Mahjong Solitaire
Single-player tile-matching game — remove pairs of exposed mahjong tiles from a pyramid until the board is empty.
🌤indoor
What is Mahjong Solitaire?
Mahjong Solitaire is a single-player tile-matching computer game invented by Brodie Lockard on the PLATO computer system in 1981. Despite the name, it shares nothing with actual Chinese Mahjong except the tile set. 144 tiles are stacked into a pyramid arrangement; players find and remove pairs of matching exposed tiles. Popularised worldwide by the 1986 Activision release 'Shanghai' and later by the Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack.
Quick facts
Category
Tile Games
Type
Individual
Players
1–1
Where played
indoor
Country of origin
🇺🇸 United States
Estimated origin
1981, Brodie Lockard (PLATO computer system 'Mah-Jongg')
Olympic
No
Popularity
global
Sources & provenance
Last verified 2026-08-24.verified