Number Merge — Slide and Combine Number Tiles
Slide number tiles on a 4x4 grid. Equal tiles merge and double. Reach 2048!
How to play
- Use arrow keys (or on-screen buttons) to slide all tiles in one direction.
- Tiles with the same number merge when they collide, doubling their value.
- A new tile (2 or 4) appears after each slide.
- Reach the 2048 tile to win — or keep going for a high score!
- The game ends when no moves remain.
Slide tiles with arrow keys or buttons. When two tiles with the same number collide, they merge and double. Reach the 2048 tile to win!
How it works
Number Merge is a sliding tile puzzle played on a 4x4 grid. Use the arrow keys (or swipe on mobile) to slide all tiles in one direction at once. When two tiles with the same number collide, they merge into one tile with double the value. A new tile (2 or 4) appears in a random empty cell after every move. The goal is to reach the 2048 tile.
Strategy is essential: keep your highest-value tile in one corner at all times and build a descending chain of values from that corner outward. Avoid moves that dislodge your highest tile from the corner, because recovering from that position is very difficult.
Concentrate merges along one or two edges rather than merging tiles in the middle of the board, which tends to scatter high-value tiles and fragment your chain. Plan two to three moves ahead to avoid painting yourself into a corner where no useful merges are available.
The game ends when the board is full and no adjacent tiles can merge. A 2048 tile is achievable consistently once you internalize the corner strategy.
Worked example
Building a tile chain in the bottom-left corner
- Press Down and Left repeatedly at the start to push tiles to the bottom-left corner.
- Keep your highest tile locked in the bottom-left by never pressing Up or Right unless necessary.
- Build a row along the bottom: 1024 | 512 | 256 | 128.
- Slide Left to merge tiles along the bottom row, then refill from above.
- Continue chaining merges toward 2048 while keeping the corner tile in place.
A well-ordered chain forms in the bottom row, keeping high-value tiles organized and reachable.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Moving Up when all tiles should stay anchored to the bottom, which scatters high-value tiles away from the corner.
- Merging tiles in the center of the board instead of along edges, creating isolated high-value tiles with no chain to connect to.
- Chasing any available merge without checking whether that move displaces the highest tile from its corner position.
Key terms
- Merge
- When two tiles of equal value collide during a slide, they combine into a single tile worth twice the value.
- Tile chain
- A sequence of tiles arranged in descending powers of two from the corner, enabling efficient sequential merging.
- Dead board
- A fully filled grid with no two adjacent equal tiles, which ends the game.
Frequently asked questions
- How do tiles merge?
- Slide in any direction — tiles of equal value that collide merge into one tile worth double.
- When is the game over?
- When the grid is full and no adjacent tiles share the same number.