Apple have removed Wordle clones from the iPhone App Store.
Apple removes copycat Wordle apps from iPhone App Store
The free viral game - which does not have its own app and is currently only available through a browser sees 2 million daily users try to guess the word of the day with a limit of six attempts - was not trademarked by creator Josh Wardle and the App Store was flooded with "copycat" versions, including one by developer developer Zach Shakked who was charging a $30 subscription fee for the game.
In a tweet, technologist Andy Baio slammed Zach for his actions, describing his profiteering as "gross."
He wrote: "Shamelessly cloned Wordle (name and all) as an F2P [free-to-play] iOS game with in-app purchases and is bragging about how well it’s doing and how he’ll get away with it because Josh Wardle didn’t trademark it,. So gross."
Apple then reportedly confirmed to BBC News that they had taken action to remove clones unaffiliated with the original game from their App Store.
It comes after software engineer Josh - who initially created the game as a pastime for his partner and family - admitted that the game going viral didn't "feel great."
He told BBC Radio 4: "It going viral doesn’t feel great to be honest. I feel a sense of responsibility for the players. I feel I really owe it to them to keep things running and make sure everything’s working correctly. I get emails from people who say things like ‘hey, we can’t see our parents due to Covid at the moment but we share our Wordle results each day’. During this weird situation it’s a way for people to connect in a low effort, low friction way.”