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Wordle has been around for more than five years, with millions of players reserving some time in their day for guessing today’s five-letter word. However, if you’ve recently been finding the puzzles more difficult than before, you’re not alone. A new study by Unscramblex suggests that Wordle has become harder over the past few years, with 2026 being the most difficult year so far.
To find out whether the game has actually become more challenging, Unscramblex analyzed every Wordle answer since the first puzzle, CIGAR, appeared in June 2021. The researchers used the same solving method for every puzzle and recorded how many guesses were needed to find the correct answer. This allowed them to compare the difficulty of puzzles across different years without changing the approach.
According to the findings, Wordle puzzles in 2026 required an average of 4.16 guesses, compared with just 3.91 in 2023, which was the easiest year in the study. The average increased to 4.08 in 2024 and 4.12 in 2025 before reaching its highest level this year. The 2026 figures cover puzzles through November 2, so they don’t represent the complete year.
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Why is Wordle becoming more difficult?
The study also explains why recent puzzles may feel more difficult. In 2023, around 28% of Wordle answers contained repeated letters, but that figure has increased to 37% in 2026. At the same time, the share of answers made up of common everyday words has dropped from 47% to 31%. This means players are now more likely to encounter words that are harder to guess or contain letters they might not expect to appear twice.
Interestingly, the research also challenges a belief that Wordle became harder after The New York Times purchased it in 2022. Unscramblex found that puzzles from before the acquisition, those published using the original answer list, and those selected by the newspaper’s editor all required an average of 4.06 guesses. This suggests that the ownership change itself didn’t make the game more difficult overall.
Another interesting finding involves words that have several possible answers with nearly identical letters. For instance, ROWER was ranked as the hardest Wordle answer in the study, requiring an average of 6.76 guesses from the solver. Words such as COWER, LOWER, POWER, and TOWER share all but one of its letters, making it difficult to identify the correct answer even after getting several letters right.
The study also looked at Wordle’s decision to start reusing old answers in February 2026. By November 2, 29 previous answers had appeared again. These repeated puzzles were actually easier for the solver, requiring 3.80 guesses on average compared with 4.20 for new answers during the same period.
Overall, the findings suggest that Wordle really has become more challenging recently, although the difference isn’t enormous. And while the study is based on a consistent computer-solving method rather than the performance of every human player, it provides evidence that the words selected in 2026 have generally been tougher than those from previous years.
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