2048

about this tool

How to play

Slide every tile on the board with the arrow keys (or W A S D, or H J K L), by swiping across the board, or with the arrow buttons under it. Two tiles with the same number that slide into each other merge into one tile with their sum: two 2s make a 4, two 4s an 8, and so on up to 2048. Your score goes up by the value of every tile a merge makes. After each move that changes the board, a new tile appears in a random empty cell: a 2 nine times in ten, a 4 the tenth.

You win by making a 2048 tile, and you can keep going for 4096 and beyond. The game ends when every cell is full and no two neighbouring tiles match.

The rules, exactly

These are the rules of Gabriele Cirulli's original, released as open source in 2014, and the tests here check each of them:

• A tile slides as far as it can, over empty cells, in the direction you press.
• Two equal tiles that meet merge, and the tile they make does not merge again in the same move, so 4 4 8 pushed left becomes 8 8, not 16.
• Where three equal tiles line up, the two nearest the wall you push towards merge: 2 2 2 pushed left is 4 2.
• A move that changes nothing is not a move: no tile appears and the move counter does not go up.

Bigger boards

The classic board is 4×4. On 5×5 and 6×6 there is more room to work, so 2048 is easier to reach and much bigger tiles are possible; the goal stays 2048, and the game goes on after it.

The same game, again

Each game has a short code, shown under This game. The new tiles come from that code, so the same code and the same moves always give the same board. That makes two things possible. Undo takes back a move without changing the tile that comes next. And Copy link sends someone else into your game: they get your opening tiles and, if they make your moves, your new tiles — a fair way to race a friend on the same board. A reload starts a fresh game unless the page was opened from such a link. Minesweeper shares a board the same way: its link carries the code and your first cell, so it lays the same mines.

Nothing is stored and nothing is sent anywhere. Your best score lasts as long as the page is open; Copy result puts your score, best tile, number of moves and the link on the clipboard. To race on speed instead of tiles, the typing speed test and the reaction time test keep score the same way: in the page, with nothing stored.

Playing without a mouse or a screen

The arrow keys work when the board or one of the arrow buttons has focus; click or Tab to the board, or press New game, which focuses it. U takes a move back without leaving the board. A held key makes one move, not a run of them. Shift, Ctrl, Alt and Cmd with an arrow are left to the browser. A screen reader hears what each move did — which tiles were made, the score, where the new tile appeared, and when you reach 2048 — and R reads the whole board aloud, row by row. Tiles slide in a tenth of a second and new tiles grow in over the next tenth; with reduced motion turned on in your system, they simply appear in place.

Starting again, and going back

New game deals a fresh board; Clear starts the same game again from its first move; Sample loads a game 240 moves in. A game on the sample's code — played on, or started again with Clear — does not count as your best, since its tiles are known in advance. Each of these keeps the game it replaced, one step back: Last game brings it back. Your best score is kept for each board size separately.

questions

How do you play 2048?

Every move slides all the tiles as far as they go in one direction: up, down, left or right. When two tiles with the same number meet, they merge into one with their sum, and your score goes up by that sum. After every move that changes the board a new tile appears in an empty cell, a 2 nine times in ten and a 4 otherwise. You win by making a 2048 tile and can play on for a bigger one; the game ends when the board is full and no two neighbouring tiles match.

Is this the same as the original 2048?

The rules are Gabriele Cirulli’s original ones, which he released as open source in 2014: tiles slide as far as they can, each tile merges at most once a move, the pair nearest the wall you push towards merges first (so 2 2 2 2 pushed left becomes 4 4), and the new tile is a 2 or, one time in ten, a 4. The board, colours and code here are this site’s own.

Can I undo a move or share my game?

Yes. Undo takes back moves one at a time, as far as the start of the game. Each game has a short code, and the new tiles come from that code, so anyone who opens the link Copy link gives gets the same opening tiles and, after the same moves, the same new tiles. Undo does not change what comes next: make the same move again and the same tile appears.

What is the best strategy for 2048?

Keep your biggest tile in a corner and build towards it. Pick two directions, such as down and left, and use them for almost every move, using the third only when you have to and the fourth almost never, since it pulls the big tile out of its corner. Keep the row along that wall full and in order, largest to smallest, so each new merge can run along it into the corner.

Does it save my score?

No. Nothing is stored or sent: your best score for each board lasts until you leave the page, and a reload starts a fresh game, or, if you opened the page from a shared link, that game from its first move. New game, Sample and Clear keep the game they replace one step back, under Last game. Copy result puts your score, best tile, number of moves and a link that starts the same game from its first move on the clipboard.