How to play Memory Match
A complete guide to the memory card game: the rules, how moves and points are counted, and the techniques that help you clear a board in fewer moves.
In one paragraph. Every picture appears on exactly two cards, and all the cards start face down. Turn over two cards per move. If they show the same picture, you have found a pair and they stay open; if not, they turn back over and it is up to you to remember what was where. Find every pair to clear the board. The game counts your moves - the fewer, the better - and a cleared board is worth 1 point on Easy, 2 on Medium and 3 on Hard.
The rules of the memory game
Memory Match is the solo version of a card game played for well over a century under many names: Concentration, Pairs, Pexeso, Pelmanism, Match Up or simply Memory. The rules could not be simpler:
- The cards are shuffled and laid out face down in a grid. Each picture is on exactly two cards.
- Turn over one card, then a second one. Those two cards together are one move.
- A match stays open. If the two pictures are the same, the pair is found: it stays face up, framed in green, and cannot be turned again.
- A miss turns back. If the pictures differ, both cards flip face down after a moment. You can tap the next card straight away instead of waiting - the wrong pair turns back at once.
- The board is cleared when every pair has been found. There is no way to lose: the only question is how many moves it takes you.
Playing this game
On a phone or tablet
- Tap a face-down card to turn it over.
- The whole board is sized to fit on one screen, so you can see every card without scrolling - which matters, because remembering positions is the whole game.
- When a pair is found, the phone gives a short buzz.
- Pause covers the board and stops the clock, so it cannot be used to study the cards.
On a computer
- Click a card to turn it.
- Keyboard: Tab or the arrow keys move between cards, Enter or Space turns the one in focus, Esc closes a dialog.
Board sizes, moves and points
The three levels differ only in how many cards there are - but memory load grows faster than the card count, since every extra pair is one more position to hold in mind while you look for the rest.
| Level | Cards | Pairs | Grid | Points for clearing it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 16 | 8 | 4 × 4 | 1 |
| Medium | 24 | 12 | 4 × 6 (6 × 4 on a wide screen) | 2 |
| Hard | 36 | 18 | 6 × 6 | 3 |
What is a good score? The theoretical minimum is one move per pair - 8 on Easy - but that needs pure luck. A player with a perfect memory and no luck at all needs roughly one and a half to two moves per pair. As a rough guide:
| Level | Excellent | Good | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 12 moves or fewer | 13–18 | 19+ |
| Medium | 20 or fewer | 21–28 | 29+ |
| Hard | 32 or fewer | 33–45 | 46+ |
The header shows your total points, wins and games played; the counter above the board shows the moves of the game in progress, the pairs found so far and your best (lowest) number of moves on the current level.
The hint button
Stuck? A hint uncovers one pair for good. If you have already turned one card, it finds that card's partner; otherwise it opens a random pair that is still hidden. A hint counts as one move - exactly as if you had turned the pair yourself - so it helps you finish, not beat your best. Hints are unlimited and cost no points; the move they add is the only price.
Memory techniques that save moves
1. Never waste the first card
The most important rule. When you turn your first card, ask: have I already seen its partner? If yes, turn that one - a guaranteed pair. Only if the picture is new should the second card be an unknown one. Turning two unknowns "to see what happens" throws away half a move.
2. Sweep the board in order
Instead of tapping around at random, uncover new cards in a fixed order - row by row, left to right. You then only need to remember which pictures you have seen and roughly where in the sweep, not a scatter of unrelated spots. Your memory of the board grows as neatly as the sweep.
3. Say it out loud (or in your head)
Name the picture and its place in a short phrase: "moon, top corner", "cactus, second row, middle". Words stick much better than images alone, because you store the same fact twice - once as a picture and once as a sound.
4. Build little stories
Link neighbouring cards into one scene: the rocket next to the planet is "the rocket flying to the planet", the fish beside the anchor is "the fish under the boat". One story holds two or three positions for the price of one.
5. Use the edges and corners
Corners and edges are the easiest places to remember, the middle of a big grid the hardest. On Hard, pay extra attention to cards in the centre, and use the corners as landmarks: "two to the right of the top-left corner".
6. Let the found pairs help you
As pairs are found, the board fills with green-framed cards, and those become new landmarks. Late in a game, the few cards still face down are easy to track - this is where good players make up for a slow start.
Memory Match for children
Pairs games are one of the first games many children learn, and there is good reason: they need no reading, the rules fit in one sentence, and children are often genuinely better at them than adults. Start on Easy with 16 cards, let them name every picture aloud as it turns, and move on to Medium when Easy is cleared in under 20 moves. The pictures in this game are friendly everyday things - fruit, a flower, the sun and the moon - with nothing frightening or fiddly.
Why memory games are good for you
Finding pairs exercises visual working memory - holding what something looks like - and spatial memory - holding where it is - at the same time, along with attention and concentration (hence one of the game's names). A few minutes of it is a pleasant, low-stress mental workout for any age.
A short history
Matching games with cards are old: in Japan, kai-awase - matching painted shell halves - was played at the imperial court almost a thousand years ago. In Britain the card game became known as Pelmanism, after the Pelman Institute's memory-training courses popular in the early twentieth century. In America it became Concentration, the name of a long-running television quiz show from 1958 built around a board of hidden matching prizes. Commercial boxed versions for children followed in the 1950s and 60s, and today the game is one of the most popular casual games on phones and computers.
Frequently asked questions
Is this memory game free?
Yes. Every level is free, there is no account and no purchase. The game is paid for by the advertising described in our Privacy Policy.
What counts as a move?
Turning over two cards is one move, whether they match or not, and so is a pair uncovered by a hint. A board with 8 pairs therefore takes at least 8 moves.
Can I lose?
No. There is no time limit and no limit on moves: every game ends with the board cleared and the point earned. The challenge is to do it in as few moves as possible and beat your own best.
Are the cards the same every game?
No. The deck has eighteen hand-drawn pictures. Hard uses all of them; Easy and Medium pick a random set each game, and every board is shuffled in your browser, so no two games are laid out the same way.
Is my progress saved?
Yes. The board, the pairs you have found, your moves, the timer, your points and your best result per level live in your browser's local storage. Close the tab and come back later and the board is waiting. A pair that was just turned wrong is face down again after a reload. Clearing your browser data or playing in private mode erases it.
Can I play offline?
Once the page has loaded, the game itself needs no connection - everything runs in your browser. Only the advertisement and the measurement need the network.
How many points can I earn?
One point for each Easy board you clear, two for Medium and three for Hard. There is no cap: the total simply adds up in your browser. It is a personal counter, not a ranking, and it has no monetary value.