From alternatives in different languages to games themed around lewd words (Lewdle), choral music (Byrdle) and Taylor Swift (Taylordle), Wordle spoofs and imitators are popping up everywhere, all the time. And now, in perhaps the most niche spin on the game yet, there’s Airportle.
Created by flight sale site Scott’s Cheap Flights, this self-explanatory version of the now-classic word puzzle game sees players guess a three-letter airport code (you know, the ones you see on checked baggage slips) instead of a word. For a lot of people, that will probably sound incredibly, mind-numbingly dull. But for travel nerds? Well, this might well be the Wordle you’ve always dreamed of.
The rules of Airportle are pretty similar to those of normal Wordle. You get six goes at guessing an airport’s three-letter-long identification code (LHR for London Heathrow, CDG for Paris Charles de Gaulle, and so on). If you get a letter correct and it’s in the correct place in the airport code, the square will go green. If the letter is in the code but not in the right place, the letter will go orange, and if it’s not in the code, the letter will remain grey.
The code has to be on the official International Air Transport Association (IATA) list of airports. While it’s unclear exactly how many IATA codes there are in total, there are exactly 17,576 possible combinations. Which makes Airportle pretty damn tough – especially if you’re someone that doesn’t really care about airports.
Fancy a shot, anyway? Play Airportle here.
Bored of playing Wordle in English? You can now give it a go in Turkish, Tamil or Russian.