Puzzle games — play free online

A puzzle tests thinking rather than reflexes: fit every block in, read the mines from the numbers next to them, match identical tiles or line up the digits. Nothing moves while you consider the board, so a round lasts as long as it needs to, from a minute to a whole evening.

2048 is the easiest start: one sentence of rules, slides merge equal tiles, the goal is 2048, and a game fits into three minutes. Then comes Minesweeper, where the field is solved by logic and not by guessing, Mahjong Turtle for pair hunting, Wordle, where five letters have to be found in six tries, and Tetris when you want the pace up.

Unlike arcade games, a wrong move here does not end the run, it asks for a different plan. Unlike board games, the field moves under your hand and you never need an opponent or a table.