Matching Pairs

How to play Matching Pairs

1. Every card starts face down. Tap one to flip it, then tap a second.
2. If the two faces match, the pair is yours — it stays face up. In two-player games a match also means you go again.
3. If they don't match, both flip back over. Remember where they were — that's the whole game.
4. Clear the board to finish. Solo, fewer moves is better; head-to-head, most pairs wins.
5. Pick your table: 12, 16, or 24 cards, in animal, food, or travel themes.

A little background

The concentration card game — matching pairs, Pelmanism, or simply "the memory game", depending on whose living room you learned it in — has been played with ordinary playing cards since at least the 1930s, and as a boxed set of picture tiles since the 1950s. It's the rare game a four-year-old can win honestly against an adult, because young brains are shockingly good at remembering where the frog went — which is exactly the flip-and-groan moment this version is built around.

Play it solo against your own best move count, take on the shared daily deal to build a streak, pass one phone around the table with the classic match-and-go-again rule, or start a duel: two devices, one live table, same cards on both screens. Free, no ads, no account — and everything but the duel works offline once loaded.