Play Battleship Online with a Friend

Play Battleship Online with Friends — Free, No Sign-Up

Playboard lets you play Battleship online with a friend, wherever they are. Create a room, send one link, and your friend joins in their browser. No accounts, no downloads.

It is the pencil-and-paper classic without the paper: each of you hides five ships on a 10×10 grid, then you take turns firing until one fleet is at the bottom of the sea. Every shot shows up on both screens instantly.

How to Start a Battleship Game with a Friend

1. Open the game — go to Battleship, press Play now, then choose Create playroom
2. Copy the link — press Copy link
3. Send it to your friend — paste it into WhatsApp, iMessage, Discord, a text or an email
4. Place your fleets and fire — your friend opens the link, you both place your ships, and the battle begins

In most chat apps the link previews as an invite to the game, so your friend knows exactly what they are opening.

You both place your ships at the same time: tap a square to drop a ship, Rotate (or R) to turn it, or Auto-place to fill in the rest.

Plays on Any Device

Battleship on Playboard runs in the browser on phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. On a narrow screen you see one grid at a time and switch between your fleet and the enemy waters with a tap.

If someone's connection drops mid-game, the match waits a few minutes for them. Reloading the page or reopening the same link within that time puts them straight back in, with their fleet and every shot exactly where they left them.

Why Battleship Works So Well Online

Battleship is a game of hidden information, and a screen handles that better than paper:

• No peeking, no honest mistakes. Your opponent's fleet never reaches your browser while the game is on, and the game checks every shot itself. Nobody can call "miss" on a shot that was really a hit.
• No bookkeeping. Hits, misses and sunk ships are marked automatically, and each sinking is announced.
• It always finishes. There are 100 squares and you can never fire at the same one twice, so every game ends with a clear winner.
• Quick rematches. When the last ship sinks, both fleets are revealed, so you finally see where your friend hid that Destroyer. Press Play again and, once your friend accepts, hide yours somewhere smarter.

The room you create is a playroom: a private space with built-in text chat, where a group can also switch between games once you have had enough of naval warfare.

Rules Overview

Each player has a 10×10 grid, columns A–J and rows 1–10. Before the battle you place five ships in straight lines: the Carrier (5 squares), Battleship (4), Cruiser (3), Submarine (3) and Destroyer (2). Ships may not overlap or touch, not even at the corners.

Players then take turns firing one shot each, hit or miss. Hit every square of a ship and it sinks. The first player to sink all five enemy ships wins.

New to the game? The full Battleship rules cover every phase, the Battleship strategy guide explains hunt and target mode, and 10 Battleship tips for beginners builds the habits that win games.

Play Solo Against the Computer

No friend around? Choose Play solo to take on the computer. Easy fires at random, a relaxed way to learn the game. Normal hunts in a checkerboard pattern and chases down every ship it hits, the same method the strategy guide teaches. Want a human opponent instead? Quick match pairs you with another player online.