About Tetris
Play Tetris online for free with our modern, Tetris-style block stacking game. Seven different pieces fall into a 10×20 well one at a time; slide and rotate them so they lock together into solid rows. Every complete row disappears, and the more rows you clear at once, the bigger your score. Clear four in one go and you've scored a Tetris.
It's the definition of "easy to learn, impossible to master." The first few levels are relaxed, but every 10 lines the pieces fall faster until you're making decisions in a fraction of a second. Our version plays the way today's competitive block stackers do: a fair 7-piece bag, a ghost piece that shows where you'll land, a hold slot, a five-piece preview, wall kicks when you rotate against the wall, and bonus points for T-spins, combos and back-to-back clears.
Choose Marathon for an endless climb through the levels, or Ultra for a frantic two-minute score attack. Both modes have their own global leaderboard, it works with a keyboard or with touch gestures on your phone, and there's nothing to download — just press Play.
How to play Tetris
- 1
Guide the falling piece
Each piece enters at the top of the well and falls steadily. Move it left and right, rotate it in either direction, and watch the faint ghost piece at the bottom — that's exactly where it will land.
- 2
Drop it into place
Press Space (or flick down on a touch screen) to hard drop the piece instantly, or hold ↓ to soft drop it faster. Once a piece rests on the stack you have half a second to slide or spin it before it locks.
- 3
Fill rows to clear them
When every cell in a row is filled, the row flashes and vanishes, and everything above it falls down. Clearing 1, 2, 3 or 4 rows at once is a Single, Double, Triple or Tetris.
- 4
Plan ahead with Next and Hold
The Next panel shows the upcoming pieces. Press C (or tap the Hold box) to set the current piece aside and swap it back in later — handy for saving an I piece for a Tetris. You can hold once per drop.
- 5
Survive the speed-up
Every 10 lines raises the level and the gravity. In Marathon the game ends when a new piece has no room to appear. In Ultra you have two minutes to score as much as you can.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| ← / → | Move the piece (hold to slide to the wall) |
| ↓ | Soft drop (1 point per row) |
| Space | Hard drop (2 points per row) |
| ↑ or X | Rotate clockwise |
| Z or Ctrl | Rotate counterclockwise |
| C or Shift | Hold the current piece |
| P or Esc | Pause and resume |
| Tap / drag | Touch: tap to rotate, drag sideways to move, drag down to soft drop |
| Swipe down / up | Touch: flick down to hard drop, flick up (or tap the HOLD box) to hold |
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Tetris tips and strategy
Keep the stack flat
A flat, low stack accepts almost any piece. Avoid tall towers and deep single-cell pits that only an I piece can fill — they're the fastest way to lose control.
Leave one column open for Tetrises
Stack the other nine columns and keep a single well on one side. When the I piece arrives, drop it in for four lines at once — worth as many points as eight Singles.
Use the whole preview
Glance at the next two or three pieces, not just the first. Knowing that an S is coming after your current T lets you place both pieces so neither creates a hole.
Hold with a purpose
Hold is best for saving the I piece for your Tetris well or parking an awkward S or Z until there's a good spot. Swapping pieces at random just wastes time.
Hard drop to play faster
Once you know where a piece belongs, hard drop it. It scores double the points of soft dropping, and the time you save matters more and more as the levels climb — especially in Ultra.
Learn one T-spin setup
Build an overhang next to a T-shaped slot, then rotate the T into the slot as it lands. A T-spin Double scores more than a Tetris, and it counts toward back-to-back bonuses.
Chain clears for combos
Clearing lines with consecutive pieces builds a combo that adds 50 × combo × level points each time. It's a strong way to score in Ultra when your stack is already tall.
Don't panic at the top
When the stack gets high, the well glows red. Take the safest placement that clears a line, not the prettiest one — you can rebuild a clean stack once you're out of danger.
How scoring works
Points are multiplied by your current level, so the same clear is worth more later in the game.
- Single / Double / Triple / Tetris: 100 / 300 / 500 / 800 × level
- T-spin with no lines: 400 × level (a mini T-spin is 100)
- T-spin Single / Double / Triple: 800 / 1,200 / 1,600 × level
- Back-to-back: a Tetris or T-spin clear straight after another one earns 1.5× points
- Combo: each extra consecutive clearing piece adds 50 × combo × level
- All clear: emptying the entire well adds a big bonus of up to 2,000 × level (3,200 for a back-to-back Tetris)
- Drops: 1 point per row soft dropped, 2 per row hard dropped
The level starts at 1 and rises every 10 lines. Gravity follows a steep curve: at level 1 a piece falls one row per second, and by level 20 pieces drop to the bottom instantly.
Marathon and Ultra modes
Marathon is the classic endless game. There's no line target — see how high you can climb before the stack tops out. Scores come from both survival and style: at higher levels every clear is worth far more.
Ultra is a two-minute sprint for points. The timer counts down in the side panel and ticks during the last ten seconds. Because the clock, not the stack, usually ends the game, efficient hard drops, Tetrises and T-spins decide the winner. Each mode has its own personal best and global leaderboard.
A short history of the falling-block puzzle
The original Tetris was created in 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov, a computer engineer at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, on an Electronika 60 computer that could only display text. The name blends tetra (Greek for four — every piece is made of four squares) with tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport. The game spread across Eastern Europe and then the world, and the 1989 Game Boy version made it one of the best-selling games ever made.
Modern block stackers follow shared rules that make play fairer and more skillful: the 7-bag randomizer deals each of the seven pieces once per "bag" so you never wait forever for an I piece, and the Super Rotation System lets pieces kick off walls and the stack when you rotate them. Our game uses both.
More games like this
Love fitting shapes together? Try the no-gravity puzzle of Block Puzzle, merge numbers in 2048, or switch to fast arcade action with Breakout and Snake. You'll find even more quick-play favorites in our arcade games and puzzle games collections.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the official Tetris game?
No. This is our own free, Tetris-style block stacking game built for the browser, inspired by the classic. Tetris® is a registered trademark of The Tetris Company, which isn't affiliated with this site.
Can I play Tetris online for free on my phone?
Yes. The game runs in any modern mobile browser with no download or sign-up. Tap to rotate, drag to move, drag down to soft drop and flick down to hard drop. If you prefer buttons, tap the gamepad icon to show on-screen controls.
How do you do a T-spin?
Leave a T-shaped slot with an overhang above one side, guide a T piece next to it and rotate the T as it slides into the slot. If at least three of the four corners around the T's center are blocked after the rotation, it counts as a T-spin. T-spin Doubles and Triples are among the highest-scoring moves in the game.
What is a back-to-back bonus?
Tetrises and T-spin line clears are "difficult" clears. If you make two difficult clears in a row without a Single, Double or Triple in between, the second one earns 1.5× points. The chain continues for as long as you keep making difficult clears.
Does Marathon mode ever end?
Only when you top out. The level keeps rising every 10 lines, and by level 20 pieces fall instantly to the bottom of the well, so staying alive becomes a real test of speed and planning.
What is Ultra mode?
Ultra gives you exactly two minutes to score as many points as possible. The countdown is shown in the side panel. Your result is saved as a separate personal best and posted to the Ultra leaderboard.
What does the ghost piece do?
The ghost is the outline at the bottom of the well that shows where the falling piece will land if you hard drop it. It makes aiming quick and accurate, especially at high speed.
Why does the piece still move after it touches the stack?
Like modern block stackers, the game gives you a 0.5-second lock delay once a piece lands. Moving or rotating resets that delay up to 15 times, so you can slide a piece under an overhang or finish a T-spin before it locks.