On a phone or tablet
- Tap any group of 2 or more matching tiles.
- The group lights up before you commit to it.
- The page stays still while you play.
Puzzle Pop
Quick puzzles, sixty seconds each.
Shuffling the board…
How to play Puzzle Pop
60 seconds to start with. What happens next is up to how well you clear.
On a keyboard
- Arrow keys move the cursor around the board.
- Space or Enter clears the group under it.
- P or Escape pauses; R starts a new round when one ends.
The rule
- Tiles join edge to edge only — corners do not count.
- Tapping a tile with no matching neighbour breaks your chain.
- If no moves remain, the board re-deals and your score carries over.
Buying time
The clock is the real opponent. Scoring and surviving are the same skill.
Time
- Every tile past the second one in a clear adds time.
- A pair buys nothing at all — it only scores.
- So hunting for a group of 6 beats clearing three quick pairs.
Points
- Each tile in a clear is worth 10 points, times your chain.
- Four or more keeps the chain going, up to ×5.
- A pair breaks the chain before it scores, so it earns the base rate.
Three habits that add a hundred points
- Clear from the bottom. Tiles fall downwards, so a low clear reshuffles everything above it and often drops new groups into place for free.
- Leave the pairs alone. They score nothing much, buy no time, and break your chain. Only take one when the board gives you nothing else.
- Spend the last ten seconds greedily.Below ten seconds the clock is the only thing that matters, so take the biggest group you can see rather than the best-scoring one.
What you can unlock
Earned by driving, never bought. Tracked on this device, and on your account when you sign in.
First Pop
You cleared your first cluster.
Finish a round
Big Clear
Six tiles in one go.
Clear 6 tiles at once
On a Roll
Six good clusters in a row without a small one.
Chain 6 clusters
Board Sweeper
Two hundred tiles cleared in a single round.
Clear 200 tiles in a round
Stretching Time
You kept a sixty-second round alive for ninety.
Make a round last 90 seconds
Six Colours
Seven hundred points with the full palette against you.
Score 700 on Hard
Questions
- Is Puzzle Pop free?
- Yes. No purchases, no currency, no paid advantage. Everything is earned by playing.
- How do I clear tiles?
- Tap any group of two or more matching tiles that touch edge to edge. Diagonals do not count. The tiles above drop down and new ones fall in from the top.
- How does the clock work?
- You start with sixty seconds and it runs down continuously. Every tile above the second one in a clear puts time back, so a group of six buys far more than three groups of two.
- What is the chain?
- Clearing four or more tiles at once extends your chain and raises the multiplier. Clearing just a pair, or tapping a lone tile, breaks it.
- What if there are no moves left?
- The board re-deals itself. You are never stuck, and your score and clock carry straight over.
- Can I play without a touchscreen?
- Yes. The arrow keys move a cursor around the board and Space clears the group under it.
See how your drives compare on the Puzzle Pop leaderboard.