Love Wordle? There's Now a New Version of the Game With Airport Codes

Wordle is now taking over the world in a different way. Airportle, a new version of the daily word puzzle with a more global perspective, challenges players to guess a three-letter IATA airport code.

Created by the team behind Scott's Cheap Flights, users must name the airport of the day in six guesses or less. When a letter is right and in the correct position, the tile will turn green. If the letter is in the code, but in the wrong spot, it will turn yellow. Along the way, each letter that's used, but not in the correct code, is grayed out so that players can hone in on the remaining letters. If the right code isn't entered in six tries, users are given the dreaded "X," indicating that they didn't solve the day's puzzle.

The company, which created the game from Wordle's open source clone, hopes that the travel spin on the game can provide some entertainment during flight delays, but also help airport enthusiasts show off their knowledge when it comes to those tricky three-letter codes.

The original Wordle was designed by Brooklyn software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner, according to The New York Times. Gaining traction in his family WhatsApp group, he started expanding it — 90 people played it on Nov. 1, 2021, before it grew to a whopping three million players by the end of January, The Conversation reported. The game has players try to guess a five-letter word in six tries. During the holiday pandemic surge, the puzzle skyrocketed in popularity, since players could share how they did each day without giving away any spoilers.

While strategies about the best ways to win Wordle have filled the internet, at heart, it's a guessing game. And the best first-word tactics the diehards use for the original definitely won't help with Airportle, since vowels don't serve the same purpose with airport codes, which also tend to make more use of less common letters like X, Y, and Z.

Today marks the 30th day of Airportle, and the 226th day of Wordle, since each day's puzzle is numbered.

Other Wordle clones include a Harry Potter Wizarding Wordle from MuggleNet, a Taylor Swift take called Taylordle from Holy Swift Podcast, and one for choral music lovers called Byrdle. And for those with a sense of humor, there's also Letterle to guess the letter of the day in 26 tries.