Play the classic Breakout brick breaker in your browser. Bounce the ball off your paddle, smash every brick, clear endless levels. Free, no install.
Move the paddle with your mouse or arrow keys. On mobile, drag anywhere on the screen — the paddle slides with your finger so it never blocks your view. Tap or press Space to launch the ball.
Breakout is one of the foundational video games. Atari released the original arcade cabinet in 1976, and the project has a remarkable origin story: it was designed by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, and the prototype board was built by a young Steve Wozniak — with Steve Jobs handling the contract — years before they founded Apple.
The concept is a single elegant loop. A wall of colored bricks sits at the top of the screen. A ball bounces around, and you slide a paddle along the bottom to keep it in play. Every brick the ball touches is destroyed and scored. Miss the ball and it falls past your paddle, costing you a life.
What gives Breakout its lasting depth is the paddle itself. The ball doesn't just bounce off at a mirror angle — where it strikes the paddle changes its trajectory. Hit it dead center and the ball flies straight up; clip it with the edge and it shoots off at a sharp angle. Mastering that control is the whole game.
On desktop, move your mouse or use the arrow keys. On mobile, drag your finger left and right anywhere on the screen. The paddle follows your input along the bottom of the playfield.
At the start of each life the ball rests on the paddle. Tap the screen or press Space (or the up arrow) to launch it. It fires upward at a slight random angle.
From level two onward, some bricks are reinforced and need two hits. You'll see a crack appear after the first hit — the second one shatters it.
The paddle isn't a flat mirror. The spot where the ball lands on the paddle decides its new direction — center sends it straight up, the edges send it off at steep angles. This is how you steer.
No. Clearing every brick advances you to the next level with a fresh, faster wall. The levels continue indefinitely — the only end is running out of lives.
Yes. Your highest score is stored in your browser and persists between sessions, even if you close the tab or refresh the page.
When a brick breaks, it may drop a labeled capsule. Slide your paddle under it to catch it. W widens your paddle, M splits your current ball into three, L lets you shoot lasers (tap or Space to fire), S sticks the ball to your paddle on contact, the green down-arrow slows the ball, and + grants an extra life.
Every brick you break without the ball touching your paddle adds one to a hidden combo counter — the next brick is worth a multiple of its base score. A bounce off the paddle resets the counter. Watch for the "x3 COMBO" popup over the brick when you chain three or more in a row.
Those are explosive bricks. Hitting one detonates it and destroys every brick around it. If the blast catches another explosive, it triggers a chain reaction — one well-placed shot can clear a large area of the wall at once.
You earn one coin for every brick you break, plus a bonus on high combos. Coins are saved in your browser and add up across all your games. Open the Ball Shop from the Start or Game Over screen to spend them on unlockable ball skins. Skins are purely cosmetic — they change the look and trail color of your ball but never affect how it plays.