54:15This App Entrepreneur Made $10,000,000 By Cloning A Viral Game
From My First Million · Published Jul 5, 2022 · Watch on YouTube
TL;DR
Zach Shaked cloned the viral web game Wordle into a mobile app, got 30,000+ organic downloads in a weekend, then publicly bragged about it on Twitter. The original Wordle creator contacted him, a tech reporter exposed the clone, Apple removed all Wordle-branded apps, and Zach lost a potential $10–100M business.
Key insights
- Zach Shaked had previously called app clones "scums of the earth," but then cloned Wordle himself – his own past tweets were used against him.
- The original Wordle creator claimed he didn't do it for money, yet sold to the New York Times a week later.
- Apple did not issue a statement; it simply removed every app using the name "Wordle" after the controversy hit.
Want the full analysis - every claim cited to the second it was said?
This page only shows a teaser. Sign up to chat with the complete, cited breakdown of "This App Entrepreneur Made $10,000,000 By Cloning A Viral Game".