Wordle has taken over the world of word games by storm. Every day, millions of people try to reveal the mysterious 5-letter word with more or less success. With nearly 2,000 puzzles underway daily, we analyzed over 266,000 Wordle games posted by players on Reddit to identify the average scores, the hardest, and the easiest puzzles.
We also used information theory to identify the optimal starting word for Wordle, which should help you keep the average number of attempts to solve the game as low as possible. If you want to master the game, this page provides you with the necessary data to devise the perfect strategy.
Top insights
- As of 2026, the average number of attempts to solve the daily Wordle puzzle is 3.80
- 1.33% of players fail to complete the daily puzzle
- The best word to start your Wordle with is RAISE, followed by SALET, RAILE, and SAINE
- Players solve the daily puzzle in the fewest attempts by starting it with SABLE, while starting the game with GIVEN leads to the most attempts needed to complete the daily Wordle
- The highest failure rate had puzzles where players start the game by playing LOSER
- Puzzle #454 (PARER) has been the hardest Wordle puzzle to solve so far
Table of contents
- Average Wordle scores
- Best Wordle starting words
- Hardest Wordle puzzles
- Popularity of Wordle
- Impact of Wordle on the NYT
Average Wordle Scores
- The average Wordle score is 3.80 as of 2026, and it has gone slightly down over the years.
- Most people solve the daily puzzle in 4 attempts (34.60%) or 3 attempts (31.76%).
- 1.33% of players fail to complete the daily puzzle, approximately 3 times as many as those who solve it on the first attempt (0.39%).
- Most players correctly guess the position of the fifth letter on their first attempt (11.75%), while the first and fourth letters are hardest to guess.
Odds of solving Wordle by turn
The hardest thing in Wordle is solving the puzzle on the first attempt. According to our analysis, fewer than 4 out of every 1,000 Wordle players manage to win the game on the first turn.
However, by the fourth attempt, over 40% of all players complete their puzzle, and more than 75% solve it before their fifth guess.
The following table contains Wordle score distribution:
| Attempts to solve | % of players |
| 1 | 0.39% |
| 2 | 8.55% |
| 3 | 31.76% |
| 4 | 34.60% |
| 5 | 16.70% |
| 6 | 6.67% |
| Fail to solve | 1.33% |
From the table, it’s clear that most Wordle players solve the puzzle in either 3 or 4 attempts. One of the biggest factors in solving Wordle in as few attempts as possible is choosing the best starting word. We’ve covered this topic extensively in a separate analysis, but starting with words like RAISE, RAILE, SAINE, SALET, SLIER, and ARISE will eliminate the most words and leave you with the fewest potential solutions.
What is the average Wordle score?
The average Wordle player will solve the daily puzzle in 3.80 attempts as of 2026. Even though the number of potential answers is getting smaller, the average Wordle score didn’t significantly change over the years:
| Year | Average score |
| Overall | 3.80 |
| 2022 | 3.85 |
| 2023 | 3.75 |
| 2024 | 3.78 |
| 2025 | 3.79 |
The data show that 2023 was the best year for Wordle players, as it took 3.75 attempts on average to solve the puzzle. On the other hand, 2022 was the hardest year for players. The following graph shows the average Wordle score by puzzle, from mid-2022 until today:
Success rate for first guesses in Wordle per letter
During a game of Wordle, certain letters are statistically easier for players to guess than others. This is caused by specific letters occurring more frequently at certain positions in solution words than at others, and by players’ tendency to guess on their first attempt.
- Players are most likely to choose a correctly placed letter in the 5th spot
- Players are most likely to choose an incorrectly placed letter in the 3rd spot
- Players are most likely to guess an incorrect letter in the 1st spot
| Letter location | Correct letter, placed (Green) | Correct letter, unplaced (Yellow) | Incorrect letter (Gray) |
| 1st | 8.32% | 23.69% | 67.99% |
| 2nd | 9.28% | 28.73% | 61.99% |
| 3rd | 10.62% | 30.59% | 58.79% |
| 4th* | 7.95% | 27.75% | 64.31% |
| 5th | 11.75% | 29.72% | 58.53% |
Best Wordle Starting Words
You’re probably already familiar with analyses of the most efficient starting words, like the one provided by Prof. Barry Smith, which show that words like SALET, CRATE, TRACE, or SLATE will give you the most chances of solving every puzzle. While extensive, this analysis deals with all potential Wordle solutions, meaning over 2,300 words from the NYT list.
