The word Mahjong is used for two different kinds of games. Traditional Mahjong is usually a multiplayer game of drawing and discarding tiles to form a hand. Mahjong Solitaire is a single-player puzzle about removing pairs from a layered arrangement. This site offers the solitaire puzzle.
The multiplayer game
Traditional Mahjong is commonly played by four people, although variants exist. Players draw and discard tiles and try to complete a valid hand under a particular ruleset. Many rulesets use combinations of sequences, identical tiles, and a pair, with scoring conditions that vary substantially.
There is no single universal traditional Mahjong scoring system. Riichi, Hong Kong, Chinese official, and American Mahjong have different conventions and requirements. A rule from one version should not be assumed to apply to all of them. This site does not implement those multiplayer rules.
The single-player puzzle
Mahjong Solitaire lays tiles into a fixed shape, often with several layers. You remove two available matching tiles at a time. The objective is to clear the arrangement, not to collect a winning hand through draws and discards.
Availability depends on position: nothing may cover the top of a tile, and at least one horizontal side must be open. Two identical pictures are not enough if either tile is blocked. Choosing the order of removals is the central puzzle.
Why the tiles look similar
Both games can use tiles with dots, bamboo, characters, winds, and dragons. That shared visual language is why search results and app names can be confusing. The same-looking five of bamboo has a different role in a hand-building game than in a pair-removal puzzle.
Our solitaire set has 144 tiles, including four flowers and four seasons. Ordinary tiles match identical faces. Any two flowers form a pair, and any two seasons form a pair. Those matching exceptions describe this solitaire implementation, not a general scoring rule for traditional Mahjong.
What you will play on GlobalCore Games
The Mahjong Solitaire game here has Turtle, Pyramid, and Fortress layouts. It is designed for one person and runs in your browser. There are no opponents, rooms, wagers, or multiplayer hand scoring.
You can use hints, undo, restart, and shuffle. Initial boards have a verified removal sequence, but later choices may block progress. Daily challenges provide the same UTC starting board for users of the same layout and engine version; they do not create an online competition.
Choose the right game for your goal
If you want a quiet visual puzzle, choose Mahjong Solitaire and learn the open-tile rule first. You can start with the light tiles at the outside of a layout and work toward the center.
If you want to learn a social hand-building game, first choose a traditional ruleset and find instructions written for that specific version. Learning how to clear a solitaire layout will not teach you traditional turn order, calls, winning-hand requirements, or scoring.
Search terms that make the distinction clearer
Adding “solitaire,” “tile matching,” or “pair matching” helps describe the one-player puzzle. Adding the name of a traditional ruleset helps describe the multiplayer game. “Mahjong online” by itself can refer to either.
Before starting any Mahjong product, read its objective and player count. On this site, Mahjong always means the single-player matching game, and the rules page explains the exact matching and availability conditions used by our engine.
Try it on the board
Open Mahjong Solitaire and try a few moves at your own pace. You can undo, restart the same deal, or explore another mode.