Pairs Level: Easy–Hard
Matching Games
Flip the cards and find the pairs, with themes like piano composers, hard words and musical instruments.
Types of Memory Games
Memory games come in about a dozen kinds, and each one works a different part of memory. Here are the main types, what each one trains, the classic version, how to play it with nothing but cards or a few objects, and a free game on this site to try.
The types at a glance
- Matching games: Turn over cards two at a time and remember where each one was until you find every pair.
- Sequence games: Watch lights or sounds play in order, then repeat the order back. Each round adds one more.
- Memory span games: See a row of items, then repeat it back. The row grows until you cannot hold it all.
- N-back games: Watch a stream of letters or pictures and say when one matches the item a set number of steps back.
- Recognition games: Decide whether each new picture or word is one you have seen before.
- Grid and location games: Some squares on a grid light up. Tap them back from memory.
- What-changed games: Study a set of objects, then say what was taken away or moved.
- List games: Remember a list of things, often one that grows by one item every turn.
- Word memory games: Memorize words or lines of poetry, or play a word puzzle where the clues fade.
- Number memory games: Memorize long numbers, digits of pi or codes, then recall them.
- Card memory games: Memorize the order of a shuffled deck, or keep track of cards as they go by.
- Names and faces games: Learn the names that go with faces, then name the faces when they come back.
- Picture memory games: Study a picture, a scene or a grid of symbols, then answer questions about it.
- Memory sports: Race other people at memorizing numbers, words, images, cards and names.
Matching games
The best-known memory game. All the cards start face down, and each turn you turn over two. If they match, you keep them. If not, you turn them back, and the game is remembering where each card was so you can come back for it.
- What it trains
- Visual and spatial memory: what each card shows and where it lies.
- The classic version
- Concentration, also sold as Memory and played as Pairs.
- Without a screen
- Lay out pairs from a deck of playing cards face down, matching by rank and color, such as the two red sevens. Start young children with six pairs and add more as they get quicker.
Play it here
Sequence games
A sequence game shows a pattern one step at a time, then asks you to play it back. Each round repeats the same pattern with one step added, so it keeps going until you make a mistake. Your score is the longest sequence you got right.
- What it trains
- Memory for order, the same skill you use to repeat a phone number or a set of directions.
- The classic version
- Simon, the electronic game with four colored buttons that Milton Bradley released in 1978.
- Without a screen
- Clap or tap a short rhythm and have the other player copy it, then add one beat each turn. With a group, take turns adding a move to a dance that everyone has to repeat from the start.
Play it here
Sequences Level: Easy
Growing Ring
Squares round a ring light up one after another. Tap them back in order as the ring grows from 4 squares to 14.
Sequences Level: Easy
Sequence Squares
Fifteen squares light up one after another. Tap them back in order as the sequence grows by one each level.
Sequences Level: Easy
Jelly Drift
Nine jellyfish glow one after another in the deep. Tap them back in order, and follow them as the current moves them between levels.
Sequences Level: Easy
Pentagon Ring
Ten pads round a dial light up one after another. Tap them back in order while the ring turns between levels.
Memory span games
Span games measure how much you can hold in mind at once. You see a row of digits, colors or shapes for a moment, then put it back in the same order. Most adults can repeat about seven digits in order before they start to drop some.
- What it trains
- Short-term and working memory.
- The classic version
- The digit span test, a part of standard intelligence and memory tests.
- Without a screen
- Say a string of digits at about one a second and have the other person say it back. Add a digit after each success. For a harder version, they say it backward.
Play it here
Working memory Level: Easy–Hard
Color Span
Hold a growing row of colors in mind and tap it back in order.
Memory span Level: Easy–Hard
Dice Span
Look at a roll of dice before cups cover them, then tap the faces back in order.
Digit memory Level: Medium
Launch Codes
Memorize a launch code, then fire the answers to the saucers that ask about its digits.
N-back games
Items appear one at a time, and you answer whenever the current one matches the one N steps earlier. At 2-back you compare each letter with the letter two turns ago, and let the older ones go as new ones arrive. Dual n-back runs two streams at once, usually a square on a grid and a spoken letter.
- What it trains
- Working memory updating: keeping a short list current while it changes.
- The classic version
- The n-back task, used in psychology since the 1950s, and dual n-back, which a 2008 study by Susanne Jaeggi and colleagues made popular.
