Featured: ChessSnakes & Ladders
Race your friends to square 100. Climb the ladders, dodge the snakes and be the first to reach 100. Free, no download, no sign up.
How to play Snakes and Ladders online
Create or join a room
Share the 6 letter code with up to five friends.
Climb ladders
Land on the bottom of a ladder to jump straight up.
Dodge snakes
Land on a snake's head and slide down to its tail.
Reach 100 first
The first player to reach square 100 wins the race.
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Rules we use
- Take turns rolling the dice and move forward that many squares.
- Rolling a 6 gives you another roll.
- Three 6s in a row ends your turn.
- Land on the foot of a ladder and climb it to the top.
- Land on the head of a snake and slide all the way down to its tail.
- You need the exact roll to land on 100. The host can switch this off.
- Each turn has a timer so the race keeps moving.
Snakes and Ladders FAQ
Can I play Snakes and Ladders online with friends?
Yes. Create a room, share the 6 letter code or the invite link, and everyone plays on their own phone or computer. It is free, with no download and no account.
How do you play Snakes and Ladders?
Every player starts off the board and takes turns rolling one die, moving that many squares along a numbered track to 100. A ladder carries you up, a snake drops you down, and the first player to reach square 100 exactly wins.
How many players can join?
Two to six players in one room. More players makes for a longer and noisier game, because there are more turns between each of yours and more chances for somebody to hit the long snake near the end.
Do you need an exact roll to win?
In the traditional rules, yes. On square 97 you need a 3, and anything higher means you stay where you are and wait. The host can turn that off, in which case any roll that reaches or passes 100 wins. Leaving it on makes the finish much tenser and is how most people learned it.
Is Snakes and Ladders a game of skill?
No, and unusually for a board game it is a pure one. Every move is decided entirely by the die, there are no choices at all, and the outcome of a game is fixed the moment the rolls happen. That is why it works so well across a mixed group: a complete beginner and a veteran have exactly the same chance.
How long does a game take?
On the standard board a two player game runs about 45 rolls on average, so a few minutes online. The spread is wide though, because a single long snake near the top can undo twenty squares of progress, and a game occasionally runs two or three times its usual length.
What is the difference between Snakes and Ladders and Chutes and Ladders?
They are the same game. Milton Bradley brought it to the United States in 1943 and replaced the snakes with playground chutes, keeping the board layout and the rules intact. Elsewhere it stayed snakes.
Does it work on phones?
Yes. It works on mobile, tablet and desktop with no app to install. The board scales to your screen and tokens move square by square so everyone can see what happened.
Play Snakes and Ladders online, free and in real time
Snakes and Ladders is the board game almost everybody played first. One die, a hundred squares, no decisions and no mercy. This free online version puts the classic board in your browser so two to six players can race from any phone, tablet or computer, each on their own screen, with nothing to install.
A game with a moral, originally
The game began in India as Moksha Patam, and it was not built for fun. The ladders stood for virtues and the snakes for vices, the board was a map of the soul's progress toward liberation, and the original layouts had far more snakes than ladders on purpose: falling was meant to be easier than climbing. The Victorians brought it to Britain in the 1890s, balanced the snakes and ladders roughly evenly, and quietly dropped the theology. Milton Bradley took it to America in 1943 as Chutes and Ladders, swapping the snakes for playground slides.
Why there is nothing to decide, and why that is the point
Snakes and Ladders is one of very few published games with no decisions whatsoever. You roll, you move, the board does the rest. Mathematically the whole game is a Markov chain: every square has a fixed set of probabilities for where you end up next, and the result is settled entirely by the dice.
That sounds like a criticism and is really the reason it has lasted. A five year old and an adult have precisely the same chance of winning, which almost no other board game can offer. Nobody has to be let win, and nobody can be accused of trying too hard.
The numbers are quite neat too. On the standard board a solo game takes a median of about 32 rolls and a two player game around 45, but the distribution has a long tail, because the snake near the top can send a player who was three squares from victory back down most of the board. That single square is responsible for most of the shouting.
The exact roll ending
The traditional finish requires an exact roll to land on 100. From square 97 you need a 3, and a 4, 5 or 6 leaves you where you are. It is the one rule people argue about, because a player can sit one square away for several turns while somebody behind them catches up. The host can switch it off, which ends games faster and more gently. We leave it on by default because the alternative removes the last bit of tension the game has.
Private rooms with a simple code
Create a room and share the 6 letter code or the invite link. Friends join straight away with no account and no download. The host sets the number of players, the turn timer and whether the exact roll rule applies, then starts the game. The timer keeps things moving when somebody puts their phone down mid race.
Why play Snakes and Ladders here?
It is completely free, it works on every device, and the dice are genuinely random rather than nudged to keep games close. Tokens move one square at a time so everybody can follow exactly how somebody ended up back on square 12, which is, after all, most of the entertainment.