Brick Breaker: how to play, score higher and clear more stages

What Brick Breaker is and how the rules work

Brick Breaker belongs to the family of breakout games. A wall of bricks hangs at the top of the screen, a ball bounces around the field and your paddle sits at the bottom. You cannot touch the ball directly. Your only tool is the paddle, which you slide left and right to bounce the ball back up. Each time the ball hits a brick, the brick breaks and you score points. When every brick is gone, you clear the stage, earn a bonus and move on to a new pattern.

You have three lives. If the last ball on the field falls past the paddle, you lose one life, and when none are left the game ends. Bricks in the upper rows are worth more than bricks in the lower rows, ranging from 10 points at the bottom to 50 at the top. Some bricks are tougher and need two hits. Stages use different patterns, and the ball gets a bit faster as you advance, so the same skills are tested under growing pressure.

Controls and a quick start

The game works on phones, tablets and computers, and the controls are intentionally simple so you can start within seconds.

The ball waits on your paddle at the beginning of each life. If you do not launch it, it starts by itself after a few seconds, so take a moment to position the paddle first.

• On a phone or tablet, drag your finger across the play field to slide the paddle. You do not have to touch the paddle itself.
• On a computer, move the mouse, or use the left and right arrow keys.
• Tap the field or press the space bar to launch the ball.
• Where the ball lands on the paddle decides its angle: the middle sends it straight up and the edges send it off to the side, up to a steep angle.
• Catch falling capsules with the paddle to collect power-ups, but never leave the ball just to chase one.

Strategy for clearing more stages

The first skill is positioning. Keep the paddle under the ball's predicted landing spot rather than chasing it at the last moment, and stay relaxed with your hand. Beginners tend to hit everything with the middle of the paddle, which sends the ball straight up and straight back down, so the game becomes repetitive. Learn to use the edges deliberately: hitting with the left side sends the ball to the left, and you can aim at a specific column that way.

The second skill is planning. Clearing a column on the edge of the wall opens a channel, and a ball that slips through bounces around above the bricks and breaks several in a row without you doing anything. Aim for that channel when you can. Do not take risks for capsules. A wide paddle lasts about fifteen seconds and makes catching easier, while multi-ball can give you more balls to track, which is great for points and dangerous if you lose focus. Losing the last ball also loses any active power-up, so prioritize the ball you can reach. As speed builds in later stages, breathe, keep your eyes on the ball and small movements will serve you better than sweeping ones.

A short history of breakout games

Breakout arrived in arcades in 1976 from Atari, which had made its name with Pong a few years earlier. The idea was elegant: take the paddle-and-ball setup of Pong, remove the opponent and give the player a wall to demolish. The simple concept was an immediate success and inspired countless clones and variations on home computers and consoles for decades.

In 1986 the Japanese company Taito released Arkanoid, which added falling power-up capsules, tougher bricks and different stage layouts, ideas that nearly every modern brick-breaking game still uses. The genre has many local names: in Japan it is called block breaking, in France a casse-briques and in Russia people often call it arkanoid. The staying power comes from how readable the game is. You understand it in seconds, and you can see exactly why you lost a ball, which makes it easy to say one more try.

Scores, friendly competition and privacy

At the end of a game you see your score, the stage you reached, how many bricks you broke and a rank title based on your score. Your best score is saved in your own browser only. When the game ends, your score is also sent anonymously and compared with other players' scores. The top percentage appears only when there are real scores to compare against, and if none are available, nothing is shown.

Challenge friends by sharing your result and asking them to beat it. A fair way to compare is to play on a similar device, because the way you control the paddle affects results. No account is needed, and no personal information is collected. Cookies and advertising are explained in the privacy policy at the bottom of the page.