Wordle crowned as most Googled word of 2022 globally

The world was Wordle-obsessed this year, Google's Year in Search report showed. The report, published Wednesday revealed that the five-letter wordplay guessing game was the top-trending search term globally.

Every year, Google lists the top search term that had the highest spike compared to the previous year. Wordle took the top spot in search terms in the United States, with midterm election results trailing second.

What is Wordle?

The online five-letter guessing game became part of the routines of people of all age groups in 2022. Players get six tries to guess a five-letter word with only the previous guess giving clues.

Released by US software engineer Josh Wardle in 2021, Wordle's popularity reached its zenith in April-May 2022.

The Wordlers, as Wordle playerslovingly called themselves and fellow players alike, flaunted their Wordle guesses on social media in 2022 especially during the period of the pandemic, with fewer tries taken to guess the word implying a heightened wordsmith-ness.

Since its rise in popularity early in 2022, the game was purchased by the New York Times. The newspaper then partnered with Hasbro Inc., the makers of Scrabble and Monopoly to create a Wordle board game.

Other most-searched terms

Major events also made an impact on online searches. Johnny Depp topped the search-interest charts among actors, following his defamation case against Amber Heard in mid-2022. Depp was followed by Will Smith, who made headlines after slapping comedian Chris Rock live onstage in front of millions tuned into the Academy Awards.

Ukraine was the third most widely searched term.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II in September made the top five for overall global search interest.

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