2048
How to play 2048
The whole game is one gesture: slide everything.
- Slide the board with the arrow keys, WASD, HJKL, or a swipe. Every tile moves as far as it can in that direction.
- Equal tiles merge when they collide — two 2s make a 4, two 4s make an 8. Each merge adds its value to your score.
- After every effective move, a new tile appears — a 2 (90%) or a 4 (10%) — in a random empty cell.
- Build the 2048 tile to win, then keep going as long as the board holds out. The game ends only when no slide changes anything.
There's no timer and no penalty for walking away — the board saves itself mid-game and waits.
Why three tiles don't merge into one
The most common 2048 confusion: each tile merges at most once per
move. Slide [4][4][8] left and you get [8][8] — the fresh 8 doesn't
chain into the old one on the same move. And when three equal tiles
collide, the pair nearest the edge you slid toward merges first:
[2][2][2] slid left is [4][2], with the leftmost two merging. Knowing
this makes "why didn't my 16 appear?" moments read as physics instead of
bad luck.
Corner strategy
Almost every strong 2048 game looks the same:
- Choose a corner and dedicate the game to keeping your largest tile in it.
- Use two directions that press into that corner for nearly every move; a third direction sparingly; the fourth almost never.
- Build a gradient — tiles descending in value as they snake away from the corner merge into each other naturally.
- Don't chase a merge that pulls the big tile out of position. The merge will come back; the corner won't.
When you're forced to use the forbidden direction, spend your next moves restoring the corner before anything else.
The Daily Board
Every day there's one shared board: the date seeds the starting tiles and every spawn that follows, so all players face identical fate. Your score and best tile are yours to share — same board, different choices. In free play you also get a single-step undo for the errant arrow key; the daily plays it straight.
Lineage
2048 is Gabriele Cirulli's 2014 weekend project, open-sourced from day one — which is why the internet promptly filled with clones of wildly varying manners. It descends from Asher Vollmer's Threes, the February 2014 iPhone puzzle that invented the slide-and-merge genre (where 1s and 2s combine and everything doubles from 3). Threes is the tighter design; 2048 is the folk song everyone knows. This version is implemented from scratch: no ads, no dark patterns, just the puzzle.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play 2048?
Slide the whole board in one of four directions with the arrow keys (or WASD, HJKL, or a swipe). Every tile slides as far as it can; when two tiles with the same number collide, they merge into one tile of double the value, and each move adds a new 2 or 4 to the board. Merge your way up — 4, 8, 16 … — until you build the 2048 tile.
Why didn't my three identical tiles merge into one big tile?
Each tile can merge only once per move. When three equal tiles collide, the two nearest the edge you slid toward merge and the third stays put — so [2][2][2] slid left becomes [4][2], never [8]. Four in a row make two pairs: [2][2][2][2] becomes [4][4]. The freshly merged tile has to wait for a later move to merge again.
What's the best 2048 strategy?
Park your biggest tile in a corner and keep it there. Pick two directions that point into that corner (say, left and down) and use them for almost every move, so tiles stack toward the corner in descending order like a snake. Avoid the opposite direction — one careless slide that drags your big tile out of its corner is how most games die.
Is 2048 over when I reach 2048?
No — reaching 2048 is the win, but you can keep going. The board only ends when no move changes anything: every cell is full and no equal neighbors remain. Dedicated players chase 4096, 8192, and beyond on the same board.
Do the numbers ever appear as something other than 2 or 4?
New tiles are always a 2 (about 90% of the time) or a 4 (about 10%). Everything bigger has to be built by merging.
Is everyone's Daily Board the same?
Yes. The Daily Board number seeds both the starting tiles and the entire stream of spawns, so every player faces the same fate — the tile you get after each move depends only on the moves you've made, not on luck of the draw. Different choices, same deck: that's the shared challenge.
Who invented 2048?
Gabriele Cirulli, a 19-year-old Italian developer, built 2048 in a weekend in March 2014 and open-sourced it. It descends from Asher Vollmer's Threes, released a month earlier, by way of an intermediate clone called 1024. Threes fans consider it the deeper game; the internet made its choice anyway. Ours is written from scratch in the same open spirit.
More games
- Five Dice — Three rolls, thirteen boxes — the classic push-your-luck dice sheet with live score previews and a shared Daily Dice.
- Snake — The arcade classic on a cozy 20×20 grid. Arrow keys or WASD, pauses itself the moment you look away.
- Klondike Solitaire — The classic solitaire — with every deal guaranteed winnable. Unlimited undo, no timer, and a shared Daily Deal.