Play 2048 — rules and strategy
Slide, merge, repeat. The rules fit in a sentence; the strategy for actually reaching 2048 takes a little more.
Tools used in this guide
The game
Every move slides all tiles toward a side; equal tiles merge once and double. A new tile (90% a 2, 10% a 4) appears after each real move. Board fills with no merges left — game over. Tile 2048 — you win.
Play it
Arrow keys, WASD, swipe on touch, or the on-screen pad. The board saves locally — leave and come back to the same game. Your best score stays in this device's localStorage.
A strategy that works
Pick one corner and park your biggest tile there. Build an ordered chain — largest in the corner, descending values along the edge — and only push in the two directions that keep the corner put. Random directions kill boards faster than bad spawns do.
- Never push your biggest tile off its corner for a small merge.
- Keep the 'full edge' full — empty cells next to the big tile invite a 2 that blocks the chain.
Limits
Standard rules with localStorage save — no undo, no leaderboards, no ads. Reaching 2048 unlocks a keep-playing option for the chase to 4096.