2048

About the game

2048 slides numbered tiles across a four-by-four grid; equal numbers merge. The board fills faster than most people expect.

How to play

• Arrow keys slide every tile in one direction.
• Matching tiles merge into their sum.
• The board is full and unmoving — that is game over.

Tips

• Pick one corner and never move your largest tile out of it.
• Use three directions only; the fourth breaks the corner.
• Build a descending row along one edge.

Where this version came from

2048 was written over a single weekend in March 2014 by Gabriele Cirulli, a 19-year-old developer in Italy, and released under the MIT license. That license is the reason the board above can exist at all — and the reason hexagonal boards, Fibonacci merges and Pokémon reskins followed within months.