2048

About 2048

2048 is the sliding number puzzle: every move pushes the whole board one way at once, two tiles carrying the same number fuse into one worth double, and a new tile drops into the gap you just made. The whole game is that single rule played out until the board runs out of room. It is easy to learn in one move and hard to leave alone, which is why it has outlived every clone of it.

This version is built around the fact that the classic game is a solitary one. Versus puts you in a live room where every player is handed the identical board and the identical sequence of tiles on one shared clock, so the standings measure the player rather than their luck — you are not racing a copy of the game, you are racing the same game. Undo and power charges are switched off in a room, because a race is only worth watching if everyone is under the same rules.

Daily works the same way across a whole day instead of three minutes: one board, seeded from the date, that every player in the world gets. You have three undos and one honest attempt, and a streak counter that only moves if you come back tomorrow. It is the mode that turns a puzzle into a habit.

Around those sit the familiar shapes. Classic is the endless run with a sixty-move undo and power charges — a hammer that removes any tile and a shuffle that redistributes the whole board, one earned per 1,500 points. Time Attack gives you three minutes to score as much as you can. Zen never ends: when the board fills, clear the small tiles and carry on. Every mode is playable on three board sizes — 4×4 to 2048, 5×5 to 4096 and 6×6 to 8192 — and each size keeps its own best score, best tile and win count.

There is also a solver built in. Press H and it shows you the move it would make; press Space and it takes the board over and plays until it is stuck, which on a 4×4 is usually somewhere past 4096. An auto-played run never becomes a personal best and never reaches the site rankings — it is there to be watched and learned from, not to be claimed.

How to play 2048

Choose a mode and a board size, then slide with the arrow keys, WASD, a swipe or the on-screen pad.

Merge two tiles with the same number to make one worth double, and keep the biggest tile in a corner.

Reach 2,048 on the 4×4 board — or 4,096 and 8,192 on the larger ones — then keep going for a higher score.

Pick Versus to race a live room on the identical board, or Daily for the one board everyone gets today.

Press H for a hint or Space to hand the board to the solver; auto-played runs are not saved as scores.