Has Wordle completely taken over your life? And if not, why?
We discovered Wordle just after Christmas. It’s a daily game that you can play in your browser, where you have six chances to guess a five-letter word. It’s basically that daytime ITV quiz show, Lingo, but better. If you’re as addicted as us, you might be wondering what other games like Wordle are out there.
It’s not just us who became addicted to it, either. It took the world by storm very quickly – and its creator, Josh Wardle (see what he did there?) recently sold the game to the New York Times for a seven-figure sum. Not bad for a game that he made for his girlfriend to play, right?
Since Wordle entered all our lives, it’s sparked a fever in us to play daily games that challenge our minds. And thankfully, creators all around the world have stepped up to the mark, coming up with their own riffs on Wordle and unique concepts that can keep us occupied for a few minutes a day.
We’ve currently got five on my phone which we jump into every night when the click strikes midnight. And there are way more than that out there, too. And so, if you’re looking for daily challenges to play in your browser, here are the best games like Wordle.
Nerdle: Wordle, but with numbers
Rather than guessing a word, in Nerdle you need to guess a complete and mathematically correct sum, say “6+6+7=19”. You’ll need to get all the numbers in the right place, along with any signs in there, too.
Like Wordle, you’ll get six guesses to get it right. Fail, and that’s it. Try again tomorrow. It’s one of the best daily browser games like Wordle, particularly if you’re more of a numbers person than a words person.
If this is your jam, its creators have also made Mini Nerdle, a smaller version of the game game, and Pro Nerdle, where you can create your own puzzles to send to friends. Nifty!
Play Nerdle at nerdlegame.com.
Quordle: 4 x Wordle
Quordle is… four Wordles at once. That really is the best way to describe this epic word game that gives us anxiety every evening. You’ll guess one word at a time, but your guess will populate four grids, each with their own word. The goal is to guess all four before you run out of guesses. You have nine guesses altogether, making this pretty tricky. It’s a seriously fun daily game like Wordle, though, and really tests your brain.
Play Quordle at quordle.com.
Related: the best word games you can play on PS4
Diffle: difficult + Wordle
If you’re looking for more wordy action, then Diffle is another daily game like Wordle worth checking out. This one is a little tricky to explain. Rather than guessing a five-letter word, Diffle‘s word could be any length. And you have unlimited tries at guessing it; the goal is just to try and do it as quickly as possible with the fewest letter uses.
If a letter is green, then it’s correct, and in the right order. If it’s yellow, it’s in the word, but needs to be placed somewhere else. If letters are green and joined together, then you’ve got their sequence. The word above, for example, turned out to be “Press”. Once you get your head around it, it’s a fun browser game to add to your collection.
Play Diffle at hedalu244.github.io/diffle/.
Worldle: Wordle, but for geography buffs
If you’re a world geography nerd, then Worldle is for you. Rather than guess a word, you need to guess the name of the country. And to help you out, Worldle provides you the shape of the country. If you’ve somehow memorised the atlas, this should be dead easy. But if, like us, you barely know your Australia from your Sweden (okay, we’re maybe not quite that bad), then this one will be really tricky for you.
Once you’ve taken a guess, Worldle will tell you how far away you are from the country it actually is, and which direction it is. There’s also a percentage, which gives you a rough estimate of how close you are in proximity.
Unfortunately for its creators, typing ‘Worldle’ into Google auto-corrects to Wordle. So be sure to spread the word of this one to your friends.
Play Worldle at worldle.teuteuf.fr.
Knotwords: crosswords + Wordle
Knotwords is one of the newer daily games like Wordle to enter the scene. And since it launched earlier in May, we’ve been obsessed with it. Like Wordle, it’s a word game. But it concerns itself with crosswords. And anagrams.
You see, you’re given a crossword grid, that’s been divided into several chunks. You’ll be told what letters appear in each of those chunks, but you’ll need to figure out what order they go in. The sizes of puzzles vary from small ones, like the one above, to much larger ones. They can be tricky, but you’ll struggle to put it down until you’ve cracked it.
Download Knotwords on iOS or Google Play Store.
Dungleon: Wordle for gamers
Imagine Wordle crossed with a dungeon crawler. That’s sort of what Dungleon is. Instead of guessing a word, you need to figure out a sequence of dungeon characters. There are some “secret rules” to help you out, like the fact that each dungeon line-up has at least one hero and one monster, and some pieces can only ever appear in a specific spot. But what those spots are is up to you to figure out. So you’ll likely get better at Dungleon the more you play.
It’s certainly a tricky one, but it’s a nice twist on the standard format. And so if you’re looking for new daily browser games like Wordle, maybe give Dungleon a try.
Play Dungleon at dungleon.com.
