Daily Sudoku Online - Play Free

Here's a well-made daily sudoku online game for all you Sudoku fans out there. This online sudoku game displays a new sudoku puzzle each day.

This game is part of the free online brain games collection.

To begin, click the Small, Medium, or Large button under the picture of the game. This opens the game in a pop-up window.

Want to print out sudoku to solve on paper? See my 100 Free Printable Sudoku Puzzles page.

Daily Sudoku Online - Instructions

In sudoku, your job is to find the numbers missing from a 9x9 grid, following a few simple rules.

Note: Some of the instructions below are for the previous version of the game.

In this online sudoku game, varying levels of difficulty can be selected, so even beginners can have fun and learn from this game.

Math puzzles like this Daily Sudoku online game train important brain skills including logical reasoning, arithmetic, and quantitative reasoning. For more free online math puzzles, see my Math Games section.

See below for a summary of the rules of sudoku. For detailed instructions, including advanced techniques, visit the Sudoku Instructions page.

HOW TO PLAY. To start the sudoku game, click the Play button on the main Daily Sudoku screen. This displays the difficulty selection list. If you've never played sudoku before, choose the Easy level of difficulty.

For a challenge, more advanced players may want to select Normal, Tough, or Pro difficulty. There is also an Archive selection which displays a list of sudoku games you've attempted.

After you select the difficulty, the sudoku board of the day appears, ready for you to solve.

The goal of sudoku is to fill in the missing numbers in the 9 by 9 grid. The rules are simple, although the solution to a sudoku puzzle is usually not easy or obvious.

For an explanation of the rules of sudoku, as well as tips on sudoku strategy, see the Instructions section of my Online Free Sudoku page.

But as a quick reminder, the basic rules of sudoku are:

• The numbers 1 through 9 may appear only once in each row.

• The numbers 1 through 9 may appear only once in each column.

• The numbers 1 through 9 may appear only once in each 3x3 box.

• A sudoku puzzle has one unique solution.

Daily Sudoku - Features

PENCIL MARKS. This Daily Sudoku online game includes several useful features to enhance your game play. One of the most helpful is the Pencil Marks option.

When solving sudoku on paper, almost every experienced player makes little notations in the grid. That's because you'll often run across situations where you can narrow the correct entry in a particular location in the grid to two or three possible numbers.

To keep track of these educated guesses, you might want to pencil your guesses in the corner of the box to refer to later. Through the Pencil Marks feature, the developers of this daily sudoku online game allow you to do just that, directly in the game online (see example at right).

To enable this notation, click the Pencil Marks light bulb on the right side of the game. Hovering your mouse over a square in the sudoku grid then displays a small box in the upper left corner of the square. Click this small box to display a keypad where you can select the number to record in the pencil marks box.

When you finally do make an entry in the square, your pencil marks in that square disappear from view. If you remove your entry, any pencil marks you entered previously reappear. To erase all your pencil marks from the online sudoku board, click the Clear button on the right side of the game.

HINTS. As everyone who regularly solves sudoku puzzles knows, you can spend a lot of time trying different number combinations. If you are pressed for time or simply stuck, try the Hints option.

While the Hints feature is active, all incorrect entries in the sudoku grid display in red. To activate this feature, click the Hints button on the right side of the game. There is no time penalty for using the Hints feature.

TIMER and PAUSE. When you start a new sudoku puzzle, a timer at the top of the Daily Sudoku online game automatically begins recording elapsed time. If you're not interested in keeping track of the time it takes you to solve the puzzle, simply click the Hide Timer button in the lower right.

If you do care about your time but need to take a break, click the Pause button. This stops the sudoku timer temporarily. When you return, click the Continue button to restart the timer.

LANGUAGE OPTIONS. This daily sudoku game has been translated into several languages. To display the game in a language other than English, choose an alternative language from the down arrow in the upper right of the menu screen.

SOLUTION. If you give up and just want to see the solved puzzle, click the Solution link on the right side of the game. All the correct missing entries in the grid are displayed.

By the way, if you like this daily sudoku online game, you might also enjoy Balance Quest, a new math puzzle game created by my friend Whit McMahan.

Having a fresh sudoku puzzle to solve each day creates an opportunity to hone your skill at sudoku. Revisit this Daily Sudoku online puzzle game several days a week, and solve that day's free sudoku puzzle using the sudoku strategies of "sure thing" and "elimination" to help you.

Not only will you get better at sudoku, solving these puzzles regularly provides a brain boost that can help keep your brain sharp.

Published: 09/13/2014
Last Updated: 06/11/2020