Tyler Robinson was so obsessed with video games that he boasted to a pal about his Wordle score less than an hour before allegedly gunning down Charlie Kirk, according to a new report that also revealed he wasted more than 2,000 hours on a virtual pirate game.
The 22-year-old accused gunman bragged to a friend about guessing the answer to the Sept. 10 puzzle — “pouty” — in three tries just before taking his rooftop perch at Utah Valley University and training his grandfather’s hunting rifle on the Turning Point USA founder, according to the Washington Post.
The next morning, as authorities were hot on his trail following Kirk’s shocking public assassination, Robinson again exchanged results with his friend for the day’s word — his pal successfully guessed “chair” in two attempts, besting his own three-guess effort.
Robinson wasted over 2,000 hours on a virtual pirate game, according to a new report. via REUTERS
Less than an hour later, Robinson’s image was plastered on TVs and news websites worldwide as the FBI released surveillance camera stills of a “person of interest” in the case.
His mother recognized her son in the photos, and he turned himself in after some convincing from his family, but not before sending another message to his friends on video game streaming platform Discord.
“It was me at UVU yesterday,” he wrote.
Friends of Robinson’s told the outlet that he was highly skilled at video games, to which he dedicated thousands upon thousands of hours — one pal calling him a gaming “savant.”
Just moments before allegedly taking his rooftop perch at Utah Valley University, Robinson bragged to a friend about guessing the Wordle on Sept. 10. AFP via Getty Images
He played the open-world pirate exploration game Sea of Thieves for a whopping 2,148 hours, according to his online profiles, wiling away countless hours pursuing an in-game achievement that required players to catch 1,000 each of several types of fish.
An avid fisherman in real life, Robinson was so committed to earning the achievement that he made a spreadsheet to help him figure out how many fish he would need to catch each day in order to reach the milestone, one friend saying he treated it “like a job.”
Robinson’s obsessive tendencies extended to various subjects he became interested in over the years, including politics and guns, with his friends saying he “nerded out” and learned as much as he could about these topics, and enjoyed spouting off about the knowledge he picked up.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk moments before he was assassinated at a Utah Valley University speaking event in Orem on Sept. 10, 2025. via REUTERS
“Tyler liked guns and thought they were cool,” one friend recalled.
His friends looked to him as something of an expert at times, asking him for his take on Discord about everything from how he thought the 2020 election results would end up to how to identify “fake news.”
He appeared to be in a hurry to engage his online buddies in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, firing off a message that said “you see this news?????”
Tyler Robinson during his first court appearance on Dec. 11, 2025. via REUTERS
“Utah gets a national headline for the first time in a while and it’s someone sliming charlie kirk,” he wrote.
“Yea I heard he got attempted on,” a friend wrote in response.
“No like an hour ago. He’s reported dead, and the footage looks BAD,” Robinson said.
Robinson made his first appearance in a Provo, Utah, courtroom last week, appearing calm and chuckling with his lawyers and looking unfazed by the charges he faces — which include sadistically murdering the 31-year-old Kirk, a father of two, in front of a crowd of thousands.
