Snake Game
Eat apples, grow longer and don’t bite your own tail — classic Snake with smooth controls, golden apples, mazes and a computer that can show you how it’s done.
At a glance
- Steer with the arrow keys or W A S D, swipe on a phone or tablet, or use the on-screen arrows. Turns you press quickly are queued, so sharp corners never get lost.
- Four speeds (with an option to speed up as you grow), three board sizes, solid walls or wrap-around edges, and Bars or Pillars obstacles.
- Every fifth apple brings a golden apple worth up to 50 points — the quicker you reach it, the more it pays. Fill every free square and you win.
- Press Computer plays to watch it: it plans the shortest path to each apple that still leaves it a way back to its own tail, and often fills almost the whole board.
- Snake began as Blockade, a two-player arcade game from Gremlin Industries in 1976. Nokia’s Snake, written by Taneli Armanto, came on the Nokia 6110 in 1998; Nokia says 350 million copies exist.
- Pick a smooth modern look or a blocky retro phone screen. Best scores are kept on your device for every speed and board. Free, with no sign-up.
Step by step
How to play Snake
- 1
Start moving
Press an arrow key, swipe on the board or tap Play. The snake keeps moving forward on its own.
- 2
Steer to the apple
Turn up, down, left or right to reach the red apple. Each apple makes the snake one square longer and is worth 10 points.
- 3
Grab golden apples
After every fifth apple a golden one appears for a short time. The faster you reach it, the more points it gives — up to 50.
- 4
Don’t crash
Hitting a wall, an obstacle or your own body ends the game. With Wrap around on, the edges take you to the other side instead.
- 5
Fill the board
Keep going until the snake fills every free square — the perfect game.
Features
Everything you need, nothing you don’t
Controls that feel right
Quick turns are remembered one step at a time, a turn straight back into your neck is ignored, and the game pauses itself if you switch tabs.
Play on any screen
Swipe anywhere on the board — keep your finger down to turn again — or switch on large arrow buttons.
Make it harder
Choose a faster speed, a bigger board, obstacles, or turn off wrap-around so the edges are walls.
Golden apples
A bonus apple appears after every fifth apple and fades away — grab it fast for up to 50 points.
Watch and learn
Let the computer play to see how it keeps an escape route open, then press an arrow key to take over.
Retro or modern
A smooth gliding snake on a grass board, or chunky pixels on a phone-style screen.
Scoring
| Points | Snake grows | |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 10 | One square |
| Golden apple | 10–50, more the sooner you reach it | No |
| Every free square filled | You win | — |
Tips for a higher score
- Hug the edges early. Running along the walls keeps the middle of the board open for later.
- Don’t chase every apple directly. When the snake is long, a short cut can wall you in; take the long way round if it keeps a path back to your tail.
- Follow your tail when in doubt. The square your tail is leaving is always safe to move into next.
- Plan your turns early. You can press two or three turns ahead and they will be played one square at a time.
- Start slow, then speed up. Learn a board size at Slow or Normal before trying Fast or Insane.
A short history of Snake
The idea began with Blockade (1976), a two-player arcade game from Gremlin Industries in which each player leaves a growing wall behind them and tries to outlast the other. The first known home-computer version, *Worm*, appeared for the TRS-80 in 1978, and single-player games where the snake eats items and grows — such as *Snake Byte* and the arcade game *Nibbler*, both 1982 — followed.
Many PC users first met it as *Nibbles*, a sample program that came with QBasic on MS-DOS from 1991. Then in 1998 Nokia put Snake, written by Taneli Armanto, on the Nokia 6110 and 5110 phones. It became one of the best-known mobile games ever: Nokia says 350 million copies exist, and in 2012 New York’s Museum of Modern Art named it among the video games it wanted for its collection.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How do you play Snake?
Can you win at Snake?
What does wrap-around mean?
How do I play Snake on my phone?
Does the computer’s game count towards my best score?
Why did the game pause?
What was the first Snake game?
Keep going
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