How to Play 2048: Rules, Merges and How the Game Ends

To play 2048, swipe (or press an arrow key) to slide every tile on the 4x4 board as far as it can go in that direction. When two tiles with the same number slide into each other, they merge into one tile worth their sum, and after every move a new 2 or 4 appears in an empty square. Make a tile that reads 2048 and you win. Fill the board so that no two touching tiles match and the game is over.

That's the whole game. The details, like what happens when three equal tiles line up, are where new players get surprised, so each rule below comes with a small diagram. We ran every example through the code behind Poozee's 2048 game, so each "after" is exactly what the game does.

The rules of 2048 in 30 seconds

1. A game starts with two tiles on a 4x4 board.
2. Each move slides every tile in one direction (up, down, left or right) until it hits the wall or another tile.
3. Two tiles with the same number that slide into each other merge into one tile with double the value: 2 + 2 = 4, 4 + 4 = 8, and so on up to 2048.
4. Every move that changes the board adds one new tile, a 2 or (less often) a 4, in a random empty square.
5. Each merge adds the value of the tile it makes to your score.
6. You win when you make a 2048 tile. On Poozee you can keep playing after that.
7. You lose when the board is full and no two touching tiles match, because then no move can change anything.

Controls on Poozee

• Computer: the arrow keys, or W, A, S and D, while the board is in view. Dragging with the mouse doesn't move tiles.
• Phone or tablet: swipe on the board in the direction you want the tiles to go.
• Undo: the Undo button, or Ctrl/Cmd + Z, takes back your last move.
• New game: starts over at any time. The game in progress isn't saved, so reloading the page also starts a new one. Your best score stays.

How a game of 2048 starts

A new game puts two tiles in two random squares. Each is drawn exactly like every later tile: a 2 nine times in 10, otherwise a 4. So 81% of games start with two 2s, 18% with a 2 and a 4, and 1% with two 4s. Of the first 1,000 seeded games we generated with the engine, 199 started with at least one 4, and 8 started with two.

Game 1 of those was one of the games with a 4:

  .    .    .    .
  .    .    .    4
  .    .    2    .
  .    .    .    .

Any swipe works on a board this empty. Down, for example, drops both tiles to the bottom row, and a new tile appears somewhere above them.

Where new tiles appear (and can you get a 4?)

After every move that changes the board, one new tile appears in an empty square. Every empty square is equally likely, and the tile is a 2 nine times in 10 and a 4 the rest of the time. So yes, you can get a 4 without merging anything: about one new tile in 10 is a 4. Poozee uses the same odds as the original game's source code.

That's how it plays out in practice too. We counted every new tile in 2,000 complete games played by the engine (the two players in "Your first game" below): 34,918 of the 349,716 new tiles were 4s, or 10.0%.

A new tile never lands on another tile, and it doesn't merge on the spot, even when it appears right next to its twin. It waits for your next swipe like every other tile.

Pro tip: The new tile can only land in a square that is empty after your swipe. Before you swipe, look at which squares the move will open up, because one of them is where the next tile will appear.

How tiles merge in 2048

The diagrams below show one row of the board before and after a swipe. Up and down work the same way on columns. The new tile that follows each move is left out so you can see the slide itself.

Two equal tiles merge into one

  start   2    2    .    .
  left    4    .    .    .

The merged tile ends up on the side you swiped toward, and the merge adds 4 points to your score.

Gaps close up, and different numbers just slide

Empty squares between two equal tiles don't stop them from merging:

  start   2    .    .    2
  left    4    .    .    .

Tiles with different numbers never merge. They slide until they bump into the wall or another tile:

  start   .    2    .    4
  left    2    4    .    .

Three equal tiles in a row: the pair nearest the wall merges

This is the rule people ask about most. With three equal tiles in a line, only two of them merge, and it's always the two closest to the wall you swipe toward. The third one slides along behind them:

  start   2    2    2    .
  left    4    2    .    .

Swipe the same row the other way and the merge happens at the other end:

  start   2    2    2    .
  right   .    .    2    4

So the direction you swipe decides which end gets the bigger tile. If you want the 4 next to your corner, swipe toward the corner.