Since Wordle’s first puzzle (which is actually marked as #0), released on June 19, 2021, over 1,600 games have been played. This means that there are just over 700 remaining solutions left, based on the Wordle words list, assuming that there won’t be repeating answers, which hasn’t happened so far.
Considering the reduced number of potential answers, we wanted to see how this change in remaining words, and therefore letter frequencies and combinations, affected the optimal word to start the Wordle puzzle. Our analysis shows that when it comes to solving Wordle as of 2026, the best starting word to play is RAISE.
Using the same approach Prof. Smith applied, a simulation based on the information theory, we calculated the entropy (a measure of information gain) of all valid 5-letter words to see which ones make the best starting guess. The following table contains the 10 best starting words to use in Wordle:
| Rank | Starting Word | Entropy (higher is better) | Expected remaining solutions | Maximum Remaining Solutions |
| 1 | RAISE | 5.746 | 19.2 | 50 |
| 2 | SALET | 5.705 | 21.7 | 71 |
| 3 | RAILE | 5.690 | 20.9 | 65 |
| 4 | SAINE | 5.688 | 21.4 | 62 |
| 5 | SANER | 5.664 | 22.6 | 82 |
| 6 | SLIER | 5.663 | 20.8 | 60 |
| 7 | ARISE | 5.636 | 20.2 | 50 |
| 8 | SLATE | 5.605 | 23.5 | 71 |
| 9 | SOARE | 5.602 | 21.5 | 59 |
| 10 | TASER | 5.601 | 22.5 | 71 |
To understand this table, we’ll use an example of the best starting word for Wordle – RAISE.
The entropy value shows how many bits of information the word gives us about the solution. Roughly, with around 700 remaining answers, a guess with entropy 5.78 would (on average) leave you with about ~ 13 words to choose from afterward in an ideal scenario.
However, we’re not living in a perfect world, so that ideal scenario isn’t realistic. That’s why we calculated expected remaining solutions, a metric that shows how many answers, through all the simulations, we are left with after playing a particular starting word.
Opposite to the “ideal” scenario, maximum remaining solutions show us a kind of worst-case scenario of how many potential answers we’re left with after playing that starting word.
Now, back to the table. The first thing you can notice about the ten best starting guesses is the presence of vowels A, E, and I. All 10 best starters contain A and E, and 7 out of 10 contain A, E, and I combined. And from consonants, most words contain R, S, L, N, and T.
Players should be aware that although the game recognizes just under 13,000 words in its dictionary, more than 2,300 of them will result in a level solution. However, players can use any term in the game’s word bank alongside careful deduction skills to bring them closer to a level’s answer using fewer turns.
If we limit the starting guesses only to the remaining Wordle solutions, using the same approach, our analysis shows that the best word to start Wordle with is SANER. In the following table, you can see top10 starting words from Wordle from available valid solutions:
| Rank remaining | Starting Word | Entropy (higher is better) | Expected remaining solutions | Maximum Remaining Solutions |
| 1 | SANER | 5.664 | 22.6 | 82 |
| 2 | AROSE | 5.513 | 21.9 | 59 |
| 3 | PARSE | 5.501 | 26.8 | 84 |
| 4 | RINSE | 5.431 | 25.4 | 73 |
| 5 | SONAR | 5.404 | 27.0 | 87 |
| 6 | CASTE | 5.386 | 26.7 | 79 |
| 7 | PALER | 5.371 | 27.9 | 91 |
| 8 | LEANT | 5.352 | 28.1 | 77 |
| 9 | ROAST | 5.352 | 29.4 | 85 |
| 10 | SAUCE | 5.341 | 27.8 | 83 |
Similarly to the previous list, starting guesses coming from valid Wordle answers contain the following letters: A, E, I, S, R, and N.
Most effective starting words used by players
Statistics is one thing, but what’s happening in real life? We sought to identify which starting words have been most successful among Wordle players, and for this purpose, we analyzed all past Wordle games shared in daily Wordle threads on Reddit.
