2048

How to play 2048

1. Slide. Press an arrow key (or W, A, S, D), or swipe on the board. Every tile slides as far as it can in that direction.
2. Join. Two tiles with the same number that touch as they slide join into one tile with their sum: 2 and 2 make 4, 4 and 4 make 8, and so on. Each join adds the new tile’s value to your score.
3. A new tile. After every move, a new 2 appears in an empty square (sometimes a 4, about one time in ten).
4. Win or run out. Make a 2048 tile to win, then keep going for a higher score if you like. The game ends when the board is full and no two neighbours match.

Five tips that make the difference

• Pick a corner and stay there. Keep your biggest tile in one corner, say the bottom left, and build along the bottom row. Most strong players never move it out.
• Use mostly two or three directions. If your corner is bottom left, press down and left most of the time, right when you must, and up only when nothing else moves.
• Keep the big row full. A full bottom row can’t shift sideways, so your corner tile can’t be pushed out by accident.
• Line the numbers up in order. Try to keep the row next to your big tile in falling order (for example 512, 256, 128, 64), so one join leads to the next like a chain.
• Look before you slide. Before each move, check where the new tile could land. A 2 dropped into your corner is the most common way a good game goes wrong.

Want the full method with pictures? Read 2048 strategy: the corner method, step by step on the Hunt blog.

About this game

2048 was created by Gabriele Cirulli in 2014 as a free, open-source game. This version was written for Hunt games: it runs in your browser, needs no sign-up, and keeps your best score on your own device only.