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New to 2048? Swipe, drag or press an arrow key and every tile slides that way. Two equal tiles that meet merge into their sum, and a new 2 or 4 appears after every move that changes the board.
How to play 2048
2048 in one sentence: slide all the tiles, merge equal numbers and build a tile with the number 2048. Below is a real round from the game, move by move, and then every rule in detail.
Play 2048 →A ManyPlay browser walkthrough · Checked . Screenshots below show the actual game. Illustrated catalog covers are presentation artwork. Who publishes these games?
Verified opening-board solution
The rules you need
- Every move slides all the tiles at once.
- Two equal tiles merge into one with their sum.
- A merged tile cannot merge again in the same move.
- A new 2 or 4 appears after every move that changes the board.
- A round is cleared when its goal is reached within its moves.
Worked example: a round of 2048, move by move
Here is the real Round 3 of the game, opened in the browser: two 2 tiles on an empty 4 × 4 board, the goal is a 16 tile and there are 20 moves.
Fill the bottom row
The corner for this round is bottom left, so the main moves are Down and Left. Six presses of Down drop every new tile to the bottom: the bottom row fills with 2, 4, 2, 4, and a 4 and a 2 wait above it on the right. 14 moves are left.
Fill the bottom row — actual result Make the first 8
One Left gathers the loose tiles of the second row towards the left wall, and two more presses of Down merge two 4s into an 8 in the bottom row, which now reads 2, 8, 4, 4. 11 moves are left.
Make the first 8 — actual result Merge along the row
Left merges 4 + 4 into an 8 right beside the first 8. The next Left merges 8 + 8 into the 16. The goal is reached after 11 moves with 9 to spare, and Round 3 is cleared with three stars.
Merge along the row — actual result
Why this sequence works
Only two directions, Down and Left, were used, so the tiles always gathered on the same side of the board and each merge built the tile the next merge needed. In a round the moves are limited, and a plan that wastes none of them earns the most stars.
Mistakes to avoid
- Pressing Up in this round would lift the bottom row and scatter the 4s that were about to merge.
- Merging a pair far from the corner can leave a small tile where the big one should grow.
Questions about this board
How many rounds are there?
40 rounds in 8 tiers. Tiers 1 to 3 are on the 4 × 4 board, from tier 4 on the board is 5 × 5.
How are the stars counted?
By the moves you have left when the goal is reached: the more moves you save, the more stars, up to three.
Can I replay a round?
Yes. Any cleared round can be replayed from the map to earn more stars.
Other modes and further play
The menu also has the endless Classic game, the Easy 5 × 5 board and the Daily Board. This example checks one round in the browser build, not every round of the map.
Report a changed rule or control. Browser and Android editions can differ; the checked date describes this walkthrough, not a new game release.
2048 rules in detail
2048 is played on a small grid of numbered tiles. Every move slides all the tiles at once, equal tiles merge into their sum, and your goal is to build a tile with the number 2048.
The board and the first tiles
Classic is played on a 4 × 4 grid of sixteen cells. A game begins with two tiles, each a 2 or, less often, a 4. The Easy preset is the same game on a 5 × 5 grid with twenty-five cells, which gives you more room to plan.
Moving and merging
A move is one direction: up, right, down or left. Swipe on a phone, drag with the mouse, or press an arrow key or W, A, S, D. Every tile slides that way until it reaches the edge or another tile.
Two tiles with the same number that meet merge into one tile with their sum: 2 and 2 make 4, 4 and 4 make 8, and so on up to 2048. A tile made by a merge cannot merge again in the same move, so a row of 2, 2, 2, 2 moved left becomes 4, 4, not 8. With three equal tiles in a row, the two nearest the wall you move towards merge first. Different numbers never merge.
New tiles and scoring
After every move that changes the board, a new tile appears in a random empty cell: a 2 nine times out of ten, otherwise a 4. A move that changes nothing does not count and brings no new tile; the board gives a small shake. Every merge adds the new tile's value to your score, and the best score is kept separately for the 4 × 4 and the 5 × 5 board.
Winning and losing in Classic
You win the moment a 2048 tile appears; a short celebration plays and you can keep going for 4096 and beyond. The game ends when every cell holds a tile and no two neighbouring tiles share a number.
Rounds
Rounds are 40 short levels in 8 tiers on a map; tiers 1 to 3 are on the 4 × 4 board, from tier 4 on the board is 5 × 5. Each round has one goal and a move limit. A goal may be a tile (Tile 128), a score (700 points), two or more tiles of a value on the board at once (2 × 64), a number of merges of one value (32+32 ×3), or moves that merge two pairs at once (Combo ×20).
Reach the goal within the moves and the round is cleared; the moves you save give up to three stars, clearing a round opens the next one, and any cleared round can be replayed for more stars. If the moves run out first, the round is lost and you can try again.
The Daily Board
The Daily Board is one round a day, the same for every player; the day changes at midnight UTC. The goal follows the weekday: the 128 tile on Monday and Thursday, a score on Tuesday and Friday, 32+32 ×3 on Wednesday and Saturday, and the 256 tile on Sunday; each weekday has its own move limit and star marks. Finish the board on consecutive days, win or lose, to grow your streak; the dots show the days you played this week and every 7 days of a streak earn a medal. Miss a day and the streak starts again. A finished board gives a short result line to share without spoiling the board.
Hints and help
Hint shows the move that merges the most, and between equal merges the one that leaves more empty cells. How to play explains every label on the screen, and the five-step tutorial can be replayed from the menu.
Explanation checked 2026-11-12. Studio page text docs/page/content/en.rules.md (git-house-morn/2048-web 9e7dd63), corrected against src/game/params.js (40 rounds in 8 tiers, spawn 2 at 0.9), src/game/daily/day.js (weekday boards), src/game/daily/streak.js, src/game/core/hint.js and decision D71 (no ads: no extra-moves video, no streak buyback); the build in the browser 2026-11-11