How scoring works in Popple
A word's score in Popple comes from four things: its length, how rare it is, which grid you are playing on, and the minimum word length of the match. This page lists the exact numbers the game uses.
The formula is: floor(base points × grid multiplier × rarity multiplier) + minimum-length bonus.
Base points by word length
Length is the biggest lever. A seven-letter word is worth ten times a three-letter word before any multipliers, so one long find can outscore a burst of short ones.
The Qu tile counts as two letters toward length. A word like QUEST traced through four tiles is scored as five letters.
| Word length | Base points |
|---|---|
| 3 letters | 1 |
| 4 letters | 2 |
| 5 letters | 4 |
| 6 letters | 6 |
| 7 letters | 10 |
| 8 or more letters | 15 |
Rarity multipliers
Popple sorts its dictionary into three buckets. About 34,500 words are tagged uncommon and about 17,300 are tagged rare; the rare bucket is mostly words that appear in the larger international Scrabble list but not in the everyday one.
The game tells you when a word was uncommon or rare with a distinct sound and color, which is also a hint that similar words may be nearby.
| Rarity | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Common | ×1.00 |
| Uncommon | ×1.25 (+25%) |
| Rare | ×1.50 (+50%) |
Grid multiplier and minimum-length bonus
The 4×4 grid carries a 1.5× multiplier because short grids offer fewer words overall. Larger grids compensate differently: every word you find gets a flat bonus (+1 on 5×5, +2 on 6×6) since each word has to be longer to count at all.
| Grid | Grid multiplier | Minimum length | Flat bonus per word |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4×4 | ×1.5 | 3 letters | +0 |
| 5×5 | ×1 | 4 letters | +1 |
| 6×6 | ×1 | 5 letters | +2 |
End-of-round bonuses
- Longest word bonus: +5 points if you found the longest word that existed in the grid, provided it was six letters or more.
- Completionist bonus: +10 points if you found every word of six or more letters the grid contained.
- First finder: in multiplayer, being the first player to submit a given word is worth +1 point.
A worked example
Say you trace BRAVELY on a 4×4 grid in a standard match. Seven letters gives 10 base points. BRAVELY is tagged uncommon, so multiply by 1.25, then by the 4×4 grid multiplier of 1.5: 10 × 1.5 × 1.25 = 18.75, floored to 18. The 4×4 minimum-length bonus is +0, so the word scores 18 points.
The same word on a 6×6 grid scores floor(10 × 1.0 × 1.25) + 2 = 14 points.
Frequently asked questions
Do combos multiply my score?
No. Combos in Popple earn you attacks in multiplayer, not extra points per word. Score comes from word length, rarity, grid, and the end-of-round bonuses.
What is the highest-scoring word possible?
Any rare word of eight or more letters on a 4×4 grid scores floor(15 × 1.5 × 1.5) = 33 points, the most a single word can earn before end-of-round bonuses.