The Apple logo is seen in the lobby of New York City's flagship Apple store January 18, 2011. REUTERS Mike Segar File Photo
January 12, Reuters -- Apple Inc. AAPL.O removed several knockoffs of Wordle, a website-only word game that has seen a recent surge in popularity thanks to celebrities like Jimmy Fallon.
The once-a-day online word game, originally created by former Reddit software engineer Josh Wardle in October, can only be played on his website and does not have a mobile app.
Multiple developers have created identical app versions to be able to cash in on surging demand for the game, with unsuspecting users driving up downloads of the clone apps.
As of Wednesday, the only remaining product on the App Store with that title was Wordle! Steven Cravotta created a time-based game four years ago.
Josh Wardle's game has flooded Twitter and Facebook timelines in recent weeks as players have posted their scores. It gives a player six chances to guess the day's secret word, which has five letters, and the goal is to figure out the secret word with the fewest guesses.
The game is a free-to-use experience on a simple website that doesn't have to be downloaded from Apple's App Store or Google's PlayStore.