How to play 2048

The only rule

Swipe, or press an arrow key, and every tile slides as far as it can in that direction, all at once. When two tiles carrying the same number collide as they slide, they merge into one tile of double the value — two 2s make a 4, two 4s make an 8. After any move that changes the board, a new 2 (or occasionally a 4) appears in a random empty square. That is the entire game: slide, merge, a tile appears, repeat, until one tile reads 2048.

How to start

Don't try to plan the whole board — just start combining the small tiles, 2s into 4s and 4s into 8s, and a shape will emerge. The one habit worth adopting from move one is to keep your biggest tile pressed into a corner and feed it from two sides. Everything else in the game is built on that single idea; once merging feels natural, the corner strategy explains why it works.

The controls

Keyboard: the four arrow keys move every tile. Touch: swipe up, down, left, or right anywhere on the board. On-screen: use the arrow pad beneath the board. Made a mistake? Undo steps you back one move. A move only happens if something actually slides or merges — so if you press a direction and nothing moves, the turn is skipped and no new tile appears, and you can safely test a direction to see what it does.

When does the game end?

Only when the board is completely full and no two neighbouring tiles match, so no direction changes anything. That is rarer than it feels — right up until that exact state, a move still exists. The way to avoid it is to merge small tiles promptly and keep as many empty squares open as you can; a board with room to breathe survives bad luck, a packed one does not. If you do get stuck, a tight board is often still recoverable — the endgame guide shows how.

Knowing the rules is step one. Winning consistently is a different skill — see the strategy guides: how to beat 2048.