We analyzed over 266,000 Wordle puzzles posted on Reddit, and results show that SABLE has been the most effective starting word – players starting their game with SABLE solved the daily Wordle in 3.27 attempts, on average. The following table shows the 10 most effective starting words used by Wordle players who post on Reddit:
| Rank | Starting Word | Average Score |
| 1 | SABLE | 3.23 |
| 2 | CARET | 3.44 |
| 3 | ALTER | 3.47 |
| 4 | HEIST | 3.48 |
| 5 | MOIST | 3.49 |
| 6 | BIOTA | 3.5 |
| 7 | TORTE | 3.5 |
| 8 | REAST | 3.52 |
| 9 | SALON | 3.53 |
| 10 | CORAL | 3.54 |
As with our simulation, most of the successful starting words contain A and E, but there is a bit more variety both in consonants and vowels.
On the other hand, these are the starting words that led to the lowest average score for Wordle players:
| Rank | Starting Word | Average Score |
| 1 | GIVEN | 4.54 |
| 2 | QUOTA | 4.24 |
| 3 | BOULE | 4.21 |
| 4 | FIGHT | 4.2 |
| 5 | THANK | 4.19 |
| 6 | SMEAR | 4.16 |
| 7 | LOSER | 4.15 |
| 8 | TENOR | 4.15 |
| 9 | PSYCH | 4.12 |
| 10 | LOUIE | 4.11 |
Players needed over 1.3 additional attempts to solve the daily puzzle when they started it with words like GIVEN, compared to the SABLE, which has been the most efficient. If we only focus on how many players failed to solve their puzzle, over 5% of players starting their game with LOSER failed to complete their puzzle. Talk about the irony.
| Rank | Starting Word | Fail % |
| 1 | LOSER | 5.11% |
| 2 | SMEAR | 4.52% |
| 3 | CAUSE | 4.35% |
| 4 | CAUSE | 4.27% |
| 5 | VOCAL | 4.07% |
| 6 | STAND | 3.93% |
| 7 | ARIEL | 3.77% |
| 8 | WEARY | 3.45% |
| 9 | WEARY | 3.45% |
| 10 | WATER | 3.42% |
NYT Wordlebot’s highest ranking words
The New York Times’ official Wordlebot has categorized its best-performing words to be used on a first guess in each game mode by their skill level. A higher skill level means that the word is better for helping players solve each solution.
- SLATE is the highest-ranked word by Wordlebot for a first guess in Normal mode.
- Although SLATE has been selected as the most effective, CRANE, CRATE, SLANT, and TRACE also scored equally according to the method.
- For Hard mode, DEALT scored higher than any other word.
| Normal mode | Hard mode |
| CRANE (99) | DEALT (99) |
| CRATE (99) | TRIPE (95) |
| SLANT (99) | SHALT (94) |
| SLATE (99) | TAILS (94) |
| TRACE (99) | PETAL (93) |
| CARTE (98) | PLANE (93) |
| LANCE (98) | SLANT (93) |
| LEAST (98) | SLATE (93) |
| TRICE (98) | TALES (93) |
| ROAST (97) | TRACE (93) |
(Skill level out of 100 in brackets)
Hardest Wordle Words to Guess
When dealing with the hardest Wordle words, we can approach them in two ways: looking at how many players failed to solve the puzzle, and also what the average score of those who managed to solve it was. Let’s deal with streak-enders first.
We analyzed more than 266,000 Reddit posts containing players’ daily Wordle scores to determine which puzzle had the highest % of players who failed to solve it. The results show that puzzle #454, released in September 2022, was a true streak-stopper. Almost 45% of players failed to solve PARER, by far the most among Wordle daily puzzles.
