no, not thatone.Six

yearsago,the self-taught

developerbuilt aword-

based puzzle app for fun.Cravot-

ta, who was 18 at thetime,

originally thought the project

was abust; its averagedaily

download ratewas in the single

digits. Then, lastDecember he

checked the app’s statsand no-

ticedit had500,000downloads

in aspan of five days. After some

digging,herealized aslewof

people looking for theviral, Web-

onlygame“Wordle,”created by

software engineer Josh Wardle,

weremistakenly downloading

his app instead.

Cravotta’sbeloved side project

has sincebecomethe No.1game

in theApp Store in eight coun-

tries,and the 24-year-old is cash-

ing in on thatsuccessfor agood

cause —and withWardle’sbless-

ing.This week, Cravotta isdonat-

ing $50,000of the revenuegen-

erated through his “Wordle!” app

to acharity theybothagreed

upon.

“It’scrazy to think backduring

thattimewhenIwas building

[‘Wordle!’],because Iwas literal-

ly reading through adictionary

on the Internet andputting

words into the gamemanually,”

Cravotta told TheWashington

Post via Zoom. “I justhad no idea

it was goingtoblowuplikethis

downthe road.”

Cravotta’s“Wordle!”sits at 8

milliondownloads andis avail-

ableonlyinApple’s AppStore.It

features afew differentgames

thathaveplayers guessing or

spellingwordswith alimited

number of attempts. By contrast,

Wardle’s “Wordle,”which the

NewYork Timesrecently ac-

quired for an undisclosedseven-

figurepricetag,isasingle game

thatgives userssix chancesto

guessadaily five-letter word.

Wardle’s game,currentlyonly

playable via Webbrowser,

launched in Octoberand grewin

popularity in largepartthanks to

Twitter,withusers sharing cryp-

tic photos of their green-tiled

victories. Itssuccesshas since

spawned awaveofadaptations

and themed knockoffs—someof

which have attempted to profit

offthe mistaken identity.

Given howsimilarthe names

of Wardle’sand Cravotta’screa-

tions are, naturallysomeplayers

have beenconfusedabout which

gameiswhich.

“Confession, I’ve beenplaying

the wrong‘Wordle,’”oneuser

tweeted earlierthismonth.

Cravotta firstbecameaware of

the app’s breakawaysuccess

aroundChristmas.The develop-

er was home spendingtimewith

family in Atlanta andhadn’t paid

much attention to the app’s met-

ricsdashboard for acouple of

days. Backthen,“Wordle!”aver-

aged aroundtwotothree down-

loads per day.

“I had no reason to buildthis

appotherthanIenjoyed doing

this,” he said. “Itwas my passion.

And youknow,Ididn’t think

anything was goingtocomeof it;

Ijustthought it wouldbecoolto

have my friends playagamethat

Iput on theApp Store.”

SEEWORDLEONE13

When Wordles collide: Old app goes viral by accident

Whenthe Web-only game explodedin popularity,peoplemistakenlydownloadedhis 6-year-oldapp in droves.Now he’s donating$50,000of the windfall.

DIMITRYLOISEAU/WASHINGTONPOSTILLUSTRATION

StevenCravottacreated

the word-basedpuzzle

app“Wordle!” for fun

whenhewas 18. It didn’t

do well —until

December,whenitwas

downloaded half a

milliontimesinaweek.

(240) 335-7017

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