Meet Wordle, the internet's latest obsession

Wonder what those green and yellow tiles all over your social media feeds are? It's Wordle, a new no-frills word game that has charmed the internet.

Think of it as Mastermind, but with words instead of colored pegs. Or a mini crossword without clues. You start by choosing any five-letter word and typing it out into the grid. Any incorrect letter pops up in grey. Correct letters turn yellow, and if the letter is also in the right spot it turns green. Users have six tries to guess the word — that's it — the fewer tries, the better. Kinda like golf.

In the midst of a chaotic, polarized news cycle, a simple word game may be just what the internet needs.

Even the story behind the game is intriguing. The New York Times reported it was created by software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner, who loves word games. Wardle -- yes, even the game's name is a play on words -- eventually took his side project to the public in October after its popularity on a family groupchat. It's since grown from 90 players to 300,000 as of last Sunday.

"It's something that encourages you to spend three minutes a day," he said in an interview with the Times. "It doesn't want any more of your time than that."