Clones of Popular 'Wordle' Game Flooding App Store, Including One Charging $30 Per Year [Updated]

[macgabe]

If you're a regular internet user you've probably heard of popular web-based daily guessing game Wordle, created by Josh Wardle. The game, which is entirely free to play, was introduced last fall and has been spreading like wildfire.

Wordle asks players to guess a five letter word by identifying which letters are in the word and are located in the right location. Players get six guesses per day, and there's a single daily puzzle for everyone.

The website for the game tracks each person's number of wins, and provides an easily shareable graphic, which has contributed to its popularity. Josh Wardle has said that Wordle will remain ad-free and unmonetized, but because it's a web app, shady iOS developers have decided to create app versions to capitalize on the game's success.

There is no official iOS-based version of Wordle available, as it exists solely on the web. Any Wordle option available through the App Store is a clone app copying the idea from Josh Wardle, and there are several clone apps climbing up the App Store charts at the current time.

"Wordle - The App" from developer Zach Shakked is one of the most egregious copycat Wordle apps. Shakked has created an app that uses the concepts and the design of the Wordle website, and he's charging a $30 per month subscription fee for it. Earlier today, Shakked took to Twitter to brag about how much revenue his clone app would make, and he has been buying App Store ads to promote it.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1480990948972658689

Shakked is not the only developer that has created a Wordle clone, but he appears to be the only one charging a $30 per year fee for access. Other Wordle clones are free or have much lower price tags, but again, there is no official version and Wordle players should be aware that downloading one of these apps does not support the original Wordle creator.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1481001103328088065

There have been previous Wordle-like games and the general concept is not new, but Shakked and other developers have stolen the Wordle name, interface, and design from Wardle rather than making a similar game with their own graphics and naming scheme.

It's unlikely that Apple is going to remove these clone apps as apps and games based on stolen ideas are nothing new for the App Store. Many once-popular games have unfortunately been ripped off by other apps with no interference from Apple. Josh Wardle has not commented on the clone apps, and it's not clear if he'll try to get assistance from Apple.

Article Link: Clones of Popular 'Wordle' Game Flooding App Store, Including One Charging $30 Per Year

Sorry to be that guy, but the way the world works is that you have to protect your copyright. If you put your wallet on the bus seat next to you and someone walks off with it, yes it's illegal and "unfair", but the onus is on you to call the police, chase the guy, spend your time, effort and money getting your property back, physically or through the courts. If you buy a new car and someone rams the side you may spend a year trying to claw back the just the cost of repairs to your car. With US copyright, if you make no effort to sue the infringer you often legally give up your right to the intellectual property. Try taking a great photo, put it on Twitter and see what happens. You will not somehow be automatically entitled to all your lost royalties as it gets copied 10,000 times. You will have to sue to get them. There is no magical court automatically sending out cheques to everyone whose IP is infringed. Who knows, maybe Josh Wardle doesn't mind. Maybe, as he says, he just did it for fun. Maybe he reckons copycats just increase the value of his idea. Maybe if it gets big enough he'll just sell the whole thing to Waddington's or Zynga for a hundred millies and let them sort out the legal. In fact looks like he's already on weak ground and probably "ripped off" at least part of the idea from Lingo.

 

[needsomecoffee]

Said it before, say it again... It is pretty scary trying to find the legitimate app you want based on searching for the app name. Try to search for "NordVpn". I mean WTH. Apple cannot provide a "100% certified" badge and breakout the true owner of the app (pretty unusual name) ?? They could, but Tim would rather talk about "...millions of developers... earning billions of dollars..." each quarter to juice to stock price. The reality is a tiny, tiny percentage of apps earn the vast majority of those billions, and a huge percentage of apps are scams. Tim (and Apple C-level execs) you are a billionaire (hundreds of millions-aire). Fix the GDAMN App search and help us get the right app and start to penalize the "...unknowingly signs up for $500/mn subscription..." crap. Of course Tim seems happy with the 15% of the scam, but that is another post. In this case, its is not an Apple App, and is an easy PWA ("Hey Craig, what's the new Safari strategy to knee-cap PWAs??"), so Tim is absolutely not going to help, but hey he's all for societal fairness.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Sorry to be that guy, but the way the world works is that you have to protect your copyright. If you put your wallet on the bus seat next to you and someone walks off with it, yes it's illegal and "unfair", but the onus is on you to call the police, chase the guy, spend your time, effort and money getting your property back, physically or through the courts. If you buy a new car and someone rams the side you may spend a year trying to claw back the just the cost of repairs to your car. With US copyright, if you make no effort to sue the infringer you often legally give up your right to the intellectual property. Try taking a great photo, put it on Twitter and see what happens. You will not somehow be automatically entitled to all your lost royalties as it gets copied 10,000 times. You will have to sue to get them. There is no magical court automatically sending out cheques to everyone whose IP is infringed. Who knows, maybe Josh Wardle doesn't mind. Maybe, as he says, he just did it for fun. Maybe he reckons copycats just increase the value of his idea. Maybe if it gets big enough he'll just sell the whole thing to Waddington's or Zynga for a hundred millies and let them sort out the legal.

