The best games for a work break, sorted by how long you have

If you have two minutes

Two minutes is a kettle boil or the gap before a call. You want a game where a whole round fits, so you stop at an ending instead of in the middle of something.

1. Flappy ~1 min · Brutal

   A round is usually under a minute. Tap to flap, hit a pipe, done — the shortest complete game on the site.

2. Snake ~3 min · Easy to learn

   Instantly familiar, and a round rarely outlasts three minutes. Keyboard or swipe.

3. Golf Solitaire ~3 min · Easy to learn

   A whole card game in about three minutes: play one rank up or down and clear the seven columns.

4. Queens ~3 min · Takes practice

   A small logic grid you can finish before the meeting link loads. No hints to feel guilty about.

5. 15 Puzzle ~3 min · Easy to learn

   The 3×3 board is a one-minute sliding puzzle; step up to 4×4 when you have longer.

If you have five minutes

Five minutes is the classic coffee break, and it is where the all-time office games live. These take a round or two to warm up and reward getting a little better each day.

1. Tetris ~5 min · Takes practice

   Still the best five-minute reset there is. Three modes, and the pace rises with you.

2. Minesweeper ~4 min · Takes practice

   Beginner clears in well under a minute, Intermediate fills a coffee. Ranked by time, so every board is a fresh attempt.

3. 2048 ~5 min · Easy to learn

   Turn-based and saves itself, so it does not mind if you are interrupted halfway.

4. Pac-Man ~4 min · Takes practice

   Four minutes of maze, dots and ghosts. Pure arcade with nothing to set up.

5. Pyramid Solitaire ~4 min · Easy to learn

   Pair cards that add up to 13. A full deal takes about four minutes and the rule fits in one sentence.

If you have ten or fifteen minutes

A lunch break or a proper afternoon pause has room for a slower game — one with a puzzle to work through rather than a reflex to train. These are calm, have no clock pushing you, and most of them save mid-game.

1. Sudoku ~10 min · Takes practice

   Easy to Expert, with pencil marks, undo and an autosave. Looks exactly like work from across the room.

2. Solitaire ~8 min · Takes practice

   Klondike, done properly: Draw 1 for a gentle game, Draw 3 without redeals for a real one.

3. Mahjong Solitaire ~8 min · Takes practice

   Pair free tiles off a layered stack. Every deal can be cleared, so it never ends on a dead board.

4. Spider Solitaire ~12 min · Takes practice

   Two decks, ten columns. One suit is a relaxed ten minutes; four suits will take the whole lunch.

5. Kakuro ~10 min · Takes practice

   A crossword made of sums. Unhurried arithmetic with no clock pushing you.

For an open-plan office

Every game here is silent, but some look quieter than others. If you would rather your screen read as “thinking” than “playing”, pick a grid: Sudoku, Nonogram, Calcudoku and Minesweeper all pass for a spreadsheet at a glance. The turn-based ones — 2048, Color Lines, the card games — also forgive a sudden “got a minute?” from a colleague.

For a break with a colleague

Gorillas is the one hot-seat game here: two players, one keyboard, explosive bananas over a city skyline. Everything else is single-player, but you can still compare: link up with a colleague and you each see the other’s best score on every board, and nobody else does.

1. Gorillas ~5 min · Easy to learn

   Take turns on one keyboard, mind the wind, settle the argument properly.

Make the break end on time

The easiest way to keep a game break a break is to decide when it ends before it starts. The clock in the header can count down five, ten or fifteen minutes and tells you, quietly, when time is up. The break planner picks games that fit the time you have and starts that clock for you.