Free browser game
Play tic tac toe online
Free, no download and no sign-up. Play against the computer on three difficulty levels, or switch to two players and share your screen. Your score, mode and difficulty are remembered in this browser.
Tic tac toe board
Medium takes any win it sees and blocks yours.
Your turn (X)
What is tic tac toe?
Tic tac toe is a two-player pencil-and-paper game played on a 3×3 grid. One player marks squares with X and the other with O, taking turns until one of them lines up three of their own marks in a row, column or diagonal. It is known as noughts and crosses in Britain and Ireland, and it is one of the oldest and simplest strategy games still widely played.
How to play the game on this page
- Pick a mode. "Play vs AI" puts you against the computer as X. "Two players" lets two people share this screen, taking turns.
- Choose a difficulty if you are playing the computer. Easy, Medium and Hard behave very differently, and you can change level mid-round.
- Click or tap any empty square to place your mark. X always moves first.
- Line up three in a row, column or diagonal to win. The three winning squares light up and a line is drawn through them.
- Use "New round" to play again keeping the score, or "Reset score" to start the series over.
How the computer opponent works
The computer runs one of three different algorithms depending on the difficulty you pick. Easy chooses a random empty square. Medium checks for a winning move, then for a move that blocks you, then prefers the centre and corners. Hard runs a full minimax search of every possible continuation, which makes it impossible to beat.
| Level | Method | Can you beat it? |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | Picks a random empty square with no lookahead. | Yes, often. |
| Medium | Wins if it can, blocks if it must, then takes the centre or a corner. | Yes, if you build a fork. |
| Hard | Minimax search of the whole game tree, preferring faster wins. | No — a draw is the best result. |
This is not a simplified web re-write. The browser game imports the same TypeScript rule engine and the same opponent code that ships inside the Android app, so the opponent you face here behaves identically to the one on your phone.
Basic winning strategies
To win at tic tac toe, take the centre square first if it is free, because it belongs to four of the eight winning lines. Always take an immediate win, and always block your opponent's line the moment it appears. To beat an attentive opponent you need a fork — a single move that creates two separate threats, so only one can be blocked.
- Centre first. Four lines run through it; each corner has three, each edge only two.
- Corners over edges. Corners give you more ways to build a second threat.
- Check for your own win before anything else. Easy and Medium opponents will hand you one.
- Then check theirs. A single unblocked line ends the round immediately.
- Aim for two threats. One is blockable; two is not.
Against Hard, none of this will win — but the same instincts stop you losing, which is exactly what perfect play looks like from the other side.
The Android app
Take it off the browser and onto your phone
The browser game and the app run the same rules and the same opponent. What changes is everything around the board.
-
Genuinely works with no connection
Not "works once it has loaded" — the app makes no network requests at all. On a plane, on the underground, or with data switched off, it plays exactly the same. The browser version still needs the page to load first.
-
You feel every move
A light tap as your mark lands, a different buzz when you win, and an error nudge if you tap a square that is taken. Browsers can only do a fraction of this, and not at all on iPhone.
-
One tap from your home screen
No tab to find, no address to type, nothing to load. It opens straight into the board, full screen, with no browser bar taking up the top of your phone.
-
Nothing collected, nothing shown
No ads between rounds, no account, no sign-in, and no data collected — a claim you can check yourself in the Data safety section of the Play listing.
- Free
- No ads
- No account
- Rated for 3+
Android phones and tablets · package com.shahbaz.tictactoe · published by Syed Shahbaz Hussain
FAQ
Questions about the browser game
How the online version behaves, and how it differs from the app.
What do I need to play in the browser?
Any current browser on any device. The game works in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge, on phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. It runs entirely on your device with no server round-trips, so it stays responsive on slow connections and keeps working if your connection drops mid-round.
Can I play using the keyboard?
Yes. Tab to the board, then use the arrow keys to move between squares and Enter or Space to place your mark. Every square is a real button with a spoken label describing its position and contents, and turn changes and results are announced to screen readers.
Does the game save my scores?
The browser game on this site keeps your score, mode and difficulty in your own browser, so a refresh will not wipe them. The Android app works differently: it counts wins and draws for the current session and resets them when you leave the match. Neither version uploads anything anywhere.
Is registration required?
No. Tic Tac Toe has no accounts at all, on this website or in the Android app. You never enter a name, an email address or a password. The browser game stores your preferences locally on your own device and nothing is sent to a server.
Who goes first in tic tac toe?
X always moves first, in both the browser game and the Android app. This is the standard convention and it matters: with perfect play from both sides the game is a draw, but X has more chances to force a mistake. Against the computer you always play as X.