🦠 Why did these Games go Viral?
Delving into the magic behind virality, exploring how the design of games such as Wordle and Minecraft enabled them to take the internet by storm.
Only a handful of games captivate global audiences and achieved unprecedented popularity in a short span of time. In this article, we’ll delve into the magic behind virality and explore how the design of games such as Wordle and Minecraft enabled them to take the internet by storm.
In a world, where “attention” is increasingly valuable, much of Wordle’s success can attributed to this:
Wordle’s iconic green and yellow squares are immediately recognisable and have helped aid the game’s rapid growth in three key ways:
Created Mystery: The visually striking format of Wordle sparked intrigue, leaving potential players eager to discover how the game worked, unaware of its mechanics until they gave in and played.
Competitive Nature: Wordle's design allowed players to showcase their approach to the puzzle without giving away the solution, fueling competition and curiosity among friends and online communities.
Building an Online Community: Wordle's daily puzzles encouraged players to participate and interact with each other, fostering a vibrant online community that further fueled its spread across social media platforms, especially Twitter.
For a game to spread through word of mouth it must have a simple but captivating mechanic as well as a readable aesthetic. Wordle is fantastic at this with its beautifully simple gameplay loop.
Type a Word
See which letters are in the right place and whether they’re in today’s word
Repeat
The UI design of Wordle elegantly complements its gameplay.
But of course, we can't talk about great visual and mechanical design without mentioning another viral game… Minecraft.
Minecraft grew rapidly on YouTube. It’s open-ended gameplay enabling creators to harness it as a storytelling medium. This combined with its (once again) accessible and readable gameplay provided it with the platform to explode in popularity.
Nowadays, it can be difficult to convert viewers to players. However, Minecraft’s design excels at encouraging viewers to not only watch, but also play and share their own experiences. Minecraft’s inherent creativity and self-expression have formed an amazing community around the game; going strong even a decade later.
I think we can boil down the success of these two — seemingly very different games — into two key factor.
Share ability and Accessibility
Both of these games leave you craving to share your experiences with others. Whether that’s flexing your wordle score in your family’s group chat or posting your Minecraft base on reddit.
Second, both of these games are quick to understand and simple to get started. Allowing players from completely different backgrounds and interests to enjoy each. Both of these games can be understood within just a few seconds of a video or in Wordle’s case even a single picture.
I’ll catch you in the next one, have a great week 🎉
Adam