What Is Hollywoodle? The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Daily Game

Hollywoodle is a free daily game that mashes up the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" parlour game with Wordle's once-a-day format. Each day you are given two actors and must connect them through the movies they have starred in — or the co-stars they have shared — in as few moves as possible. It is a pure test of movie knowledge and strategic thinking.

How Hollywoodle Works

The concept will be familiar to anyone who has played the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game: every actor in Hollywood is linked to every other through chains of shared films. Hollywoodle turns that idea into a scored daily puzzle.

Each day brings a fresh pairing of two actors. Your goal is to build a chain linking them: guess a movie, then an actor from that movie, then another movie, and so on until the chain connects the two target actors. The fewer moves you use, the better your score.

The game was created by a developer called Avi, who introduced it on Product Hunt around 2022 as "a mix between the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and Wordle". It is also listed in games databases including Kotaku/IGDB under the tagline "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon meets Wordle".

Hollywoodle Rules and Move Scoring

Hollywoodle's scoring is what makes it interesting. Every action costs moves, and your final score is your total:

Key points:

• There is no cap on guesses. Unlike Wordle, you can keep guessing until you complete the chain — but every wrong guess inflates your score.
• A new actor pairing is available each day.
• Missed games can be replayed through the archive of previous Hollywoodle puzzles.
• Hints are available when you are stuck, costing a single move.

Strategies for a Low Score

Getting a good Hollywoodle score is about route-planning, not just film knowledge:

• Aim for a one-move solve first. If both actors appeared in the same film, naming it immediately gives you a perfect score of 1. Always check for a direct shared movie before building a longer chain.
• Think in hubs. Prolific character actors and franchise films are the motorway junctions of Hollywood. If you cannot see a direct link, route through a well-connected performer or a big ensemble cast.
• Use partial credit deliberately. A 2-move partial-credit guess that lands you on the goal actor's filmography can be cheaper than wandering. Sometimes the "wrong" movie is the fastest route.
• Avoid speculative guesses. At 3 moves per miss, random stabs are brutally expensive. If you are not reasonably confident an actor was in a film, use a hint instead — it costs only 1 move.
• Work backwards from both ends. Like solving a maze from both sides, think about who the target actor has worked with as well as who your starting actor knows. The chains often meet in the middle.
• Learn from the archive. Replaying past puzzles teaches you which actors and films recur as useful connectors.

Common Hollywoodle Mistakes

• Skipping the direct-link check. Always ask first: did these two actors appear in the same film? A one-move perfect score is on the table every day, and missing it is the costliest mistake in the game.
• Speculative guessing. At 3 moves per miss, random stabs are brutally expensive. If you are not reasonably confident an actor was in a film, take the 1-move hint instead.
• Chaining through obscure films. A chain through three little-known indie films might work, but every link is a chance to be wrong. Prefer well-documented blockbusters and famous ensembles where the cast lists are certain.
• Ignoring partial credit. A 2-move partial-credit guess that lands you on the goal actor's filmography is often cheaper than a wandering chain of 1-move guesses that goes nowhere.
• Forgetting to work backwards. Players naturally build from the starting actor, but the target actor's filmography is equally searchable in your memory — the chains often meet in the middle.

Example: How a Chain Works

Say today's pairing is Actor A and Actor B:

1. You guess a film starring Actor A — correct, 1 move.
2. From that film's cast, you name an actor who also appeared in a film with Actor B — correct, 1 move.
3. You name that shared film — correct, 1 move.

Total: 3 moves. A direct shared movie would have been 1 move; a wrong guess anywhere would have added 3.

Now imagine the harder version: Actor A and Actor B share no film. You guess an ensemble movie starring Actor A (1 move), pick its most prolific co-star (1 move), name a blockbuster that co-star headlined (1 move), pick a famous actor from that blockbuster (1 move), and land the film connecting them to Actor B (1 move) — a 5-move chain. This is where hub routing matters: two or three well-chosen connectors usually beat a long improvised wander, and one confident partial-credit guess can shortcut the whole chain.

Hollywoodle vs Similar Games

Hollywoodle is the only one of the bunch built around the connection chain itself rather than identifying a hidden answer. If you like multi-puzzle Wordle variants, try Quordle — four Wordles at once.

Using the Hollywoodle Archive to Improve

Missed games can be replayed through the archive of previous Hollywoodle puzzles — and the archive is the best training tool the game offers. Replaying past pairings with no pressure lets you experiment with routes you would never risk on the daily: try the obscure chain, test whether a hunch about a shared film was right, and study the optimal path after you solve.

Over a few weeks of archive play, you will build a mental map of Hollywood's connector hubs — the prolific character actors and giant ensemble casts that link everything to everything. That map is what separates a 6-move solve from a 3-move solve on the daily puzzle.

Where to Play Hollywoodle

The game is free to play in the browser — no download, no account, no cost. The original lives at hollywoodle.ml (via wordly.org's game listing), and mirror/explainer pages exist on sites such as immaculategrid.io, foodlewordle.io and wordhurdle.co. Because it is a simple web game, any of these will give you the daily puzzle.

For the best experience, play the daily on the original or the most current mirror: the daily actor pairing, the archive of past puzzles and the hint feature all live in the browser version. Mobile browsers work fine — the interface is just text inputs and a chain display, so there is nothing to install and no app to hunt for. And as with any free daily game that spawns lookalikes, avoid any "Hollywoodle app" asking for payment: the real game has always been free in the browser.