What is the trick to winning 2048?

Keep the biggest tile in one corner, keep the row along it full so the tile cannot slide out, and build a chain of halving tiles beside it. Avoid the one swipe that pulls the corner tile out.

Is 2048 always winnable?

No. New tiles land in empty cells you do not choose, so some games lock whatever you do. On the daily the tiles are the same for everyone, so every player faces the same luck.

Gabriele Cirulli released it as a free web game in March 2014, building on an earlier game called 1024 and on Threes!. Our daily and unlimited versions use the same rules.

Strategy guide

How to win at 2048

2048, Gabriele Cirulli's 2014 sliding-number game, rewards one habit above all: keep your biggest tile in a corner and build everything else toward it. Below, that strategy plays one of our unlimited games, and every board is a position it actually reached.

What a good game looks like, in moves

Every move adds exactly one tile, and merging never changes the sum of the board. So a 512 cannot appear before the tiles that have arrived add up to 512: that is a hard floor, fixed by the tiles. Every move above it is the cost of tiles stuck in the wrong place.

On this game the tiles add up to 512 after 230 moves, so nobody can make a 512 sooner. The corner strategy made it in 263 moves. Swiping at random on the same tiles, the board locked after 139 moves with a best tile of 128.Position from unlimited board #1

Keep the biggest tile in a corner

Choose a corner and keep your biggest tile in it. Of the four swipes, two push toward the corner and are always safe. The third keeps the corner tile in place only while its row (or column) is full. The fourth pulls it out: avoid it unless nothing else moves.

the corner tile

Move 41: the 64 sits in its corner (ringed). The strategy swipes up, and the 64 stays where it is.Position from unlimited board #1

Build a chain that falls away from the corner

Along the corner's edge, line the tiles up in falling order: the big one in the corner, then half of it, then half again. A new tile of the right size then merges into the end of the chain and rolls along it, each merge making the tile the next one needs.

the numbers the step reads

Move 86: the corner's edge reads 128 · 32 · 8 · 2, falling away from the corner. New tiles are built up at the far end until they match their neighbour, then merge toward the corner.Position from unlimited board #2

Count your empty cells

A full board is a lost board. With two empty cells or fewer, stop building and spend a move merging small tiles wherever they are: every merge frees a cell.

the numbers the step reads
decided by this step

Move 84: only 2 empty cells left. The strategy merges the ringed pair into a 4, and the swipe leaves 4 empty cells.Position from unlimited board #5

Playing the daily for fewer moves

The daily asks for a 512 in as few moves as you can, with the same tiles for everyone. The floor is fixed by the tiles, so the moves you can save are the ones spent repairing a broken chain: a mid-sized tile stranded away from the corner has to be walked back before it can merge.

Questions

What is the trick to winning 2048?: Keep the biggest tile in one corner, keep the row along it full so the tile cannot slide out, and build a chain of halving tiles beside it. Avoid the one swipe that pulls the corner tile out.
Is 2048 always winnable?: No. New tiles land in empty cells you do not choose, so some games lock whatever you do. On the daily the tiles are the same for everyone, so every player faces the same luck.
Who made 2048?: Gabriele Cirulli released it as a free web game in March 2014, building on an earlier game called 1024 and on Threes!. Our daily and unlimited versions use the same rules.