For anyone who takes pride in playing Quordle, the five-letter word game known to be four times harder than Wordle, your quest for words is justified. Iconic dictionary brand Merriam-Webster bought the famous puzzle online and announced it on Thursday.
Merriam-Webster, which is owned by Encyclopedia Britannica, quietly launched the game, which launched shortly after Wordle became an online phenomenon in late 2021.
Quordle has a lot in common with Wordle. Where Wordle asks you to solve a five-letter word puzzle in five guesses, Quordle asks you to simultaneously solve four five-word puzzles in nine attempts.
Both present you with a standard virtual keyboard and after entering a five-letter word, letters appear on all four-word boards. The right letters in the right places are green and the right letters in the wrong places are orange. Yes, just like Wordle.
The big difference is that one set of letters instantly applies to all four puzzles, which is why Quordle is considered much more difficult. You solve four puzzles at once and with only nine attempts.
News of the acquisition was announced on Twitter by the Quordle account and now the Quordle URL https://www.quordle.com resolves to a Merriam-Webster URL.
I’m thrilled to announce that Quordle has been acquired by @MerriamWebster I can’t think of a better home for this game. Lots of new features and fun to come, so stay tuned!January 20, 2023
Quordle doesn’t have the same type of rabid fanbase as Wordle (perhaps that’s too hard), but Merriam-Webster’s backing could change that.
What most people didn’t know until Friday, however, is that Merriam-Webster bought Quordle last year.
“The founder was a big fan of us being a home for the product… Our editors and I were big fans. Negotiations were quick and happy,” Merriam-Webster’s president told me Friday, Gregory Barlow.
Barlow said that after the acquisition for an undisclosed sum, the dictionary website made only subtle changes to Quordle, such as adding the Merriam-Webster logo last month. However, it wasn’t until they migrated the entire Quordle platform and URL to Merriam-Webster’s servers on Thursday, January 19 that Quordle creator Freddie Meyer shared the news on Twitter.
Although the URL is different, Quordle fans shouldn’t expect big changes.
“I don’t have any changes planned. We have new features and maybe new types of games coming, but the base game that people play every day, I wouldn’t expect it to exchange.”
More importantly, Merriam-Webster has no plans to put Quordle behind a paywall. This should appeal to a lot of dedicated players. According to Barlow, 29.7 million users have played Quordle 410 million times in the past six months.
Are there, I asked Barlow, any concerns about the New York Times following the now higher-profile Quordle because of its similarities to Wordle?
“No. [It’s] definitely not copy Wordle. We love Quordle so much because it’s such a different game. Having to do four words introduces such different types of gameplay and tactics.”
And, yes, Barlow is a Quordle player, and it was so long before Merriam-Webster bought the game.
