Apps

‘Selfie’ Has Been Played 18,000 Times on Words With Friends

After five years of Scrabble-like wordplay, the team behind the hit app Words With Friends shares the craziest facts about how we play the game.

During her Saturday Night Live monologue last week, Sarah Silverman had deep thoughts. “I was thinking like an hour ago, ‘Wouldn’t it be great that told you when all your friends are making a doodie?’” she said. “But then somebody told me they had that. I think it’s called ‘Words With Friends.’”

Well, it’s been five years of friends telling each other when they’re pooping, as Zynga’s wildly popular app just reached that anniversary milestone. It’s celebrating with a new version of its game, New Words With Friends, and by sharing with us some interesting facts about how we’ve played the game over the years.

So just how much time have we spent engaged with the Scrabble-like word game? It turns out that a chain of the letters that we’ve played would wrap around the earth 5.4 times, or travel halfway to the moon. So…a lot of time.

From the number of times we’ve played the word “selfie” to the words that have been used only once in five years and 58 billion words played, here’s a look at Words With Friends, by the numbers.

58 billion words have been played

1.2 trillion points have been scored

217 billion letters have been played, a chain of which would wrap around the earth 5.4 times or travel halfway to the moon)

7.7 million games have been played

5,478 words have only been played once

9,678 games is the longest winning streak by one player

13.5 billion feet of tiles have been played

The top 5 words played over the past 5 years are qi, it, he, re, and jo.

Of six-letter words, “hoagie” is only in the Top 50 in Pennsylvania

The top 5 scoring cities, based on average score per word, around the world are: Makati, Phillipines; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Kingston, Jamaica; and Santa Cruz, CA

“Selfie” has been played 18,619 times

“Twerk” has been played 31,518 times (both were only recently added)

Words that have been used only once: alphabetize (how ironic), cockalorum, diphthongal, goobledegook, lopsidedness, micromanagers, overanalysis, paparazzi, rubberneckers, sociocultural, videocassette, zyzzyvas.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Kevin FallonSenior Editor, Obsessed

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.