Here's how to load Wordle on your iOS or Android device to keep it free for a long time

A few weeks ago, a mere 90 people were playing the daily word game Wordle. Now, millions play every day and some make it the very first thing they do each morning. Josh Wardle1, the creator of the game, never sought to monetize his game and was actually paying $100 a month to keep it online. That is until he sold the game to The New York Times for an amount believed to be in the low seven-figures.

The uproar following the announcement of the sale was deafening. Even when the Times said that the game would remain free "initially," the growing legion of Wordle fans were panicked over the idea of having to pay the newspaper to subscribe to a bundle of puzzles and word games in order to access Wordle. But there is a way that you can keep the game free for years to come (at least seven years according to most reports).

Wordle is a tiny game that runs entirely in the browser.

The daily words are right there in the code, in a giant list. There are thousands of them.

Remember these ones?

1/x pic.twitter.com/ivca5o8tUV

— Aaron Rieke (@aaronkbr) February 1, 2022

And in addition, should The New York Times, for one reason or another, decide to make changes to the game, by downloading it on one of your internet-connected devices you can be assured that OG Wordle will be available to you. Today, TeamUpturn's Aaron Rieke (via Cult of Mac) revealed how you can continue to play Wordle without eventually having to pay the Times to play.

Because Wordle is a website that can be downloaded, Rieke wrote that "...you could save copy of the website right now, *unplug your computer from the internet,* and play Wordle every day for years." To do this on your iPhone or iPad, follow these directions:

If you are playing on an Android device, follow these instructions:

Cult of Mac says that the best mobile browser to use is Microsoft Edge as it experienced issues with mobile Chrome and Safari. We had problems with Chrome formatting the file correctly. When we hit the reload button, it renders the game correctly.

Saving the game on your mobile device will allow you to play without an internet connection so your Wordle habit can continue even in areas with poor internet service. And if you have a huge streak going, you might not want to download the game since you are essentially starting from scratch.

One suggestion made by Rieke is to use a mirror site such as this one from Internet Archive. Aaron notes that even if we all were to use different mirror sites, we'd all be playing the same word at the same time.

Now that you have Wordle saved on your iOS or Android devices, you might see a major improvement in how fast you come up with the word of the day. That's because using a mobile device, you can play while sitting on the chair where you do your best thinking. Just don't forget to flush!

And while we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, this writer would like you to know that on Tuesday and Wednesday, he correctly came up with the word with just two tries!