Mahjong Solitaire

About Mahjong Solitaire

Mahjong Solitaire is the calm, single-player tile-matching game that grew out of the traditional four-player game of Mahjong. Instead of building winning hands, you face a single heap of 144 carved tiles stacked into a shape, and your goal is to take the whole heap apart two tiles at a time. Pick two tiles with the same face, as long as both are free, and they leave the board. Clear every tile and you win. It is quick to learn, endlessly replayable and just as good for a two-minute break as for a long evening, and this version plays free in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer with nothing to download.

A tile is free when no other tile lies on top of it, even partly, and when at least one of its long sides, left or right, is open. Tiles in the middle of a row are stuck until a neighbour at one end is gone, and tiles under a stack are stuck until the stack above them is cleared. That one rule is what turns a simple matching game into a puzzle. There are often several identical tiles free at once, and which pair you take matters: match the wrong two and you can bury the last copy of a tile under another one you need, leaving a board that can no longer be finished. Good players look a few moves ahead, open up long rows from the ends, and dig into tall stacks early.

The tile set follows the classic Mahjong set. There are three suits numbered one to nine, Bamboo, Dots and Characters, with four copies of every tile. There are four copies each of the East, South, West and North winds and of the Red, Green and White dragons. Finally there are four Flowers (plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo) and four Seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter); these are the exceptions to the rule, because any Flower matches any other Flower and any Season matches any Season. Every tile here is drawn in our own original style, and a small number or letter in the corner of each suit and wind tile makes them easy to read even if you have never seen Chinese numerals before.

You can choose from eight layouts, from small to large. Garden is a gentle 34-tile board for learning the rules. Pyramid, Tower and Cross are medium boards; Tower is tall and narrow, so it fills the screen of a phone held upright. Bridge, Fortress and Butterfly are bigger and more tangled, and Turtle is the famous 144-tile layout that most people picture when they think of Mahjong Solitaire, with its high centre stack, its head and its tail. Each layout tracks your wins and your best time, so there is always a record to beat. There is also a Daily Board: one deal per day, the same for every player, on a layout that changes each day. Win it to keep your daily streak going.

Many free Mahjong games deal tiles completely at random, which means some boards simply cannot be won however well you play. Every board in this game is built backwards from a winning sequence of moves, so each new deal can always be cleared. Shuffle works the same way: it rearranges the tiles left on the board into a new arrangement that can still be won. If you get stuck you can undo as many moves as you like, all the way back to the start. A hint shows you a pair to match, and when it can, it picks a pair that keeps the board winnable. The game even notices when your last match has made the board impossible and tells you, so you can undo instead of playing on for nothing.

Mahjong Solitaire saves the game you are playing automatically, so you can close the tab and continue later on the same device. Tap or click a tile to select it and then tap its twin to remove both; on a computer you can also use keyboard shortcuts for undo, hint and shuffle. Blocked tiles are shaded slightly so you can see at a glance which tiles are in play, and you can switch this off in the settings for a more traditional challenge. Sound effects are soft and optional. There is no account, no time limit and no penalty for taking your time, so relax, look for the pairs and enjoy clearing the board.

Genre

Tile-matching puzzle

Released

October 20, 2026

Platform

Web browser (phone, tablet, desktop)

Price

Free

Developer

FDZ Labs Inc.

Features

• Eight layouts, from the 34-tile Garden to the classic 144-tile Turtle
• Every deal and every shuffle is guaranteed to be winnable
• Smart hints, unlimited undo and a warning when the board can no longer be won
• A new Daily Board every day with a streak to keep
• Original tile art with corner numbers that are easy to read
• Best times and wins for every layout; your game saves automatically

How to play

1. Tap or click a free tile to select it, then tap a matching free tile. The pair is removed.
2. A tile is free when nothing is on top of it and its left or right side is open.
3. Tiles must have the same face to match, except that any Flower matches any Flower and any Season matches any Season.
4. Clear every tile from the board to win. The timer and your best time are shown at the top.
5. Stuck? Use Undo to step back, Hint to see a pair, or Shuffle to rearrange the tiles that are left.
6. Pick a layout from the menu, or play the Daily Board to keep your streak.

Controls

Tips and strategy

• Work on the tall stacks first. Tiles buried under a stack are the hardest to free later.
• Open up long rows from the ends. A tile in the middle of a row only frees up when a neighbour at one end is gone.
• When three tiles of the same face are free, think before you match: take the two that free up the most other tiles.
• If all four copies of a tile are free at once, match them straight away. Nothing else can use them.
• Watch for a tile lying directly on top of its own twin. You will need the other two copies to dig it out, so don't use them up elsewhere.
• Remove Flowers and Seasons early when they block something: they match any tile of their own group.