2048
Slide and merge matching tiles to reach 2048.
FAQ
How do I play 2048?
Why do two equal tiles sometimes not merge?
Does the game end when I reach 2048?
Are my score and best score saved?
Screenshots
How to use
- Start a new board
Click Start and two numbered tiles appear on the 4x4 grid. Move with the arrow keys or W A S D, or simply swipe across the board on a touch screen.
- Slide to merge tiles
Every tile slides as far as it can in the chosen direction, and equal neighbours merge into one. Each tile merges only once per move, so plan your empty space.
- Score from every merge
The value of each new merged tile is added to your score. The current score and all-time best sit in the header, and a new record is announced when you beat it.
- Undo a move or restart
Made a bad slide? Press Undo to step back one move and try a different direction. Press New game whenever you want a clean board and a fresh start.
- Push past 2048
Reaching the 2048 tile triggers a win message, but you can keep playing for 4096 and beyond. The run ends only when no direction can move or merge a tile.
About this tool
2048 is a single-player sliding puzzle released in 2014 by Gabriele Cirulli, who published it as open source. On a 4x4 grid you slide every tile in one direction; equal neighbours merge and their values add, and each tile may merge only once per move, so four 2s in a row become two 4s rather than one 8. After every valid move a new tile appears, a 2 nine times out of ten and a 4 otherwise. The game ends when the board is full and no move is possible.
It suits anyone who wants a light mental workout in a spare moment, whether that is a commute, a queue or a coffee break. A round usually lasts only a few minutes, and one thumb is enough on a phone. It is also a gentle logic drill: the rules take a minute to learn, yet reaching a high score rewards patience, spatial planning and knowing which merges to postpone.
The spawn odds are fixed in the code. After every valid move, an empty square gets a 2 with ninety percent probability and a 4 otherwise. That nine-to-one ratio shapes the run: growth comes from merges you perform, and the occasional 4 is a bonus, not a plan. Scoring stays equally plain, because a merge pays the value of the tile it creates, so combining two 4s banks 8 points. The undo stack has a fixed depth of 30 snapshots, and anything older is discarded. Undo stays a rescue tool, never a full safety net.
How it works
The mathematical core of 2048 is merge conservation: every merge turns two equal tiles into their double, so reaching 2048 from 2 takes ten doublings (2 to the power of 10), roughly 1020 effective merges in total. The 16-cell board makes space the scarcest resource; the gap between experts and beginners is not speed but whether big tiles stay pinned to an edge and merges keep flowing in one direction. Gabriele Cirulli built the first version in a single evening in 2014 and open-sourced it as a minimal test of the slide-and-merge mechanic.
Sequential merging is the key insight: equal neighbours merge only once per move, so a row of 2, 2, 2, 2 becomes 4, 4, not 8. Layout matters more than move count; pulling two 4s apart and merging them in two separate steps preserves more room to manoeuvre. Your best score and undo history are saved locally, and refreshing the page loses nothing.
Local persistence is narrower than it looks. The browser stores one key, t55k6-2048, and it holds only the best score. The board, the live score and the undo history stay in memory and vanish on refresh. Touch input has its own guard: a swipe counts only when it travels past 24 pixels. Small brushes of the thumb are ignored, so pocket bumps rarely cost a turn. The win check is just as minimal. The first 2048 tile raises the victory overlay once, the flag never resets, and the push toward 4096 continues without interruption.
When to use it
- A few minutes at the bus stop
One round pauses instantly and resumes from local storage; no lives, no timers, play exactly as long as the gap allows.
- A mental warm-up
Play one round before starting work to wake up spatial planning. Every move trades board space against a tempting merge.
- Teaching powers of two
Doubling is visible on the board: two 2s make a 4, two 4s make an 8. It is the most natural demonstration of exponential growth for kids.
- A forgiving touch screen
The 24-pixel threshold filters out accidental taps, so a tilted one-hand grip rarely turns into a wrong move. A bumpy bus ride stays calm too. Swipe boldly; tiny nudges may simply do nothing.
Tips & tricks
- Keep your largest tile parked in one corner, then work mainly with two directions so the values stay in a neat descending line.
- Protect empty squares. Skipping a merge is often better than burying a big tile behind small ones that block every direction.
- After 2048, do not stop: hold the same corner and keep stacking toward 4096 and higher.
- If a swipe seems dead, the move probably travelled under 24 pixels; make the gesture a bit wider and it will register.
Things to watch
- Swiping in all four directions is the top score killer
Once directions mix, big tiles drift off their corner and shatter. Fix one main direction plus two helpers and never use the fourth.
- Chasing quick merges clogs the board
Rapid merges fill the middle with mid-range tiles and leave no home for the next 2. Take extra moves to space merges out.
- Undo is a limited resource
Spend undos on critical early layouts; in a shattered endgame they cannot rebuild big tiles, so a fresh board is worth more.
- Treating undo as a save file
The undo stack holds 30 snapshots and lives in memory, so a refresh wipes it along with the board. Only the best score survives, which is why long layouts deserve careful moves rather than a planned bail-out.