Puzzle games

Puzzle games ask you to work something out rather than react fast: a board to clear, an object to spot, a number to reach. The category holds about 1,600. Match-3 is the biggest single style with around 120, and hidden object scenes follow at roughly 90. Mahjong comes to about 160 across its solitaire, classic and connect versions. In mahjong solitaire you pair matching tiles that are free on the left or right until the stacked layout is gone; mahjong connect wants pairs a line can join with at most two turns. Add some 55 games built on 2048-style merging, a similar number of brain teasers, and smaller sets of bubble shooters, memory cards and word puzzles.

Some titles bend the familiar rules. Prism Match 3D turns match-3 into a rotating stack of cubes, sending tiles to a small tray where three of a kind clear. Drop Planets merges falling planets into bigger ones and ends when the pile crosses a danger line. Seat the Guests is pure logic: place wedding guests so no table repeats a number and no two matching colours sit side by side.

With a few spare minutes, try a daily puzzle, a round of memory cards or a single match-3 level. With an evening ahead, a full mahjong layout or a hidden object mystery gives you something to settle into. Most need only clicks, taps and drags, so a phone suits many of them. All are free and open straight in the browser, with no app to fetch first.