Sure, but Apple can also say shove off, this is our store. They do it all the time.

 

[moyjoy]

If you're a regular internet user you've probably heard of popular web-based daily guessing game Wordle, created by Josh Wardle. The game, which is entirely free to play, was introduced last fall and has been spreading like wildfire.

Wordle asks players to guess a five letter word by identifying which letters are in the word and are located in the right location. Players get six guesses per day, and there's a single daily puzzle for everyone.

The website for the game tracks each person's number of wins, and provides an easily shareable graphic, which has contributed to its popularity. Josh Wardle has said that Wordle will remain ad-free and unmonetized, but because it's a web app, shady iOS developers have decided to create app versions to capitalize on the game's success.

There is no official iOS-based version of Wordle available, as it exists solely on the web. Any Wordle option available through the App Store is a clone app copying the idea from Josh Wardle, and there are several clone apps climbing up the App Store charts at the current time.

"Wordle - The App" from developer Zach Shakked is one of the most egregious copycat Wordle apps. Shakked has created an app that uses the concepts and the design of the Wordle website, and he's charging a $30 per month subscription fee for it. Earlier today, Shakked took to Twitter to brag about how much revenue his clone app would make, and he has been buying App Store ads to promote it.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1480990948972658689

Shakked is not the only developer that has created a Wordle clone, but he appears to be the only one charging a $30 per year fee for access. Other Wordle clones are free or have much lower price tags, but again, there is no official version and Wordle players should be aware that downloading one of these apps does not support the original Wordle creator.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1481001103328088065

There have been previous Wordle-like games and the general concept is not new, but Shakked and other developers have stolen the Wordle name, interface, and design from Wardle rather than making a similar game with their own graphics and naming scheme.

It's unlikely that Apple is going to remove these clone apps as apps and games based on stolen ideas are nothing new for the App Store. Many once-popular games have unfortunately been ripped off by other apps with no interference from Apple. Josh Wardle has not commented on the clone apps, and it's not clear if he'll try to get assistance from Apple.

Article Link: Clones of Popular 'Wordle' Game Flooding App Store, Including One Charging $30 Per Year

Thanks! Almost forgot to play today.

 

[RONS67]

Would be nice to see Josh issue a cease and desist to all these people and for Apple to remove all the clone apps, but I have a feeling Apple won't because they don't want to miss out on their 15% or 30% cut of sales.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but without trademark or copyright infringement, there's no basis for a takedown.

 

[44267547]

wasn't it just yesterday that Apple was bragging about how great the App Store is ?

Do you have a source-link for that? I mean, specifically, where was Apple ‘bragging’ about the App Store?

 

[dosterpf]

Sorry to be that guy, but the way the world works is that you have to protect your copyright. If you put your wallet on the bus seat next to you and someone walks off with it, yes it's illegal and "unfair", but the onus is on you to call the police, chase the guy, spend your time, effort and money getting your property back, physically or through the courts. If you buy a new car and someone rams the side you may spend a year trying to claw back the just the cost of repairs to your car. With US copyright, if you make no effort to sue the infringer you often legally give up your right to the intellectual property. Try taking a great photo, put it on Twitter and see what happens. You will not somehow be automatically entitled to all your lost royalties as it gets copied 10,000 times. You will have to sue to get them. There is no magical court automatically sending out cheques to everyone whose IP is infringed. Who knows, maybe Josh Wardle doesn't mind. Maybe, as he says, he just did it for fun. Maybe he reckons copycats just increase the value of his idea. Maybe if it gets big enough he'll just sell the whole thing to Waddington's or Zynga for a hundred millies and let them sort out the legal. In fact looks like he's already on weak ground and probably "ripped off" at least part of the idea from Lingo.

Not to mention... he didn't obfuscate or encrypt any Javascript (go to "view source" and look at the .js ... you can see the next 6 years worth of words). You're just asking for someone to steal it by doing that (heck most "coders" wouldn't even consider that stealing).

 

[npmacuser5]

Wait, I’m not going to support or talk down Apple on this. If you really feel this strongly, why not notify Apple of your concerns? Then you can rightfully blast them if they do nothing. But, complaining to a bunch of guys in a forum of how wrong this is does nothing.

MacRumors forum has a great reputation in the Apple community. I would suggest a good number of Apple employees are all over this forum. By posting, Apple is listening. Apple not that stupid to not be listening.

