‘Wordle’ fan uses maths to find the statistically best word to try first

nme.com:

Wordle fan has used maths to work out the statistically best opening word that people should try in the game.As spotted by Polygon (via Kotaku), Grant “3Blue1Brown” Sanderson has worked out the statistically best word for players to use first.Sanderson built an automated bot that tested over 12,000 words, then put them through an algorithm that whittled down a list of potential answers and fed the information to him.After conducting extensive testing, Sanderson found that the best word for players to try on Wordle is ‘Crane’.

By using the word Crane first in every puzzle, Sanderson’s testing results in an average score of 3.438.You can watch the full video – which explains the detail behind his findings – below.In the video, Sanderson uses several sets of information to see how well his algorithm performs.

Only in the last set – which includes the full list of words hidden behind the scenes in Wordle – does it manage to discover that Crane is the most efficient word to use first.While Sanderson’s project is “an excuse to teach a lesson on information theory and entropy,” not every Wordle bot has been as positive.

Last month, someone created a bot that spoiled the next day’s word for anyone who shared their results on social media – though it was quickly removed by Twitter.Recently, fans have started downloading Wordle to play offline, after concerns that the New York Times‘ purchase of the game will result in it being moved behind a paywall.