Arcade · Rules

How to play Snake

A fifteen by fifteen board, one snake, one apple at a time. Eat to grow. Do not hit a wall or yourself. Every version of this game differs in the details, so this page says how this one plays.

Players
1
Board
15 × 15
An apple
10 points
Speed
Fixed
The rules

Seven things. The walls and the speed are the two to know.

  1. The start

    The snake is three cells long. It starts on the middle row, near the left, heading right. One apple is on the board. Nothing moves until you press Start.

  2. It never stops

    The snake takes one step every 110 milliseconds, about nine steps a second. That speed is fixed. It does not get faster as you score.

  3. Steer

    Swipe on the board, tap the on-screen arrows, or use the arrow keys or W, A, S and D. A turn takes effect on the next step.

  4. No reversing

    A turn straight back the way you are heading is ignored. It does not end the run.

  5. Quick turns are kept

    Up to three turns are held in a queue and played one per step, in order. Up then left in a hurry is two turns, not a lost one.

  6. Eat

    An apple is 10 points and makes the snake one cell longer. The next apple appears at once, on a free cell.

  7. How a run ends

    You move into a wall or into your own body. The walls do not wrap round. Following your own tail is safe, because the tail leaves a cell before the head enters it. A run also ends if you fill the board, or after 20,000 steps, which is about 36 minutes.

One run

Press Start and touch nothing.

The start. Three cells on the eighth row, head in the fifth column, heading right. Ten free cells lie ahead.
Ten steps later. A little over a second has passed and the head is in the last column. The eleventh step is the wall, and the run is over.

So the first decision comes inside the first second. After that the sums are simple: five apples is 50 points and a snake eight cells long.

People ask

Walls, speed and the score.

Do the walls kill you in Snake?
Yes. The board is 15 cells by 15 and its edges are walls. Moving into one ends the run. Nothing wraps round to the other side.
Does the snake get faster?
No. It takes one step every 110 milliseconds, about nine a second, from the first apple to the last. The game gets harder only because the snake gets longer.
What happens if you turn back on yourself?
Nothing. A turn straight back the way you are heading is ignored, so a fumbled swipe does not end the run. You only lose by moving into a wall or into your own body.
What is the highest possible score in Snake?
2,220. The board has 225 cells and the snake starts three long, so there are 222 apples to eat at 10 points each. Eating the last one fills the board and ends the run.
Is the score checked?
Yes. The game records your turns and sends them when the run ends. The server replays them on the same board and works out the score itself. That score is the one on the high scores board.
Now play

Nine steps a second. Go.

Nothing at stake
You play alone. No opponent, nothing to stake and no rating.
High scores
The game keeps a board of high scores and your own best.
Checked score
The game records what you did and sends it when the run ends. The server replays it and works out the score itself.
Play Snake

Free, and no account needed. Opening the game seats you as a guest, and the run starts when you press Start.

one of the games in the Arcade.