The following table contains the 10 hardest Wordle words, measured by the % of players who failed to solve the puzzle:
| Puzzle | Answer | Fail % |
| #454 | PARER | 44.98% |
| #1214 | CORER | 31.35% |
| #1310 | ROWER | 25.60% |
| #1497 | GOFER | 25.32% |
| #1426 | EAGER | 22.94% |
| #613 | RIPER | 20.71% |
| #1039 | ROVER | 20.49% |
| #1273 | BOXER | 18.99% |
| #675 | JOKER | 18.60% |
| #304 | FOYER | 17.48% |
What you can immediately notice is that all of the strak-killers end with ER. One of the main reasons for it is that there are over 440 5-letter words that end in ER, and more than 30% of them are valid Wordle answers. Choosing one of them is an almost impossible task.
The double trouble with PARER is that, aside from ending in ER, it also contains another R. Repeating letters in Wordle answers are the biggest reason for people not being able to solve the daily puzzle.
But let’s not focus only on failed attempts. From the ones who actually managed to solve the puzzle, which word was the most difficult? To see that, we calculated the average score of Wordle players for each daily puzzle, omitting the cases where players failed to solve it completely.
When looked at from that aspect, the hardest Wordle word to actually solve is JAZZY, followed by already-mentioned PARER. The following table lists 10 Wordle answers with the lowest average score, meaning the highest average number of attempts to solve:
| Puzzle | Answer | Average Score |
| #712 | JAZZY | 5.29 |
| #454 | PARER | 5.16 |
| #555 | JUDGE | 5.16 |
| #491 | MUMMY | 5.09 |
| #675 | JOKER | 5.09 |
| #1310 | ROWER | 5.04 |
| #714 | NANNY | 4.98 |
| #1037 | JOLLY | 4.97 |
| #1350 | FUZZY | 4.96 |
| #1493 | TIZZY | 4.96 |
What we can notice about this list is 3 different patterns, individual or in combinations with each other:
- Answers ending in ER
- Answers containing J
- Answers containing double letters and end in Y
Double letters have always been one of the biggest obstacles for Wordle players, so it’s not a surprise that Wordle players need the most attempts to figure them out.
But what if we combine the average score and fail % into one metric that will say which is the hardest Wordle word to guess? Well, we did exactly that.
We normalized both average score and fail % on a 0-1 scale, assigned both values a certain weight, corresponding to the share of people who complete/fail Wordle puzzle, and as an output, we got one value that measures Wordle answer difficulty – we called it Wordle Trouble Index.
The following table shows the hardest Wordle words so far, measured by our Wordle Trouble Index. You’ll see some similar faces there, but in a slightly different position:
| Puzzle | Answer | Wordle Trouble Index |
| #454 | PARER | 97.7 |
| #712 | JAZZY | 96 |
| #675 | JOKER | 93.5 |
| #1310 | ROWER | 93.4 |
| #555 | JUDGE | 93.4 |
| #491 | MUMMY | 92.8 |
| #1214 | CORER | 92.5 |
| #1037 | JOLLY | 90.6 |
| #714 | NANNY | 90.5 |
| #1497 | GOFER | 90.2 |
| #613 | RIPER | 90.1 |
| #795 | VERVE | 89.8 |
| #1493 | TIZZY | 89.7 |
| #1350 | FUZZY | 89.7 |
| #1482 | JUMPY | 89.6 |
| #1273 | BOXER | 89 |
| #409 | COYLY | 88.9 |
| #1039 | ROVER | 88.5 |
| #833 | DADDY | 88 |
| #375 | GAWKY | 87.9 |
Hardest days and months to solve Wordle
Ever since June 19, 2021, Wordle has been releasing one new puzzle every day. So we wanted to see if there is any particular day of the week that gave the players the most trouble.
Turns out that playing Wordle on Tuesdays presents the most issues, as puzzles on that day have the highest fail %, as well as the highest average number of attempts to solve. We don’t know why that’s the case, but be extra prepared to play Wordle on Tuesdays from now on.
| Day | Average score | Fail % | Wordle Trouble Index |
| Monday | 3.80 | 1.12% | 97.1 |
| Tuesday | 3.84 | 1.83% | 100 |
| Wednesday | 3.80 | 1.31% | 97.7 |
| Thursday | 3.81 | 1.41% | 98.2 |
| Friday | 3.80 | 1.55% | 98.3 |
| Saturday | 3.79 | 1.13% | 96.8 |
| Sunday | 3.81 | 1.18% | 97.7 |
Similarly, we looked at which month has given the players the most challenges. July has shown to be slightly more challenging for Wordle players than other months so far, along with October. On the other hand, November and December puzzles have been slightly easier to solve.
