The Best and Worst Letters for Wordle, According to the Data

A data analyst's examination of millions of Wordle games reveals that the letter E, despite being the most common in English, is surprisingly inefficient as an opening move—while obscure consonants like X and Z have outsized strategic value that defies linguistic intuition. The finding upends the casual player's assumption that frequency equals advantage, suggesting that Wordle's five-letter constraint and fixed position rules create a hidden architecture where rarity can be more valuable than ubiquity. For the game's 10 million daily players, it's a reminder that even simple puzzles harbor counterintuitive patterns waiting to be decoded.

CNET·May 26