2048
Swipe and merge sweets all the way to the crown
How to play
This is 2048, the free online sliding-tile puzzle, played with sweets instead of numbers: merge two equal sweets into the next one and climb toward the crown at 2048. It runs in any browser on phone or desktop and inside Telegram via @MatsuriGamesBot, with no download. Play the daily board everyone shares, practise on fresh boards, or send a friend your exact game as a challenge.
Swipe or use the arrow keys to slide the sweets. Two of the same merge into the next one: candy, lollipop, cookie, donut, cupcake… birthday cake, all the way to the crown at 2048. Play the daily board to rank against everyone on the same tiles, or send a friend your run so they get the exact same board.
- Slide all my sweets at once with the arrow keys or WASD (or drag).
- Two matching sweets squish into the next one up.
- Make your way to the crown 👑 before the board fills up!
How to play 2048
The board is a 4 by 4 grid that starts with two sweets. Each move slides every sweet as far as it can go in one direction: up, down, left or right. When two equal sweets meet they merge into the next sweet up the ladder, from candy (2) and lollipop (4) through cookie, donut and cupcake to the birthday cake (1024) and the crown (2048). A sweet made by a merge cannot merge again in the same move, so a line of four candies becomes two lollipops, not one cookie.
After every move that changes the board, a new sweet appears on a random empty cell: a candy nine times in ten, a lollipop otherwise. A swipe that moves nothing does not count and adds nothing. Each merge adds the value of the new sweet to your score, so making a 512 is worth 512 points.
Reaching the crown does not end the game; you can keep merging past it. A run ends when the board is full and no two neighbouring sweets match, or earlier if you choose to finish.
2048 strategy and tips
- Choose one corner for your biggest sweet and build everything around it. A sweet that leaves its corner usually lets a small candy drop in behind it, and that one mistake can cost the rest of the game.
- Rely on two directions, say down and left, use the third only when they are blocked, and treat the fourth as an emergency. If you are forced to push the big sweet out, push it back on the very next move.
- Keep the edge row beside your big sweet in falling order, like 256, 128, 64, 32. Then each merge at the small end runs down the row in a chain instead of leaving a stranded tile.
- Before swiping, look at where the empty cells will be afterwards. A new sweet always lands on an empty cell, so a move that leaves the only gap next to your corner invites trouble.
- Count empty cells rather than merges. A board with five or six free cells forgives a bad spawn; a board with one free cell does not, so a quiet move that keeps space open often beats a flashy merge.
Modes and difficulty
The daily board is the same for everyone each day: the same two opening sweets and the same run of new sweets, changing at 00:00 UTC, and only your first try counts on the daily leaderboard. Practice gives unlimited fresh boards. After any run you can send a friend a challenge, and they play the very same board with your score as the target. There are no difficulty levels in 2048; the board is always 4 by 4.
Playing 2048 on Matsuri
2048 is one of the games in the weekly Matsuri Cup rotation: in its week, your best practice score counts and the top ten win candy and a cup badge. Scores are worked out by the server replaying your swipes, so nobody can simply type in a big number. Between runs the game pays candy the first time you make each big sweet, and Mocha, the hall's host, cheers when a 512, a 1024 or the crown appears.
A little history
2048 was made by Italian developer Gabriele Cirulli and released in March 2014 as a free, open-source web game. It drew on earlier sliding-merge puzzles, most of all Threes!, and spread so quickly that countless versions with other themes followed. The candy version here keeps his rules exactly and changes only the tiles.
In the same series: 2048 and merge puzzles
- Dessert Merge: Two alike bump and grow, all the way to a crown
- 15 Puzzle: Slide the tiles home, 1 to 15, in few moves
Update log
- · On a phone the Finish button sits right under the board.
- · The result panel fits the screen however many goals a run reached.
- · An upbeat soundtrack, with a three-way sound button.
- · Goals between runs, and a crown moment when you make one.
- · 2048 arrives, the hall's very first game.
Questions
- Is this 2048 free, and can I play it on my phone?
- Yes. It is free with no ads, no download and no signup, and it runs in any browser on phone or desktop as well as inside Telegram via @MatsuriGamesBot. Swipe on a phone, or use the arrow keys or WASD on a computer.
- What is the daily 2048 board?
- Every day there is one board that is the same for everyone: the same starting sweets and the same new sweets in the same order. Your score goes on that day's leaderboard, and since scores are checked on the server by replaying your moves, the ranking is fair.
- Does the game end when I reach 2048?
- No. Reaching the crown is the big goal, but you can keep merging for a higher score. The run ends only when the board is full and no move can merge anything, or when you choose to finish.
- How is the score counted in 2048?
- Each merge adds the value of the new sweet to your score, so making a 512 sweet adds 512 points. Big merges matter far more than many small ones.