| Month | Average score | Fail % | Wordle Trouble Index |
| January | 3.76 | 1.04% | 93.7 |
| February | 3.86 | 1.53% | 97.4 |
| March | 3.77 | 1.53% | 95.2 |
| April | 3.81 | 1.57% | 96.3 |
| May | 3.81 | 1.20% | 95.3 |
| June | 3.83 | 1.13% | 95.6 |
| July | 3.93 | 1.81% | 99.8 |
| August | 3.8 | 1.13% | 94.9 |
| September | 3.72 | 1.45% | 93.8 |
| October | 3.86 | 1.87% | 98.3 |
| November | 3.73 | 0.83% | 92.4 |
| December | 3.7 | 0.76% | 91.5 |
Easiest Wordle answers
Going to the opposite side of the spectrum, some words turned out to be almost no trouble for Wordle players. On the list of the easiest Wordle words so far, you’ll probably notice some that you like to start your Wordle with.
You’ll also notice a lot of A’s, E’s, T’s, R’s, and other letters frequently contained among the most popular Wordle starters. The easiest Wordle answer so far has been STARE, measured by our Wordle Trouble Index. The full list of 20 easiest Wordle words is shown in the table below:
| Puzzle | Answer | Wordle Trouble Index |
| #1290 | STARE | 43.7 |
| #1535 | LEAST | 46.4 |
| #670 | PLATE | 50.8 |
| #1173 | STERN | 50.8 |
| #1035 | RAISE | 51.2 |
| #1363 | CHASE | 51.5 |
| #1191 | TEACH | 52.1 |
| #1356 | ALERT | 52.4 |
| #767 | HEART | 52.6 |
| #1395 | CREST | 52.8 |
| #775 | PARTY | 53 |
| #904 | CHAIN | 53 |
| #294 | STAIR | 53.3 |
| #548 | SLATE | 53.6 |
| #1195 | THANK | 53.7 |
| #1339 | TRAIL | 53.7 |
| #307 | PLANT | 53.9 |
| #1469 | PLAIN | 54.1 |
| #874 | LEASH | 54.2 |
| #816 | CLEAR | 54.3 |
How popular is Wordle?
- Wordle was released in October 2021 by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle.
- By November 1 2021, within a month of being made public, the game had 90 players.
- However, by January 2 2022 this had risen to 300,000 daily players.
- Incredibly, the following week Wordle’s number of weekend players exceeded 2 million.
- Later that month, The New York Times Company announced that it had purchased Wordle for an undisclosed, low-seven figure fee.
- The acquisition of Wordle was linked to bringing tens of millions of new players to The Times’ puzzle section and/or app by the end of March 2022.
- The player count for the game also peaked during this period.
- During 2022, Wordle was the top Google search term for both global and American users.
- Furthermore, top Google search trends showed that players were looking to find definitions of Wordle answers.
- 7 out of the top 10 word definitions searched for in 2022 were Wordle solutions (CACAO, HOMER, CANNY, FORAY, TROVE, SAUTE and TACIT).
Share of US adults who play Wordle
In early 2022, Wordle managed to establish itself as a well-known and popular word game amongst players of different generations in the US, in a trend that still continues.
- Data from January 2022 showed that 14% of all US adult respondents played Wordle.
- 26% of Millennial respondents reported playing Wordle.
- 18% of Generation Z respondents reported playing Wordle.
- 9% of Generation X respondents reported playing Wordle.
- 5% of Baby Boomer respondents reported playing Wordle.
| Generation | Percentage |
| Millennials | 26% |
| Generation Z | 18% |
| Generation X | 9% |
| Baby boomers | 5% |
Impact Of Wordle On The New York Times
Looking at the data, we can say that Wordle singlehandedly transformed NYT digital. To demonstrate this, we’ll present information on the rise of NYT digital revenues, subscriptions, and app downloads, before and after Wordle became part of the NYT games family.
NYT digital revenues
- As of 2023, The New York Times generated $1.10 billion in revenue from digital subscriptions.
