‘Hardest one by far’: Wordle 244 is ending players’ streaks

Warning: Spoilers for Wordle 244 below

Wordle players have taken to Twitter today, complaining that Wordle 244 has broken their streaks.

“Wordle 244 broke my 41-day streak,” one user, who didn’t manage to correctly guess today’s five-letter word, said.

The daily word game, which gives players six attempts to guess the five-letter word of the day, has taken the internet by storm over the past month.

So much so that The New York Times (NYT) acquired the game from creator, Josh Wardle, for an undisclosed seven-figure sum at the beginning of February.

Yet it seems the game has run into a few teething issues since the acquisition, with users reporting that there were two answers in one of the games earlier this week, while the majority of players didn’t seem to know what another word meant in a recent game, exposing a possible class divide.

Yesterday, users took to social media to complain that there were too many variations of the word and today they are lamenting that the word has caused them to lose their streak. (*spoiler ahead*)

Today’s Wordle 244 answer is “dodge”, with the double use of the “D” being the likely reason some users tripped up on the word.

“Absolutely devastated,” one person wrote. “First one I got wrong ever.”

“This one drove me mad, took way too long to get this word, I almost gave up. I’m over it now,” another added.

A third, who managed to get the word on their sixth guess, said it was “the hardest one by far”, but they were “still undefeated”.

Some people took their anger out on the NYT, with one person writing: “Me on my way to the NYT to ask the Wordle department to ask why the f*** they sometimes repeat letters.”

Another said: “The NYT has been oscillating a lil [sic] too much between the difficultly levels of their words lately.”

“After 27 consecutive days, my Wordle streak comes to an end…” a further user said.

Author Emma Kennedy, who got the last four letters right for three goes but didn’t manage to get the word tweeted her score with: “The horror, the horror.”

Many Wordle users have felt whiplash this week from the range of words used. Tuesday’s answers were “aroma” and “agora”, Wednesday’s was “caulk” and Thursday’s was “shake”.

“We were all terrified that @nytimes would paywall #wordle, but instead it’s making us feel like illiterate fools,” one user added.

For those who feel that they have mastered Wordle, there is a new version of the game called Quordle, which allows you to do four Wordles at once (it’s as hectic as it sounds).

For those still trying to get the hang of the original game, these tips, tricks and best starting words may come in handy.

Take part in The Independent’s Wordle ‘Ask Me Anything’ event on Monday 21 February. Post your questions here.