- Without a screen
- Read letters aloud at a steady pace. The player taps the table whenever a letter is the same as the one two letters back.
Play it here
Working memory Level: Easy–Hard
Echo Invaders
Shoot an invader only if its letter matches the one a set number of turns ago.
Recognition games
Recognition games show a long run of items, some new and some repeats, and ask which ones came before. Recognizing is easier than recalling from scratch, so these games can run long and fast. The hard part is the near misses that only look familiar.
- What it trains
- Recognition memory.
- The classic version
- Picture memory experiments, such as Lionel Standing's 1973 study in which people recognized most of 10,000 pictures they had seen once.
- Without a screen
- Read a list of words aloud with a few of them repeated, and have the players raise a hand at each repeat.
Play it here
Recognition memory Level: Easy
DĂ©jĂ Vu
Sea mines sink with pictures on them. Shoot only the ones whose picture has come before.
Grid and location games
Location games test where things were rather than what they were. A few squares light up for a moment, and you tap the same ones once they go dark. Some versions add an order, so you tap them in the order they appeared, and some hide a route or a field of mines.
- What it trains
- Visual and spatial memory.
- The classic version
- The Corsi block-tapping test from 1972, and the chimp test, after a 2007 study in which a young chimpanzee named Ayumu beat university students at recalling where numbers had been on a screen.
- Without a screen
- Put ten coins on a checkerboard and let the player look for ten seconds. Sweep the coins off and ask them to put each one back on its square.
Play it here
Visual memory Level: Easy–Hard
Memory Grid
Some squares of a grid light up for a few seconds. Tap them back from memory, from a 3 by 3 grid up to 25 by 25.
Spatial memory Level: Easy
Minefield Run
See the mines for a moment, then walk a robot to the exit across the dark field from memory.
Method of loci Level: Easy–Hard
Waypoints
Draw one line through every square, calling at the numbered waypoints in order after the numbers hide.
Routes Level: Medium
Metro Memory
Study a route across a metro map, then ride it after the lines have faded.
What-changed games
You get a short look at a tray of objects or a scene, it is hidden, and something changes. Then you say what is missing, added or moved. Naming each object under your breath, or linking them into a quick story, gives you more to hold on to than staring.
- What it trains
- Visual memory and attention to detail.
- The classic version
- Kim's Game, from Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim, in which a boy trains as a spy by memorizing trays of jewels. Scouts have played it ever since.
- Without a screen
- Put 10 to 20 small objects on a tray and give everyone a minute to look. Cover the tray with a cloth, take one object away, and ask who can name what is gone.
Play it here
Visual memory Level: Medium
Vault Heist
Study a museum room, then spot what changed while the lights were out.
Feeder birds Level: Medium
Feeder Watch
Birds land at a winter feeder for a moment and fly off. When the feeder is empty, say which kinds came and how many of each.
List games
List games ask you to hold a list of words or items and recall them later, in order or in any order. In the party version each player repeats the whole list and adds one item, so the list grows until someone forgets. Memory techniques help most here, because you can picture each item at a place along a route you know.
- What it trains
- Recall of lists, in order and out of order.
- The classic version
- I Packed My Bag, also called I Went to Market: each player says the whole list so far and adds one more thing.
- Without a screen
- Sit in a circle and play I Packed My Bag. For a twist, go through the alphabet, so the first item starts with A, the second with B, and so on.
Play it here
Lists Level: Easy
Errand Driver
Learn a shopping list in ten seconds, then drive round a town at night and pull into the shop that sells each item.
Memory palace Level: Easy–Hard
Palace Run
Leave something to remember at each landmark, then pick it back out on the second lap.
Word memory games
Some word games test pure recall, such as memorizing a list of random words in order. Others mix memory into a word puzzle, such as a guessing game where your earlier clues disappear after a few seconds.
- What it trains
- Verbal memory.
- The classic version
- Recalling a word list, the format of the random words event at memory competitions.
- Without a screen
- Read 15 unrelated words aloud once, talk about something else for a minute, and see how many each player can write down.
Play it here
Working memory Level: Easy–Hard
Memordle
A daily five-letter word to find in six guesses, where each guess's colours fade after three seconds, so you play from memory.
