Play Mahjong Solitaire online ▶ Play now — runs natively, no emulator
Guide updated October 2026 · Runs via WebAssembly (native port)
The tile-matching patience game, played with a full set of 136 mahjong tiles stacked into a layout. Take tiles off in matching pairs; a tile can only be taken when nothing sits on top of it and it is open on its left or right side. Clear the whole stack to win. Unlike many versions, every deal here can be cleared: the tiles are laid out by playing a random game backwards, so a solution always exists — the challenge is finding it.
Controls — what does what
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse / touch |
|---|---|---|
| Select / match a tile | Tab to a tile, Enter | Click the tile |
| Show a possible match | — | Hint |
| Take back a pair | — | Undo |
FREE This is the complete game, free. Written from scratch for ExeBrowser, with public-domain (CC0) tile art — all four layouts, free.
Tile art: FluffyStuff/riichi-mahjong-tiles, CC0 (licence). Game code written for ExeBrowser — see NOTICE.md.
How to play
Click a free tile, then another free tile with the same face, and both disappear. Blocked tiles are shaded darker. Identical faces match: the same number of the same suit (circles, bamboo or characters), the same wind or the same dragon. The counter above the board shows how many pairs are left and how many matches are open to you right now. When that number reaches zero you're stuck — press Undo to back out of the dead end, or Shuffle to rearrange the tiles still on the board.
Layouts
- Turtle — the traditional shape: a wide base with stepped layers in the middle. The best place to start.
- Pyramid — four layers rising to a small peak. The tiles you need are often buried deep, so open the top early.
- Bridge — long and low, with two layers stacked on the centre span. Many tiles are blocked side-to-side rather than from above.
- Fortress — a walled square with towers at the corners. The towers have to come down before the walls open up.
Strategy
Prefer matches that free other tiles: a tile on top of a stack or at the end of a long row unlocks more than one in the open. When three or four of a face are free, think before you take two — the pair you leave behind may be the only way into a stack later. Hint shows one possible match, but not necessarily the best one. Shuffle keeps the game winnable, but undo history is cleared when you use it.
About this version
The game is our own code. The tile artwork is FluffyStuff's riichi mahjong tile set, which its author has dedicated to the public domain. That set has no flower or season tiles, so the layouts here use the 136 standard tiles — 34 faces, four of each — instead of the 144 some versions use.
Frequently asked questions
Is every game really winnable?
Yes. Tiles are assigned by simulating a complete game in reverse — repeatedly picking two positions that would both be free and giving them the same face — so at least one way to clear the board exists. Shuffle uses the same method on the remaining tiles.
Which tiles can I take?
A tile is free when no tile lies on top of it (even partly) and at least one of its long sides — left or right — has no neighbour at the same height.
Does it save my game?
Yes. If you close the page mid-game, the layout and the tiles you've removed are kept in this browser and come back next time.
More you can play in your browser
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Want a game like this on your own site?
Mahjong Solitaire isn't ours to give away — we host it, we didn't write it. But eleven of the games here we did write from scratch, and those are free for anyone to put on their own page: one line of HTML, no account, no permission, no attribution beyond a credit line.