- It also generates an additional $0.32 billion through digital advertising.
- Prior to the release of Wordle in 2022, The New York Times’s digital subscription revenue stood at $0.77 billion, and digital advertising revenue at $0.31 billion.
| Year | Digital subscriptions | Change | Digital advertising | Change |
| 2023 | $1.10 bn | + 12.24% | $0.32 bn | |
| 2022 | $0.98 bn | + 27.27% | $0.32 bn | + 3.23% |
| 2021 | $0.77 bn | + 28.33% | $0.31 bn | + 34.78% |
| 2020 | $0.60 bn | + 30.43% | $0.23 bn | – 11.54% |
| 2019 | $0.46 bn | $0.26 bn |
NYT digital subscribers
- As of 2023, the New York Times has 9.70 million digital subscribers (news-only, bundle & multiproduct and other single-product subscriptions).
- This shows an increase of 10.23% over 2022’s 8.80 million subscribers.
- At the end of 2021, prior to the release of Wordle, there were 6.80 million total digital subscribers.
- Since then, digital subscribers have increased by 2.90 million (+42.65%).
| Year | Digital subscribers* | Change |
| 2023 | 9.70 m | + 10.23% |
| 2022 | 8.80 m | + 29.41% |
| 2021 | 6.80 m | + 15.25% |
| 2020 | 5.90 m | + 51.28% |
| 2019 | 3.90 m | + 30.00% |
| 2018 | 3.00 m |
NYT app downloads
- As of March 2024, there are 5 main NYT apps on Apple’s App store.
- The NYT Games: Word Games & Sudoku app receives 1 million downloads per month on this store, more than any other NYT app.
- In total, this app represents 74.63% of all downloads for NYT apps.
- Furthermore, the NYT Games: Word Games & Sudoku app receives 5 times as many downloads as the main New York Times app, which is used for news.
| App name | Downloads (March 2024) | Download share (NYT apps) |
| The New York Times | 0.20 m | 14.93% |
| NYT Games: Word Games & Sudoku | 1.00 m | 74.63% |
| NYT Cooking | 0.08 m | 5.97% |
| NYT Audio | 0.03 m | 2.24% |
| The Athletic: Sports News | 0.03 m | 2.24% |
NYT app revenue
- As of March 2024, The NYT Games: Word Games & Sudoku app has revenues of $2.00 million per month through the App Store.
- This makes for a revenue share of 28.69% when compared against other NYT apps.
- However, it has the lowest average revenue per download ($2.00), which indicates that many players still use the app without purchasing a subscription.
- In contrast, The New York Times news app generates revenues of $4.00 million per month and has an average revenue per download of $20.00.
- This app has a revenue share of 57.39% when compared with the other NYT apps.
- NYT news readers may be more tempted to purchase a subscription to read a range of articles, while NYT game players may be more satisfied to play the multiple free games on offer without making a purchase.
| App name | Total revenue (March 2024) | Average revenue per download (March 2024) | Revenue share (NYT apps) |
| The New York Times | $4.00 m | $20.00 | 57.39% |
| NYT Games: Word Games & Sudoku | $2.00 m | $2.00 | 28.69% |
| NYT Cooking | $0.30 m | $3.75 | 4.30% |
| NYT Audio | $0.07 m | $2.33 | 1.00% |
| The Athletic: Sports News | $0.60 m | $20.00 | 8.61% |
FAQ
What’s a good average Wordle score?
Looking at solved games posted by Wordle players on Reddit, the average Wordle score is 3.80 attempts. You should feel good about having an average score below 3.80; scores up to 4 are generally considered good.
What percentage of people get Wordle correct every day?
Our analysis of posted Wordle scores on Reddit shows that 98.67% of players manage to solve their Wordle puzzles, while 1.33% failed to complete them. While we don’t have data on all Wordle puzzles played, we can infer that the share of failed puzzles may be higher than reported on Reddit. This is based on the assumption that some players are biased toward publicly sharing unsuccessful games.
What is the highest streak on Wordle?
There is no official confirmation of the longest Wordle streak, but reports suggest that some players went as long as 968 days without losing in March 2024. Since then, it’s possible that the streak was extended, or some new players managed to break it.