Working memory Level: Easy–Hard
Rungs
Climb a word ladder one letter at a time, from clues that show for a few seconds, then fade.
Poetry Level: Medium
Poem Climber
Every ledge is a word, and only the next word of the poem holds your weight.
Number memory games
Digits are hard to picture on their own, which makes long numbers a tough test. Memory competitors turn numbers into pictures with a system such as the Major System, and pi is the most popular number to learn, digit by digit.
- What it trains
- Memory for digits, and practice with number systems.
- The classic version
- Reciting pi, and the speed numbers event in memory sports.
- Without a screen
- Read a ten-digit number to the group, chat about something else for a minute, and see who can still say it.
Play it here
Pi Level: Easy–Hard
Pi Runner
Run up a three-lane track and change lanes to pass through the gate with the next digit of pi.
Level: Easy–Hard
Guess Pi Digits
Name the digit at a position, or continue a run from anywhere in the first 70,000 decimal places.
Major System Level: Easy–Medium
Major System Blaster
Saucers carry words. Turn each word into its Major System number and type it to shoot the saucer down.
Card memory games
The card event of memory sports: shuffle a deck, memorize it as quickly as you can, then rebuild the order with a second deck. Competitors turn each card into a picture and place the pictures along a memory palace. Card counting is a different card memory game, where you keep a running total as cards are dealt.
- What it trains
- Memory for order, using images and a memory palace.
- The classic version
- Speed cards, an event at memory championships.
- Without a screen
- Deal ten cards face up, give a player one minute, then turn them over and ask for the order.
Play it here
Card counting Level: Easy–Hard
Running Count
Keep the Hi-Lo running count in your head as cards slide out of a six-deck shoe.
Names and faces games
Names games show you faces with names and test you later with the faces alone. Most people find names harder to remember than faces, which makes this one of the most useful memory skills to train.
- What it trains
- Linking a name to a face.
- The classic version
- The names and faces event at memory championships.
- Without a screen
- At a party, have everyone wear a name tag for the first ten minutes. Then take the tags off and see who can name everyone.
Play it here
US presidents Level: Medium
US Presidents Memory Game
Meteors carry the presidents' names. Fire the rocket from the chamber that holds the right number.
Picture memory games
Picture games test how much detail you keep from a short look. Plenty of people wonder whether they have a photographic memory. No adult has convincingly shown one, and these games show how far ordinary visual memory can go.
- What it trains
- Visual memory.
- The classic version
- Tests that ask you to combine two patterns of random dots, from a 1970 report about a student named Elizabeth.
- Without a screen
- Show a busy picture from a book for 30 seconds, close the book, and ask five questions about it.
Play it here
Level: Easy–Hard
Photographic Memory Test
26 levels, from easy to eidetic. See how many you can pass!
Level: Easy–Hard
Random Symbols
Study a 5 Ă— 5 or 10 Ă— 10 grid of symbols, then rebuild it from memory.
Memory sports
Memory sports turn several of the types above into timed events. On Memory League, players race each other online in short matches. Memory championships run longer events in the same disciplines.
- What it trains
- All of the above, with memory techniques and against the clock.
- The classic version
- The World Memory Championships, held since 1991.
Play it here
Memory game questions
What are the main types of memory games?
The main types are matching games, sequence games, memory span games, n-back games, recognition games, grid and location games, what-changed games such as Kim's Game, list games, and games for words, numbers, cards, names and pictures. Memory sports combine several of them into timed events.
Which memory game should I start with?
Start with a matching game or a sequence game, which take a minute to learn. For a harder workout for working memory, try an n-back game. If you want to remember more in daily life, learn the memory palace and practice with list games and names games.
Do memory games improve your memory?
You get better at the games you practice, but the evidence that the gains spread to everyday memory is weak. A 2016 review of brain training research found clear gains on the trained tasks and little on unrelated ones. Memory techniques are different: in a 2017 study, people who practiced the memory palace for 40 days more than doubled the number of words they could recall from a list of 72.
What is the difference between a memory game and a memory test?
A memory test measures your memory once, under fixed rules, so that results can be compared. A memory game uses the same kinds of tasks but adds levels, scores and variety so that you want to keep playing. Many memory games started as tests, such as the digit span test and the Corsi blocks.
See every game in one place on our free memory games page.
