2048

How to play 2048

Swipe (or press the arrow keys) to slide every tile on the 4×4 board in one direction. When two tiles with the same number touch, they merge into one tile worth their sum. After every move a new 2 (or, one time in ten, a 4) appears in an empty square. Reach a 2048 tile to win, and keep going for a higher score. The game ends when the board is full and no neighbouring tiles match.

Today’s first game opens with the same tiles for everyone, so you can compare scores with friends. Your best score is saved in this browser, and Undo takes back one move.

2048 strategy that actually works

1. Pick a corner and keep your biggest tile there. Most strong players use the bottom-left or bottom-right.
2. Use mostly two directions. If your corner is bottom-left, alternate Down and Left. Use Right sparingly, and Up only in an emergency, because Up pulls your big tile out of the corner.
3. Keep the bottom row full. A full row can’t shift sideways, so your anchor tile can’t be dislodged.
4. Build a chain. Line tiles up in decreasing order along the bottom row (e.g. 512, 256, 128, 64) so each merge feeds the next.
5. Don’t chase merges far from the corner. A merge that scatters small tiles across the top often costs you the game a few moves later.

2048 was created by Italian developer Gabriele Cirulli in March 2014 as a weekend project and released as open source. Its sliding-tile idea is a cousin of the classic 15 puzzle.