How to play
Swipe or use arrow keys. Equal tiles merge when they touch.
About Tile Merge 2048
Tile Merge 2048 is the sliding number puzzle that took over the world's phones a few years ago, and it has lost none of its pull. You have a four by four board and a handful of numbered tiles. Slide them around, join the ones that match, and try to build the biggest number you can before the board fills up.
The rules
Swipe up, down, left or right, or use the arrow keys on a computer. Every tile on the board slides as far as it can in that direction. When two tiles with the same number bump together, they merge into one tile showing the total. Two 2s become a 4, two 4s become an 8, and so on up through 16, 32, 64 and beyond.
After each move that changes the board, one new tile appears in an empty square. It is usually a 2, and about one time in ten a 4. Your score goes up by the value of every tile you create, so making a 64 adds sixty-four points.
The game ends when the board is full and no two neighbouring tiles match. Tap to start again. The traditional goal is to make a 2048 tile, which takes ten doublings from that first little 2, but the game does not stop there. You can keep going for as long as you can keep the board alive.
The corner strategy
Almost every strong player uses the same basic idea. Pick a corner and keep your biggest tile there for the whole game. The bottom left is as good as any.
With the big tile parked in the corner, build a chain of descending numbers along the row beside it: 256, then 128, then 64, then 32. When the chain is in order, a new small tile can be merged up the line like a row of dominoes, and the big tile grows without ever leaving its corner.
To make that work, limit yourself to two directions for most moves, such as left and down. Use a third when you have to. Avoid the fourth, the one that would drag your big tile out of the corner, unless there is no other legal move. One careless swipe the wrong way can drop a 2 into your corner and undo ten minutes of tidy work.
Other habits that help
Keep the row with your big tile full. If that row is full, swiping sideways along it cannot move the big tile.
Do not chase every small merge. A merge in the wrong part of the board can pull your chain out of order. Before each swipe, ask where the tiles will end up, and where the new tile might land.
Slow down when the board is nearly full. That is when a move you have not looked at properly ends the game.
Why it is so hard to put down
Each move takes a second and feels small, yet the consequences pile up. There is luck in where the new tiles land, though far less than it seems, and a lost game nearly always traces back to a decision you can identify. That is what brings people back.
Tile Merge 2048 is a calm game with no timer, suitable for all ages and good for a quiet ten minutes. It runs free in your browser on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to download.