How the Daily works
Every day there is exactly one Daily board, and everyone who plays that day gets the same deal: the same layout, the same tiles in the same places. That is what makes the times worth comparing. When your clock passes midnight, the next board is waiting.
Open the game, tap Daily on the home screen, and play. Nothing to sign up for and no time limit: the clock only records how long you took. You can stop halfway and come back later; your board is kept.
Clearing the Daily for the first time each day earns 20 coins, which buy extra Hints, Undos and Shuffles. It also earns Player IQ, the game’s progress number, like any other board.
What a Daily board is like
A Daily is meant to take a few relaxed minutes, not an hour. Each one is a single board, built from six layouts that take turns: Pagoda, Butterfly, Diamond, Pyramid, Garden Path and Cross. Narrow shapes like Tower are left out so the board fills your screen.
- Sixteen kinds of tile on every board: pictures from the day’s picture set, mixed with traditional mahjong tiles. The featured set changes every day, from Garden and Ocean to Zodiac and Travel.
- Ice on every third day: two tiles start frozen and thaw as you clear pairs.
- No hidden tiles and no locks. Everything is face up, so the Daily is a fair race for everyone.
- A few pairs carry the gold IQ+ mark, which doubles the IQ that pair earns.
Like every board in Plum Mahjong, the Daily is dealt backwards from a cleared table, so it can always be solved. If the rules are new to you, the how to play guide takes two minutes.
Fastest times
When you clear the Daily in tray mode, your time goes onto the day’s leaderboard. You can look at it three ways:
- World: everyone who cleared today’s board.
- Country: players from the country set in your profile.
- Friends: just you and the friends you have added with a friend code.
Each board lists the top 100, and your own row is always shown, even when you are further down. The board updates live while it is open, so you can watch a close race settle.
Times are checked, not taken on trust. The game sends the moves you made, and the server replays them with the same rules to confirm the board really was cleared and how long it took. Runs that are impossibly fast are turned away.
You decide whether others see you. A new player starts unlisted: your time is ranked, but only you can see it. The first time you place, the game shows you the generated name and picture others would see and asks whether to list you. You can change your mind at any time with Show me on leaderboards in Settings.
Helpers and your time
You can use Hint, Undo and Shuffle on the Daily, as on any board. On the leaderboard, each helper you use adds 10 seconds to your time, and the free rescue after a full tray counts as a helper too. A clean 2:40 beats a 2:20 that needed three hints, which keeps the race fair without stopping anyone from finishing.
Your streak
The streak on the home screen counts the days in a row you have cleared at least one board. The Daily is the natural way to keep it, but a level or a Free Play board counts too. Miss a whole day and it starts again from one.
Every third day of a streak brings a small gift: one Hint, one Undo and one Shuffle.
Tray mode or classic pairs
The Daily follows the game mode you have chosen in Settings. In tray mode, the default, tapped tiles drop into a four-slot tray and two alike clear each other. In classic pairs you pick two matching free tiles directly. Both deal the same board.
Only tray-mode clears are ranked, so everyone on the leaderboard has played under the same rules. A classic clear still counts for your streak, your coins and your Player IQ.
Tip: The leaderboard’s own “Play today’s Daily” button always starts the board in tray mode, whatever your setting.
Clearing it faster
Speed on the Daily comes from fewer wasted taps, not faster fingers.
- Take a few seconds to look at the whole board before your first tap. The clock starts with your first move, and a plan saves more time than it costs.
- Tap the partner of a tile already in the tray first. Every tile left waiting in the tray narrows your choices.
- Find the frozen tiles on ice days and free the area around them early, so they are ready when they thaw.
- Skip helpers unless you are truly stuck: at 10 seconds each, a hint is rarely worth it.
There is more in our mahjong solitaire tips, including how to read the tray and when to clear the top layers first.
Common questions
Is the Daily free?
Yes. The Daily is part of Plum Mahjong, which is free to play in your browser with no sign-up and no in-app purchases. There are no ads.
Do I need an account to be on the leaderboard?
No sign-up is needed. To rank a time, the game creates an anonymous online account with a generated name. There is no email and no password.
Can I play it offline?
Once the game has loaded, it keeps working offline, Daily included. Your result is sent the next time you are online.
Can I race a friend on today’s board?
Yes. Add each other with friend codes and compare on the Friends board, or send a challenge link after you clear it. For live games, see playing mahjong with friends.