Apple pulls Wordle knockoffs from App Store


    The Apple Inc. logo is seen in the lobby of New York City’s flagship Apple store January 18, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

    Jan 12 (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said on Wednesday it has removed from its App Store several knockoffs of Wordle, a website-only word game that has seen a recent surge in popularity thanks to celebrities like Jimmy Fallon.

    The once-a-day online word game, originally created in October by former Reddit software engineer Josh Wardle, can only be played on his website and does not have a mobile app.

    However, several developers have created identical app versions to cash in on surging demand for the game, with unsuspecting users driving up downloads of the clone apps.

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    As of Wednesday, the only remaining product on the App Store with that title was Wordle!, a time-based game created by Steven Cravotta more than four years ago.

    Josh Wardle’s game has flooded Twitter and Facebook timelines in recent weeks as players posted their scores. It gives a player six chances to guess the day’s secret word, which has five letters, and the aim is to figure out the secret word with the fewest guesses.

    The game is a free-to-use, ad-less experience on a simple website that does not have to be downloaded from Apple’s App Store or Google’s PlayStore.

    Bloomberg News first reported the news on Wednesday.

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    Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.



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