2048
Slide the tiles, fold matching numbers together, and keep the board from filling up.
2048 is a sliding puzzle played on a grid of numbered tiles. Every swipe pushes all the tiles as far as they will go in that direction, and two tiles showing the same number fold into one worth double. A new 2 or 4 appears after each move that changes something.
The board ends when it is full and no two neighbours match.
How to play
- Swipe or press an arrow key. Every tile slides as far as it can.
- Tiles with equal numbers merge into their sum. A tile can only merge once per move.
- A new tile appears in a random empty square — usually a 2, occasionally a 4.
- Keep going until nothing can move.
The corner strategy, and why it works
Almost all serious 2048 play comes down to one commitment: choose a corner and keep your largest tile there permanently.
The reason is structural. Merges only happen between neighbours, so your big tiles need to stay adjacent to each other to ever combine. A large tile stranded in the middle of the board has four sides to defend and blocks merges in every direction. Pushed into a corner it only has two exposed sides, and the tiles beside it can queue up in descending order.
In practice this means restricting yourself to two directions — say left and down for a bottom-left anchor — and treating the other two as emergencies. Players who swipe freely in all four directions tend to plateau around 512.
Three boards, three different games
The 4×4 classic is the balance everyone knows. The 5×5 board gives you eleven extra squares, which changes the game from survival to construction; the goal moves up to 4096 accordingly. The 3×3 board is close to unforgiving — with only nine squares a single careless swipe can end a run, so its target drops to 512.
Each size keeps its own best score, so switching boards does not disturb a record you are proud of.
Tips
- Pick one corner and never let your largest tile leave it. Almost every long run is built on this single rule, and almost every collapse starts when the biggest tile wanders into the middle.
- Never swipe in the direction that would pull your anchor tile out of its corner. On a bottom-left anchor that means avoiding up and right until you genuinely have no other move.
- Keep the row holding your anchor full. A gap in that row lets a new tile spawn behind your big numbers and split them apart.
- Build your second and third largest tiles next to the anchor in descending order, forming a snake along the bottom row. Merges then cascade instead of happening one at a time.
Questions
How do you win 2048?
By making a tile worth 2048. On the 4×4 board that takes 1,023 merges from the starting twos. You can keep playing afterwards — the board only ends when no move changes anything.
Is 2048 solvable every time?
No. Tiles spawn randomly, so some boards genuinely cannot be saved. Good play makes reaching 2048 likely rather than guaranteed, which is why corner discipline matters more than clever individual moves.
What do the 3×3 and 5×5 boards change?
The 3×3 board has almost no room to recover from a bad swipe, so its goal tile is 512. The 5×5 board is far more forgiving and aims at 4096. Each board keeps a separate high score.
Do I need to download anything?
No. It runs in the browser, needs no account, and makes no network requests once the page has loaded.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes — swipe in any direction on the board. The tile sizes adjust to the screen.
Guides for 2048
More like this
Snake
Eat, grow, and try not to trap yourself in the tail you have been building.
Minesweeper
Read the numbers, deduce where the mines are, and never guess when you can count.
Sudoku
Every row, column and box holds one to nine. Fresh grid every time, always exactly one solution.