 

[Boris Bronson]

Apple should disallow copy cat naming. Wordle+ Wordle++ Wordle+++ WordlePlus+ WordlePlus++ +Wordle etc.

Why? Tim only cares about money despite all his hot air. Awful man.

 

[LeadingHeat]

Hey honey, hate to burst your bubble, but Apple passed $4 Billion a while ago.

This is 100% legit as the 15-30% Apple tax must flow to make Apple the first 4 billion dollars company.

 

[LeadingHeat]

I thought one of the argument for having the App Store as the ONLY WAY to get apps was to prevent scams and knockoffs like this from happening?

If anything this might prove the opposite. That you need the App Store to properly promote your app/service/idea in the first place. He made a web app, and people immediately went to the App Store to try to find it once they heard about it. If there were multiple app stores or other further fragmentation one could make the argument that it would be even worse for small developers. And customers.

 

[and 1989 others]

Mr Josh did not invent this game. It has been on British TV broadcasting as 'Lingo' for literally decades.

Take note of the 2021 rules and you will clearly see why he cannot claim any i intellectual property.

Lingo (British game show) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[applicious84]

If you're a regular internet user

There are lots of great people who think: well he didn't monetize it in the first place. To all those champions of social darwinism, I hope you don't get polio and pay exorbitant prices for medication.

But the more important point here is the first few words of this article ?

 

[applicious84]

Wait, I’m not going to support or talk down Apple on this. If you really feel this strongly, why not notify Apple of your concerns? Then you can rightfully blast them if they do nothing. But, complaining to a bunch of guys in a forum of how wrong this is does nothing.

Why are you even on here then? It's important when you feel strongly that someone is speaking out about something somewhere that someone, then you should tell that person they're not doing anything by calling them out on a forum. If you really want to make a difference, go tell their moms

 

[applicious84]

Hey honey, hate to burst your bubble, but Apple passed $4 Billion a while ago.

Umm, hate to burst your bubble, but "hey honey," expired like 4 billion years ago

 

[DevNull0]

Yes, the name and visual design are his intellectual property and others should be prevented from stealing it.
The game itself is not new at all and was not created by Wardle.

For example, there's a years-old app and TV game show called "Lingo" that's exactly the same game.

I came here to say that. I used to watch Lingo, and back in the 80's and 90's there were hundreds of "Lingo" shareware games. I even wrote my own version of the game as a high school project. There's probably a version that even looked like his just through coincidence because it was such an overdone thing.

Amazing how quickly something that was everywhere for years becomes so forgotten it's "new" again.

 

[Cosmosent]

Do you have a source-link for that? I mean, specifically, where was Apple ‘bragging’ about the App Store?

Apple services enrich peoples’ lives throughout the year

Apple’s services helped deliver innovative apps, powerful content, and experiences that enrich users’ lives in more ways than ever before.

www.apple.com

 

[snowiii]

#7 wordle! Has been on the App Store 5 years. Not sure that’s a clone of the current popular wordle

 

[Cosmosent]

Why? Tim only cares about money despite all his hot air. Awful man.

That's really NOT the issue.

When it comes to the App Store, Tim is on the record of having said he doesn't get involved much.

In other words, his strategy is to "Pass the Buck" ... as opposed to Truman's "the Buck Stops Here !".

Phil Schiller & Matt Fischer run the App Store.

Those are the two who should get the blame !


An "App Discovery" App Store, structured as a Utility, would make a credible & viable competitor, & fix the problem.

FREE apps ONLY, NO subs, & ONLY One-Time-Purchase IAPs priced NO higher than $4.99 USD !

And, every app MUST Reset its Ratings & Reviews just-prior to being added !

It would work, & it's certainly worth a try !

 

[CASMAS]

Apple really need to change the policy to prevent copy cats. So many trash apps on iOS.

 

[mrgraff]

Hmm, I guess I was an irregular user of the Internet. But thanks for letting me know about this game.

Is there anyway to pull up any previous day's puzzle?

 

[CasinoOwl]

I find this infuriating. Not only due to the scummy theft of someone else's work, but because it makes the App Store less usable. It's like all the garbage knock-off products on Amazon. I get to where I don't even want to use it anymore since I have to wade through so much garbage to get what I want.

 

[CheesegraterMac]

Clones are a big problem on the App Store. There's clones of my PiP-it app as well charging way more than I do ?

Bruh

 

[4jasontv]

I find this infuriating. Not only due to the scummy theft of someone else's work, but because it makes the App Store less usable. It's like all the garbage knock-off products on Amazon. I get to where I don't even want to use it anymore since I have to wade through so much garbage to get what I want.

How does it make the app store less usable? Previously searching for Wordle resulted in no results. Now people looking for the game fine multiple copies.

 

[4jasontv]

Bruh

I think it's sarcasm without the /s.