How the daily challenge works
Every day at midnight UTC a new Minesweeper puzzle opens on three boards: Beginner (9×9, 10 mines), Intermediate (16×16, 40 mines) and Expert (30×16, 99 mines). The mine layout of each board is worked out from the date, so the same puzzle is waiting for every player worldwide. Your first click is always safe, and if it would have hit a mine, only that one mine is moved.
You get one attempt per difficulty. A lost board counts as played, and the result stays until the next reset. That one-shot rule is what makes the daily different from free play: there is no restart button, so every click matters.
The daily ranking
Every cleared board goes into that day's public ranking, fastest time first, and the leaderboard shows today's top times next to the all-time free-play records. When you make your first click, our server starts its own clock and later checks the time your browser reports against it, so times that are too short to be real are left out. Entries are anonymous unless you add a name, and the name field suggests a made-up one if you prefer.
Streaks and badges
Clear at least one daily board on consecutive days to build a streak. Streaks unlock achievements at 7, 30, 100 and 365 days, and your current and longest streak are shown on this page. A loss does not cost you the streak if you clear another difficulty the same day. Once a week, a streak freeze covers one missed day; miss a second day and the streak starts again.
Tips for a one-shot board
- Play Beginner first. It takes a minute and warms you up for the bigger boards.
- Speed only matters for the ranking. A slow win beats a fast loss and keeps your streak.
- Look for the standard shapes before you guess. The pattern guide covers 1-1, 1-2 and 1-2-1 on real boards.
- If a guess is unavoidable, make it early, while a wrong click costs you less time and the board still has open space to work with.
- Practise on no-guess boards, where every loss points at a deduction you missed rather than at bad luck.
Past challenges
Every challenge that has closed keeps its own page, with the board statistics it was built from, the fastest times set on it, and all three difficulties still playable for practice. Browse the daily challenge archive.