About 2048
2048 is a sliding-tile puzzle built on one impossibly simple rule: when two tiles carrying the same number collide, they merge into a single tile worth double. Every move slides the whole board, and every move also drops a new tile into a random empty cell. The board is only 4×4, so the free space you take for granted in the first thirty seconds becomes the scarcest resource on the screen by move two hundred.
What makes it stick is the feedback loop. A merge is instantly satisfying, and every merge sets up the next one, so the game keeps handing you small wins while quietly tightening the vise. Our version runs at 60fps in the browser, keeps your best score in local storage, and supports both keyboard and swipe input, so it plays the same on a laptop at lunch or a phone on the train.
How to play
- Press an arrow key (or swipe) to slide every tile on the board in that direction.
- Tiles showing the same number merge into one tile of double the value, and the merged value is added to your score.
- After each move a new 2 (or occasionally a 4) appears in a random empty cell.
- A tile can only merge once per move — a row of four 2s becomes two 4s, not one 8.
- The run ends when the board is full and no adjacent tiles match. Reaching the 2048 tile is the classic win, but you can keep going.
Five tips that actually move your score
- Pick a corner and never leave it. Almost every high score is built by keeping the largest tile locked in one corner — bottom-left is the usual choice — and only ever pressing the two directions that keep it there.
- Build a monotonic row. Keep your bottom row ordered from largest to smallest. That ordering means the big tiles chain-merge in a single move instead of stranding each other.
- Treat 'up' as a last resort. If you're anchoring bottom-left, pressing up invites a new tile under your big stack and breaks the anchor. Exhaust left, down and right first.
- Merge small before you merge big. Clearing the 4s and 8s cluttering your board frees the space you need to line up the 256s and 512s later.
- Watch the empty-cell count, not the score. Two or three empty cells is the danger zone; that's when you should be simplifying the board rather than hunting a big merge.