How to Play Snake
Snake is played on a 21x21 grid. Your neon snake starts three segments long and never stops moving - you only steer it with the arrow keys, WASD, a swipe, or the on-screen D-pad. Guide the head onto the glowing food to eat it: every bite makes the snake one segment longer and a little faster, starting at 7 cells per second and climbing toward a blistering 16. Each food is worth 10 points plus a bonus that grows with your current speed, so surviving deep into a run pays more per bite.
The classic rules apply: crashing into any of the four walls ends the run instantly, and so does biting any part of your own body. You can't reverse directly into yourself either - a 180-degree turn is ignored. Press Space or P (or the pause button) any time to freeze the action, then dive back in.
Strategy Tips
- Follow your own tail - the safest empty cell on the board is the one your tail just left. When boxed in, steering along the path of your own body almost always opens up as you move.
- Sweep in lanes, not diagonals - mow the grid in long S-shaped rows like a lawnmower. It keeps your body organized in parallel lines instead of a loose coil that traps you.
- Approach food from open space - before you grab a bite near a wall or your own body, check where the head goes on the very next tick. Food next to a wall is a classic trap at high speed.
- Buffer your turns - the game queues your last two inputs, so at top speed you can tap two quick turns (say, up then left) to make a sharp U-turn around a corner without waiting between presses.
- Stay off the walls late in the run - early on the edges are fine, but once you pass 16 speed-boosted segments, hugging a wall halves your escape options. Fight for the middle of the board.
Read the full Snake guide →
Playing Snake on PlayVersusAI
The arcade game that came on every phone before phones had app stores. Steer the snake around a 21-column grid, eat the food, grow one segment longer each time, and avoid running into the walls or into yourself. Arrow keys, WASD, or swipes on touch.
It speeds up as you grow, which is what turns a simple game into a genuine test. The difficulty is not really the controls — it is that the obstacle you have to avoid is your own tail, so every point you score makes the board harder. Late-game Snake is a spatial planning problem disguised as reflexes.
What's on This Page
- High-score table — highest scores are ranked on the global leaderboard when you are signed in.
- No account required — the full game is playable as a guest, on desktop, tablet or phone.
There is no difficulty setting. The game gets harder on its own as the snake lengthens and the pace increases, which is difficulty enough.
Mistakes That Lose Games
- Taking the shortest route to the food. The direct line frequently leaves your tail coiled across the space you need next. Think about where you will be after you eat, not just how to get there.
- Hugging the centre. Keeping to the outside and spiralling inward leaves far more escape routes than cutting through the middle.
- Turning twice in quick succession. At speed, a double tap folds the snake into itself before the first turn has registered.
- Panicking as it accelerates. The speed increase is gradual and predictable — the deaths come from abandoning your plan, not from genuinely running out of reaction time.
Snake Questions
Does the game get faster?
Yes, the snake speeds up as it grows, so the same level of control gets progressively harder to maintain.
Can I pass through the walls?
No. Hitting a wall ends the game, as does running into your own body. There is no wrap-around mode.
How do high scores work?
Your best score is submitted to the global high-score table when you are logged in. Guest games still play normally but are not recorded under a name.
For the complete rules, the deeper strategy and the history of the game, read the full Snake guide, or browse guides for all 20 games.