Four equal tiles: two merges, not one big tile

Four in a row make two pairs, and both pairs merge in the same move:

  start   2    2    2    2
  left    4    4    .    .

You get two 4s, not an 8. They can merge with each other on your next swipe.

A tile merges only once per move

A tile made by a merge can't merge again in the same swipe, even when it lands right next to a tile of its new value. This row looks like it should collapse into a 16 at once, but it takes three swipes (leaving out the new tiles that would drop in between):

  start   2    2    4    8
  left    4    4    8    .
  left    8    8    .    .
  left    16   .    .    .

Each swipe merges the pair at the wall, and the tile it makes waits for the next swipe. It also means one swipe can make several merges in different rows and columns, but never two merges with the same tile.

A move that changes nothing doesn't count

If a swipe can't slide or merge anything, nothing happens at all: no tile moves, no new tile appears and your score stays the same.

  start   2    4    8    .
  left    2    4    8    .

Pressing left here does nothing, so the game just waits for another direction. Pressing right would slide the row over, and then a new tile would appear. This also means you can't skip a turn: every move that counts adds a tile to the board.

How scoring works

Each merge adds the value of the tile it makes: two 8s merging into a 16 add 16 points, and a swipe that makes two merges scores both. Plain slides and new tiles score nothing. For what every tile is worth and what a good score looks like, see how 2048 scoring works.

How you win: reaching 2048

Make a tile with 2048 on it and the game stops to show "You made 2048!" with two buttons, Keep going and New game. Until you pick one, swipes do nothing. Choose Keep going and the game carries on exactly as before, toward 4096 and beyond, until no move is left. For the tiles past 2048 and how high they can go, see the highest tile in 2048.

How you lose: a full board with no pairs

The game ends when no move can change the board. That takes two things at once: every square is full, and no two tiles side by side or one above the other have the same number. As long as one square is empty, at least one swipe will still slide a tile into it, so you can't lose with a gap on the board.

Here are the last two boards of a real game: game 1 of the simple routine described in the next section. The board is full, but the two 2s at the top right touch, so left and right can still merge them. Up and down would change nothing:

  2    8    2    2
  4    16   8    4
  8    64   16   8
  128  2    64   16

The routine swiped left. The 2s merged into a 4, which opened one square, and the new tile, a 2, landed right in it:

  2    8    4    2
  4    16   8    4
  8    64   16   8
  128  2    64   16

Now no two neighbors match in any row or column, so the game was over after 157 moves. Poozee shows "No moves left" with your final score, a Try again button and an Undo last move button.

Every move that counts adds a tile, and every merge takes one away, so the board fills up unless you keep merging about once per swipe. It also means no game can end before your 14th move: you start with 2 tiles, and filling the other 14 squares takes at least 14 moves. In each of our 2,000 test games, the number of merges came out at exactly the number of moves minus 14.

Your first game: a simple routine

Strategy is its own topic, but this routine is enough to see how a game flows:

1. Pick a corner, say the bottom left.
2. Swipe down whenever down moves something.
3. If down does nothing, swipe left.
4. If neither works, swipe right.
5. Swipe up only when nothing else moves.

We had the engine play 1,000 seeded games with this routine and the same 1,000 games with random swipes (any direction that moves something). Here is how many moves the games lasted, counting only moves that changed the board:

Leaning on down and left nearly doubles how long a game lasts, because it keeps the big tiles together near one corner, where they can meet and merge. It still isn't enough to win: in 1,000 games the routine never made a 1024. The next step is to think before each swipe, which is what how to win 2048 teaches, starting with keeping your biggest tile in the corner. To see how far planning ahead can take you, read is 2048 always winnable?.

Keep playing

Open 2048 on Poozee and try each rule above on a real board: line up three 2s and swipe toward the wall you want the 4 on, then play a game with the down-left-right-up routine and see how long it lasts. When you're ready for another puzzle with simple rules and deep play, how to play Minesweeper walks you through your first board.