Merge 2048

Merge 2048 is a free 2048 game you play online in your browser: the sliding-tile number puzzle everyone knows, set on the face of a giant brass clock in a storybook town at night. Swipe the grid and every tile slides as far as it can; two tiles with the same number that meet merge into one worth their sum, and a new 2 (now and then a 4) drops into an empty square. There is no clock: like classic 2048, you can stop and think as long as you like, and a game ends only when the board fills up and no move is left.

The goal is the one you know: build bigger and bigger tiles, 64, 128, 256 and on to 2048, then keep going. The goal chip under the clock always shows your next milestone, and the first of each tile pays a bonus, from 100 points for your first 64 to 4,000 for your first 2048, 8,000 for 4096 and double again for every tile after it. The clock’s hand shows how close the board is to that next tile: when it comes all the way round, the board holds enough to make it.

One special tile keeps every game lively. Every 40 moves a gold ×2 tile drops in: it doubles the first number tile it meets, so steer it into your biggest tile in the corner and watch a 256 become a 512 in a burst of light. The game also gets harder the further you go: once your best tile passes 512 the ×2 tile comes less often, and as your tiles grow, more 4s drop in where you wanted a 2. Two ×2 tiles never merge, and only one is on the board at a time.

Your score is the value of every tile you make by merging, plus the milestones. Each tile merges only once per swipe, so a row of four 2s becomes two 4s rather than an 8, and a swipe that moves nothing adds no tile. The classic 2048 strategy still wins: keep your biggest tile tucked into one corner and feed it from two directions, take the moves that merge several pairs at once, and take more care when free squares run short, because a careless swipe on a crowded board is the quickest way to lock it. Every top score is verified by replaying the whole game on our servers, and your best game goes on the all-time and weekly leaderboards.

The first game is easy to start: the board always opens with a matching pair and an arrow showing the swipe that merges it, and short tips explain the ×2 tile the first time it appears. Swipes register the moment your finger moves, a quick flick works too, and every slide takes under a tenth of a second. A timed version, with a one-minute clock that every merge winds back, time crystals and a two-minute bell, is one of the games The Daily can deal you.

Swipe on a phone or tablet, or use the arrow keys or WASD on a computer (a mouse drag works too), and press P to pause (the timed version's clock never stops). If you are looking for games like 2048, merge games or calm number games, this is the place to start, alongside Maze Dash and Sudoku Sprint among our puzzle games and our unhurried relaxing games.