2048

About 2048

This is the original open source 2048 written by Gabriele Cirulli in 2014 and released under the MIT licence. It is the version that started the whole wave of number merging puzzles, and it is served here from its own source files rather than through a wrapper, so what you play is the real thing with its original animations and feel.

The rules are tiny. Every move pushes all sixteen squares as far as they can go in the chosen direction, and any two neighbours holding the same value fuse into one tile worth double. Then the game drops a fresh 2 or, less often, a 4 into a random empty square. Because that new tile always appears, doing nothing is not an option and every move costs you space. Good players think about the shape of the board rather than the individual numbers.

The single strategy that turns a casual player into a competent one is the corner rule. Choose a corner, promise yourself the biggest tile never leaves it, then restrict yourself to the two directions that press tiles into that corner plus one perpendicular direction. If you keep the bottom row filled and descending from left to right, merges chain naturally and the board keeps breathing. The moment you press the forbidden direction your anchor tile floats into the middle and everything gets hard again.

Beyond 2048 there is 4096, then 8192, and the arithmetic keeps working as long as you have space. Reaching 4096 requires the corner discipline to hold for hundreds of moves without a slip, which is why the number feels earned. The game keeps your best score in your own browser, needs no signup and runs entirely on your device with keyboard or touch input.