Mahjong Solitaire is the world's most popular tile-matching puzzle, and you can play Mahjong Solitaire free online here in your browser with no download or sign-up. Tiles are stacked into a layered layout, and your job is to clear them all by removing matching pairs. A tile can only be taken when it is 'free' — nothing resting on top of it and at least one of its left or right edges open.
The strategy in this free online Mahjong Solitaire is all about order: every pair you remove frees new tiles, so the sequence you choose decides whether you clear the board or get stuck. Larger layouts on Medium and Hard stack more layers for a tougher challenge, and a Shuffle button rescrambles the remaining tiles if you run out of matches. Play Mahjong Solitaire in browser on desktop or mobile and see if you can clear the entire layout.
Despite the name, Mahjong Solitaire shares only its beautiful tiles with the traditional four-player Chinese game of mahjong. The solitaire form was created in 1981 by Brodie Lockard on the PLATO computer system, and it became a worldwide phenomenon when Activision published it as Shanghai in 1986 — the classic 'turtle' layout from that era is still the shape most players picture today.
Good play is really a study in dependencies. Two identical tiles sitting side by side in the same row can lock each other forever if you match their partners carelessly, and a tall central stack can hide the one tile you need under five layers. Scanning for those traps before you commit a pair is what separates a cleared board from a dead end.
Remove every tile from the layout by matching identical free pairs until the board is empty.
Click or tap a free tile to select it, then click its matching tile to remove the pair. Click a selected tile again to deselect it. Press 'Shuffle remaining' if no free matches are left.
Clearing the entire layout banks a completion score based on the number of pairs. There is no timer, so play at your own pace.
Free the tiles that unblock the most others first, and work down from the top layers and in from the edges. Before grabbing an easy pair, check whether keeping one of those tiles opens a path to a tile you'll otherwise be unable to reach.
How do you play Mahjong Solitaire?
Match pairs of identical free tiles to remove them. A tile is free when nothing sits on top of it and at least one side is open. Clear the whole board to win.
Is it free to play online?
Yes, completely free in your browser with no download or sign-up.
What happens if there are no moves left?
If no matching free pairs remain, start a new game or try an easier layout.
More classic games: Memory, Sliding Puzzle, Tangrams, TriPeaks, Sudoku, and all 100 free games.