Board & classics
Play Battleship online
Two fleets, two grids, one goal: sink the other side first. A hit earns you another shot straight away, a miss ends your turn. On higher levels the computer fires in a checkerboard pattern – no ship can hide between those squares – and switches to hunt mode after a hit. Sunk ships burn and smoke.
Play Battleship nowFree · no download · no ads
Where Battleship comes from
The game began as a pen-and-paper pastime – it is documented among French and Russian soldiers around the First World War, circulating as L'Attaque and as Sea Battle. The first commercial version appeared in the United States in 1931, and in 1967 Milton Bradley turned it into a worldwide hit with the plastic case and the pegged ships. Placing your own fleet is how the original was played.
How it works
Click the right-hand grid to fire. A hit earns you another shot – a miss ends your turn.
Both fleets have five ships: carrier (5), battleship (4), cruiser (3), submarine (3) and destroyer (2). Enemy ships only become visible once sunk.
First to sink the whole fleet wins.
Three tips for better results
- 1Search in a checkerboard pattern yourself: every second square is enough to find any ship of length two or more.
- 2After a hit, work out the axis first, then push in one direction until you miss.
- 3Do not put your own ships along the edge – the computer looks there last, but people look there first.
Frequently asked questions
Is Battleship free to play?
Yes. Battleship runs straight in your browser, costs nothing and needs no installation. There are no ads and no paywall – the chips in the game are play money and cannot be bought.
Do I need an account to play Battleship?
You create a profile with a name and a PIN, but no account is created on anybody else's server. Scores, chips, achievements and unlocked motifs live only in your own browser.
How do you play Battleship?
Click the right-hand grid to fire. A hit earns you another shot – a miss ends your turn.
Where does Battleship come from?
The game began as a pen-and-paper pastime – it is documented among French and Russian soldiers around the First World War, circulating as L'Attaque and as Sea Battle. The first commercial version appeared in the United States in 1931, and in 1967 Milton Bradley turned it into a worldwide hit with the plastic case and the pegged ships. Placing your own fleet is how the original was played.
Does Battleship work on a phone?
The site adapts to the screen size, and anything you can click can also be tapped. Games controlled with arrow keys do need a keyboard, though.
Also known as
These are the terms people use to look for Battleship.
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