How to play Snake
Snake is a simple arcade game where you steer a snake around the screen to eat apples. Each apple makes the snake longer and adds to your score. The game ends if the snake bumps into a wall or into its own tail.
Step by step
Start moving
Tap to start. The snake then moves forward on its own. You only choose which way it turns.
Steer the snake
Swipe, tap the arrows or use the arrow keys to turn up, down, left or right.
Eat the apples
Guide the snake's head onto an apple to eat it. A new apple then appears somewhere else.
Grow longer
Each apple makes the snake a little longer and adds to your score.
Avoid crashing
Do not hit the walls or any part of the snake's own body.
Pause any time
Take a break whenever you like with the pause button, then carry on.
The full rules
What you need
Snake can be played on any phone, tablet or computer. On a touch screen, you swipe or tap arrow buttons. On a computer, you use the arrow keys.
The aim
Eat as many apples as you can. Every apple makes your snake longer and raises your score. The longer the snake gets, the harder it is to move around without crashing.
How to play
When the game starts, the snake begins moving in a straight line. It will keep moving on its own until the game ends. Your job is to steer.
- To turn, swipe in the direction you want to go, or tap the matching arrow. On a keyboard, press an arrow key.
- The snake can go up, down, left or right. It cannot reverse straight back on itself.
- You can press two turns quickly, such as up then left, and the snake makes them one after the other.
- To eat an apple, steer the snake’s head onto it.
Each time you eat an apple, a new one appears in a random empty space.
What ends the game
The game ends when the snake’s head hits:
- a wall around the edge of the play area, or
- any part of the snake’s own body.
As the snake grows, its body takes up more and more of the screen, so you need to plan where you are going.
Scoring
You score one point for every apple you eat, whatever the speed. Your best score is kept so you can try to beat it next time. In some other versions, faster speeds give more points per apple.
Speed and pausing
Speed matters a lot in Snake. Slower speeds give you more time to think and are perfect for relaxed play. Here you can choose Slow, Normal or Fast in Settings, and the snake keeps that speed for the whole game.
You can pause at any time. The snake freezes in place until you carry on. The game also pauses by itself if you switch to another tab or app.
Common variants
- Wrap-around walls: the snake leaves one side of the screen and comes back on the other, instead of crashing. Choose soft walls in Settings to play this way.
- Obstacles: some levels add blocks in the middle of the play area.
- Speed-up: the snake gets faster with every apple, which makes for a real challenge.
Tips for beginners
- Think one turn ahead. Before each turn, check where it will take you.
- Stay away from the edges early on. The middle gives you room to turn either way.
- Move in patterns. As the snake gets long, sweeping back and forth in rows keeps your tail neatly out of the way.
- Do not chase every apple directly. Sometimes it is safer to go the long way round.
- Leave an escape route. Never steer into a space smaller than your snake can get out of.
- Use pause. If things get busy, pause, take a breath and plan your next move.
Common questions
Can the snake turn around?
Not straight back on itself, because it would run into its own body. You can turn left or right, and then turn again to head back.
Does the snake speed up?
In many versions the snake gets a little faster as it grows. Here it keeps the speed you choose in Settings: Slow (the default), Normal or Fast.
Can the snake go through the walls?
In the classic game, hitting a wall ends the game, and that is how we start you off. Choose soft walls in Settings to let the snake wrap round and come out of the opposite side.
What is the best way to get a high score?
Move in tidy patterns, such as back-and-forth rows, so your tail is always out of the way. Avoid trapping yourself in a corner.
Where it comes from
Games where a growing line must avoid crashing into walls and itself go back to the early arcade era of the 1970s. The idea became hugely popular when versions of the game were included on mobile phones in the late 1990s. It remains one of the most widely recognised simple arcade games.
