Shocking! Wordle answer cheating rampant after acquisition by the New York Times, says report

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Players are cheating on Wordle! Wordle answer may be tough, but hey, it's only a game, right? Wrong! At least, that is the mindset of many players for whom finding the Wordle answer justifies all means, even cheating! A report says that there is Wordle answer cheating is rampant. And shockingly, the incidents of Wordle cheating has increased at a significant rate ever since it was acquired by the New York Times in late January, 2022. The report brings out some interesting data around the behavior of users playing the Wordle game. The game does come with some high-stakes as there is a winning streak counter and bragging rights on social media on the line. With one element of the game dedicated towards showing off your vocabulary among your friends and followers online, it would make some sense, in a very twisted and unethical way, on why people are more inclined towards cheating to find the right Wordle answer. However, the intriguing question to answer is why did it start after the NYT acquisition? Read on to find out.

The report was published by WordFinder and it found that the frequency of searching ‘today’s Wordle’ increased once the game created by Josh Wardle was acquired by the New York Times. The report, however, is limited to the US and the same may not be applicable for other regions. But it does give an insight into the behavior of players. "We analysed Google Trends data over the past three months to see how often Wordle players cheated by looking up answers online," WordFinder wrote in its post.

The report gives more details on the days and the areas where cheating was significantly higher than others. For instance, SWILL, which was the secret word on Wordle for February 19 (Wordle 245) and AROMA on February 15