Are you still a Wordle fanatic? Then you may have a favorite starting word that you use every day. But some start-words are far better than others. The New York Times' analysis of more than 515 million Wordle responses over the past year and a half reveals a variety of trends, including the most popular starting words on Wordle, the most efficient words for solving Wordle, and the least efficient words.

The New York Times analyzed 515 million Wordle games played from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023, and found that the most popular Wordle starting word was ADIEU, with 6% of all players' opening gambit used as the opening gambit. It was followed by STARE at 4.9%, SLATE at 3.9%, AUDIO at 3.6%, and RAISE at 3.1%.

However, using ADIEU for the opening proved to be a mistake.

"Players who started with ADIEU needed, on average, about one-third more turns to solve a wardle than those who started with SLATE, requiring 132 extra turns per year.

"Worse, on average, 1.7 percent of players who started at SLATE failed to solve Wardle, compared to more than twice as many at ADIEU, 3.6 percent.

Perhaps more people should check out our list of the best Wordle starting words.

Another interesting finding by the New York Times is that more players guess correctly on the first try. Perhaps they read our own Today's Wordle Answers story?

As this article shows, Wordle games that start with the same words, no matter how efficient, can get boring. The New York Times article has more interesting information on other popular starting words, the most difficult words, and the most surprising words for Wordlebot. It's worth checking out, especially if you play Wordle every day.