Free brain games

Six reasoning games that teach as you play. Every round ends with the answer explained, and every game comes with the trick behind it. Free, with no sign-up.

• Daily PatternMixed reasoning, every dayThree new puzzles every day, the same for everyone. Keep your streak going.
• Rule HunterFinding hidden rulesStudy the examples, crack the secret rule, sort new pictures.
• Balance ScaleLogic with weightsRead the balanced scales and work out what weighs what.
• Mirror MindTurning shapes in your headSame shape turned, or a mirror image? Decide fast.
• Path FinderPlanning aheadPlan a route across a number grid that follows the rule.
• Code BreakerDeduction from cluesUse the clues to crack a hidden four-symbol code.

Games that explain themselves

Many brain games only test how fast you react or how much you can remember. These games are built around reasoning, the same kind of thinking our IQ test looks at: finding rules, working out what follows, planning ahead and turning shapes in your head. When you get something wrong, the game shows you why, so each round teaches you something.

Can brain games raise your IQ?

Practice makes you better at the games you practise. Whether that carries over to other kinds of thinking is much less clear: a large review of brain-training research found good evidence for improvement on the trained tasks, but little evidence of wider benefits (Simons and colleagues, 2016). So play these games because they are interesting and because they teach useful ways of thinking, not because they promise a higher score.