Wordle accident delivers one guy massive profit, which he then donates
Not many people haven't heard about Wordle, the online word game that is taking the Internet by storm. It has been picked up and promoted by a number of major publications and late-night talk shows, and has found some viral fame on social networks of all sorts. The app was developed by Josh Wardle who focused on keeping the game simple: the basic premise is that players must guess a five letter word within six attempts. With each guess, the color of the tiles changes to show whether you are close or not. A letter turning green indicates it is the correct letter and in the right spot. A yellow letter shows the letter is in the word, but in the wrong spot. A blank letter means you need to keep guessing.
The thing is, a significant amount of people haven't realized that Wordle is not a mobile app, but a simple mobile and desktop web app that is ad-free and free to play. Consequently, the developer of a five-year old mobile app that happened to be called Wordle! found himself the beneficiary of a substantial, and completely unexpected windfall.
The developer of Wordle!, Steven Cravotta, posted a Twitter thread about all the craziness and said that he had largely forgotten about the app. That was until he happened to check in on his App Store analytics last week and saw that his app had gone viral.
One good turn deserves another
According to Cravotta, his app had suddenly been downloaded over 150,000 times in a short few days. At the time of writing, Cravotta's Wordle! app is the number 1 app on the App Store globally and has benefited from one significant difference to Wordle created by Josh Wardle – Cravotta's app has been set up to make money through either in-app purchases and advertising. Players in Cravotta's Wordle! app, also a word game, can skip turns on hard letter combinations by paying for skips or by watching an advertisement, which has netted the developer some serious coin.
However, instead of staying quiet and pocketing the profits, Cravotta reached out to Wordle creator Josh Wardle to donate the money to a worthy cause.
As Cravotta explains, "I figured we could turn this very strange, once in a lifetime scenario and make it something amazing!" The two decided on Boost, which is an after-school tutoring and mentorship program operating out of West Oakland. "Very excited to support such an amazing program," he wrote. "We feel the money will make a real impact here!" Wardle has since confirmed the incredible events tweeting, "Steve Cravotta reached to me unprompted and asked about donating the proceeds. He is a class act and you should follow him."