Apple removes multiple variants of popular game Wordle from App Store

Apple has removed several clones of the popular game Wordle from the App Store. The variants of the original game quickly rose in popularity, but that led to criticism that the games had been copied and made money from the hype.

A lot of Wordle games have been removed from the App Store. Wordle! Apple has confirmed to Bloomberg that it will take action against Wordle clones.

The measures follow criticism on social media of the multiple copies of Wordle, with or without a payment function, which appeared in a short time. The original was created by former Reddit developer Josh Wardle, who put it online last October. The game has only appeared as a web app and in an interview with The New York Times the developer made it clear that it does not need to monetize it or collect user data.

The game itself is a variant of Lingo. Players have to guess a word of five letters and the colors green and yellow show whether letters are part of the word and are in the right place. One of the features that make the game popular is the fact that there is only one word to guess per day.

Developer Zach Shakked, in particular, was criticized on social media last week after he emphasized: how popular was becoming his mobile version of Wordle. Players could purchase a subscription of 30 dollars per year in his app to play unlimited words. After his app was deleted, Shakked said he tried a commercial deal with Wardle, but that he had refused. Shakked’s app was a from multiple copied games which was popular in the App Store under the Wordle name.