From the archive
Wurdle high scores
Wurdle sent every round's score to an online leaderboard, and a TIME column linked it in 2009. This page explains what the board kept and what the archived copies show.
Semi Secret is an independent publication, not the studio that made these games; this page is an unofficial account written from the public record.
What the board tracked
The leaderboard split scores by round length (one, two, three and five minutes) and by grid size (4 by 4 up to 8 by 8), and kept two lists for each: the highest scores and the longest words.
The numbers in the archive
The copy the Internet Archive saved in March 2009 shows the one-minute board led by a score of 30,650 from November 14, 2008, more than double the next entry at 13,815. A note at the top said live updates were paused until the studio could arrange a more powerful server.
A TIME column from September 2009, Things I'm Trying Not to Do: Wurdle, linked the board with the words "Let alone 20K", beside its writer's own two-minute rounds on a 5 by 5 grid.
Where it went
The scores lived on the studio's own server, and nothing of the live board survives beyond the archived pages. The Facebook app that showed them to friends is gone too.