There’s been no official word from Apple on whether or not the apps were removed because they violated a store rule, or simply because Apple no longer wanted them on the App Store. While the apps are now gone from the store, the question of why they’re gone remains open. There are still a few games left on the App Store that are actually called Wordle, but one was released three years ago and the other was released five years ago with very different concepts from the surprise hit developed by Josh Wardle. Instead these games have named like PuzzWord. While there are still a few five-letter word games on the store, they don’t have the name Wordle attached like the most egregious ripoffs from the last few days have. But when one in particular started bragging on Twitter about the attention his version of the app was getting, he quickly caught heat, drawing attention to both his app and the many other Wordle clones on the App Store. Wordle itself doesn’t have an official iOS app so other developers looked to hop on the coattails of the game’s success.

The apps appear to have been removed by Apple shortly after their existence caused a stir on social media. The many Wordle copycats that were flooding Apple’s App Store seem to have disappeared.

Mac web browsers janked up