James Wardle talks about creating Wordle at GDC.
James Wardle talks about creating Wordle at GDC.
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The DeanBeat: Wordle creator’s inspirational talk was a joy to hear at GDC

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 5 min

Josh Wardle got a very nice round of applause at the Game Developers Conference when he said that he designed Wordle without giving a thought to monetization. He also triggered a thing that has been all too rare during the pandemic: a room filled with game developers laughing and smiling.

Wordle has been one of the rare sensations of gaming, as it was built by a single developer and has been played by millions of people since Wardle made it public in October 2021. The title had no monetization, but it went viral after Wardle made it possible to share daily results as emoji squares on Twitter.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.