Who could ever think a 9×9 square would equate to the world’s greatest pastime? Apart from the traditional way of solving it in the newspaper, people look to play Sudoku online.
Sudoku is a Japanese word made by combining two syllables. ‘Su’ means number, and ‘Doku’ means a single place. The game’s objective is to fill a 9×9 square grid with numbers ranging from 1 to 9. But, you need to place every number in a way so that no number repeats in any row, column, or 3×3 square space. The best part of playing Sudoku online is the endless number of puzzles with limitless attempts!
In this article, we highlight the best websites and tips for playing Sudoku online.
Play Sudoku Online for Free
Here are the top 7 websites where you can play Sudoku puzzles for free online:
- Demonoid
- Websudoku
- 247 Sudoku
- Sudokubum
- Sudoku Kingdom
- Sudoku Name
- Sudoku online
Demonoid
This is one of the best websites to play Sudoku online. Demonoid gives you an option to choose your difficulty levels, namely easy, medium and hard. Once you start playing, if you aren’t sure of the correct answer, you have the option to make notes and try multiple answers. Moreover, you can also check hints to fill in numbers.
Furthermore, this website offers to erase and undo moves so you can minimize the errors. You can even keep a check on your performance with the help of a timer simultaneously.
Websudoku
This is another leading website that you can consider to play free Sudoku online. The amount of puzzles on this website is huge. Websudoku offers four difficulty levels:
- Easy – 8,110,215,777 puzzles
- Medium – 421,647,421 puzzles
- Hard – 3,913,271 puzzles puzzles
- Super hard – 334,663,854 puzzles
Moreover, you can easily choose the puzzle or pick a random one to solve. To engage more with the players, the website offers customization of background colors, keeping track of your correct puzzles, the option to print a puzzle, etc. Also, it highlights the wrong number in red. Moreover, you can show and hide pencil marks which you can use for rough work on the website. All these features come for free. However, if you want to create your personalized puzzle book, you will have to upgrade to a premium account.
247 Sudoku
With a default wooden theme and sound effects, 247 Sudoku is one of the best websites to play Sudoku online. There are over 14 theme options like Spring, Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine, etc. You can also customize the grid and change the virtual keypad along with the website’s background.
247 Sudoku offers four levels: easy, medium, hard, and expert. It gives you daily challenges and eventually shows your ranking among players. However, it restricts you from filling in the wrong numbers while playing. But if you are looking for a website with appealing graphics and a built-in guide for new players, 247 Sudoku is a good option.
Sudokubum
If you are looking for an ad-free website and want to enjoy free online Sudoku on full screen, Sudokubum is ideal.
The appealing, neat, and good-looking interface of this website makes it a user-friendly platform. There are six difficulty levels: very easy, easy, medium, tough, very tough, and extreme. But if you are a beginner and want to learn while playing, this website provides you with an all-notes option that highlights all the numbers you can fill in a particular block. However, you can turn off this option if you are an advanced player.
Sudokubum generates a unique string for every unique Sudoku puzzle. You can enter a code or string shared by anyone else to open that particular puzzle through the import option. You can even share the string with your friends and family to share your victory.
Sudoku Kingdom
Another website you can consider for playing free Sudoku is the Sudoku Kingdom. This website is a bit different from others. Instead of multiple and endless puzzles at one go, it challenges the player with one puzzle per day.
One of the interesting features is that you can compete globally and make it to the global leaderboard. It publishes the solutions weekly. Three players scoring more than a hundred points receive rewards with an e-book of Sudoku puzzles every month. You can pick from any four difficulty levels or can even print your puzzle on this website for free.
Sudoku Name
Sudoku Name is also one of the best websites to play Sudoku online. Offering multiple features on one page, this website assures an ultimate experience. For instance, you can see all the places where the number you chose appears with the highlight digit option. So, if you choose digit 4, it will highlight all the areas where 4 already exists in the Sudoku grid. This can help you evaluate your move. Similarly, with the highlight regions option, you can see the region like a row or column you have chosen.
Another feature is the draft mode. This mode helps you fill multiple numbers in a cell. Once you confirm the number in a cell, you can exit the mode and fill in your final answer. For example, you can temporarily fill both numbers via draft mode if you want to write both 4 or 7 in a cell. After filling more blocks, you realize 7 is not the correct answer, so you can exit the mode and choose 4 as your final answer. Moreover, the hint option will ensure that you don’t get stuck in the middle.
Sudoku online
Another website ideal for playing Sudoku is Sudoku online. With a clean layout and multiple options like keeping track of your performance and tracking time with a timer option, Sudoku online is an easy platform to start with.
You can choose from the four difficulty levels available—easy, medium, hard, and very hard. In case you made a wrong move while playing, the grid will highlight the mistakes so that you can correct them. You can also use the undo or restart options if you prefer.
Sudoku Online vs. Offline
While some people may find satisfaction in the pen-and-paper version of Sudoku, online Sudoku can offer many other advantages that make the game more interesting.
- Online Sudoku provides you with an option to choose the difficulty level according to your preference. If you are a beginner and learning the game, you can choose an easy level, whereas you can try a harder level if you wish to challenge yourself. There is no such option in offline Sudoku.
- Online Sudoku is far more convenient compared to offline because you can play the game from any location with a tap on your mobile or laptop.
- There is less room for error in offline mode as you might have to erase or cut your answers constantly. Whereas in online mode, a simple undo or restart option lets you fix the mistake and reset the puzzle.
- If you get stuck, you can use the hint option in online mode, whereas you can’t get any reliable help in offline mode.
Tips for playing Sudoku online
The best tip to play Sudoku online is to start filling the puzzle with definites. A definite is a number that is certainly in a particular box. Once you fill in all the definites, you will get a new set and thus continue the process. Here are some other tips for playing Sudoku online:
- Start Sudoku with an easy level and gradually shift to a harder level. With mastery of simpler puzzles, you could easily solve the difficult puzzles too.
- Try counting your numbers from one to nine while filling a row or column.
- In case you are stuck, try the trial and error method. You can try all the possible numbers and eliminate those that don’t suit the place.
- Try focusing on missing numbers and then place them in empty boxes.
- Don’t guess the numbers. Instead, evaluate and then fit the correct numbers.
- If you cannot solve a part of the puzzle, don’t fixate; keep moving. Try focusing on the next part, and eventually, every number will fall in place.
- Keep re-evaluating the changes and check what effect placing a new number has on other rows and columns.
Sudoku is a perfect choice for productive leisure time. Moreover, it is an ideal game to enhance your logic and reasoning. So, if you wish to improve your memory and stimulate your concentration and logical reasoning, playing Sudoku online is the way to go!
Sudoku Online – FAQs
No. Although sudoku involves numbers, it is nothing related to mathematics. For solving a sudoku puzzle, you need to have logical reasoning rather than good mathematics. Here are the top 10 Sudoku books that can help you improve your puzzle skills.
A valid sudoku puzzle only has one correct, unique solution. Therefore, if a sudoku puzzle has more than one solution, it is usually invalid and is not logically correct.
Ideally, filling a sudoku puzzle must involve the use of logic. Guessing is not ideal as it destroys the purpose of the puzzle and causes numerous mistakes. Learn the best sudoku techniques to solve the puzzle here.
No, sudoku puzzles usually don’t have a fixed time duration. Instead, the time it takes to solve one depends on your skills and the puzzle’s difficulty level.