Wordle: Creator of app with same name to donate profits after download boost

14 January 2022, 22:34

Steven Cravotta and his Wordle game
comp 1. Picture: PA

A word game called Wordle on the Apple App Store has had 500,000 new downloads in recent days.

A developer whose five-year-old app has suddenly received half a million downloads because it shares its name with a viral sensation puzzle game has vowed to give the profits away.

Steven Cravotta, 24, developed word game Wordle when he was 18 and uploaded it to Apple’s App Store more than five years ago, but abandoned the project soon after and has not updated it since.

In recent weeks, another puzzle game – also called Wordle – has gone viral, regularly trending on Twitter as players share their results.

The Wordle web game
The Wordle web game has been a huge hit in recent weeks (Lindsey Masters/PA)

That game is played within a web browser, though, so when people search for an app, the first thing they come across is Mr Cravotta’s game.

He told the PA news agency: “I logged into my app development dashboard a week ago, and it was insane what I saw.

“I saw 200,000 downloads to Wordle, a game I hadn’t touched in five years, and like previously, I was getting maybe like two or three downloads a day.”

The web-based version of Wordle – created by British developer Josh Wardle – has been a huge hit over the last couple of months.

Mr Wardle has kept the game deliberately simple, with only one puzzle per day so it does not require too much time, and no adverts demanding the user’s attention.

It requires players to guess a five-letter word, using green, yellow and grey blocks to indicate which letters are correct and in the right or wrong place.

The eye-catching patterns of blocks can then be shared on social media, which – along with media coverage and tweets from some famous fans – has sent many searching for the game themselves, with some instead finding Mr Cravotta’s game.

“Just yesterday I got 130,000 downloads on it, so the response to this has been absolutely insane – this is something I never could have even imagined,” he said.

The number of downloads for the 2016 game – which is also a word puzzle but with different rules – is now up to 500,000, and though the game itself is free, it is still leading to thousands of dollars of income.

A screenshot from the Wordle app
(PA)

And, after reaching out to Mr Wardle, he has decided to donate that money – which currently stands at around 3,000 US dollars (£2,200) – to Boost!, an organisation that provides free tutoring and mentoring to kids from disadvantaged areas of Oakland.

He said: “At the end of the day, all of this happened because of Josh’s app, right? And I want to respect his mission.

“So you know, whatever the figure is, this isn’t really about the money for me.

“This is about doing something something great for the world and, you know, I’m just happy to have this opportunity.”

Despite the confusion over the name, around 30% of people are returning to the app after downloading it to continue playing, Mr Cravotta said, adding it was “pretty good considering the fact that this isn’t really the app they’re looking”.

Mr Cravotta’s latest project is an app called Puff Count which aims to help people quite vaping.

By Press Association

More Technology News

See more More Technology News

AI warning

Essays written with ChatGPT feature repetition of words and ideas – study

A broadband router

Big four broadband firms beaten by smaller rivals in latest Which? survey

A person pressing on the Tik Tok logo on the screen of a smartphone

TikTok to launch online election centres to counter misinformation

A person using a laptop

Up to eight million UK jobs at risk from AI, report says

Smartphone showing apps

One in six adolescents have experienced cyberbullying, global study finds

An Uber Eats driver

Uber Eats driver wins payout over discriminatory facial recognition checks

Rishi Sunak visits Cumbria

Sunak says UK ‘more robust’ on China than most allies

Chinese President state visit – Preparations

Minister calls China ‘security threat’ after UK and US blame Beijing for hacking

China

UK and US accuse China of ‘malicious’ global cyber attacks

A hand on a laptop

Tougher action needed to combat copycat banking websites, says Which?

Dowden

Dowden guarantees UK elections will be safe from Chinese cyber attacks

A woman’s hand pressing a key of a laptop keyboard

Cyber security agency says China behind ‘malicious’ cyber attacks on UK

A young girl uses the TikTok app on a smartphone

TikTok Youth Council holds first meetings on better online safety for teenagers

Margrethe Vestager

EU opens competition investigations into Apple, Google and Meta

Social Media Stock

Some parents coming to regard online harassment of girls as ‘normal’ – report

historisches Werbeplakat fuer den Spielfilm “Terminator Jugdement Day” mit Arnold Schwarzenegger, Berlin.

Hollywood has ‘helped to fan flames of fear about AI’, peers hear