Best Ludo Games to Play Free Online

Few board games survive a family argument as well as Ludo. You roll a 6, bring a token out, and a few turns later a cousin lands on it and sends it home. The best ludo games online keep that rivalry and drop the cardboard, so you can play against the computer, pass a phone around the table or find strangers to race. Here are the browser options worth your time.

What makes a good Ludo game

Ludo is a simplified, English version of Pachisi, the cross-and-circle race game from India. According to Wikipedia’s history of Ludo, it was marketed in England in 1896 by Alfred Coller, who patented it and sold it as Royal Ludo. The name is Latin for “I play.”

The rules most people know are short. Each player has four tokens in a corner base. You need a 6 to bring a token out, a 6 earns another roll, and three 6s in a row usually cost you the turn. Land on a rival and it goes back to base. After one lap, your tokens turn up a colored home column, and in the standard game you need the exact roll to reach the center.

A good ludo game gets those rules right and lets you choose house rules where families disagree. It also needs clear feedback on whose turn it is and which tokens can move, and it should move a token by itself when there is only one choice. After that, it comes down to who you want to play: the computer, friends on one screen, or people online.

Quick picks

If you want…	Play
Classic Ludo vs the computer, right now	Ludo (Dinogame)
2 to 4 players on one device	Ludo (Dinogame)
The famous app, in a browser	Ludo King
Live opponents at a classic game site	PlayOK Ludo
A pure-luck race for young kids	Snakes and Ladders (Dinogame)
The 4,500-year-old ancestor of race games	Royal Game of Ur
A race game with more strategy	Backgammon (Dinogame)

1. Ludo (play it right here on Dinogame)

Our Ludo game is the classic cross-shaped board with four colors and four tokens each. It runs in any modern browser on a laptop, Chromebook, tablet or phone, with no download and no sign-up. Before each game, you tap each seat to make it Human, Computer or Off, so two, three or four colors can play in any mix.

How it plays: Roll a 6 to move a token out of your base onto your start square, then race clockwise around the track. A 6 earns another roll, and landing on a rival sends its token back to base. The four start squares and the four star squares are safe, and your colored home column is out of reach. Three rule switches cover the common house rules: three 6s in a row lose the turn, an exact roll is needed to finish, and a capture or a token reaching home earns a bonus roll. All three are on by default. It does not use blocks, so two tokens on one square never stop a rival from passing. When one player gets all four tokens home, the rest play on, and the game ranks everyone from 1st to last.

Controls: Tap the die or press Space to roll. The tokens you can move glow and show their number, so you tap one or press 1 to 4. When only one move is legal, the token moves by itself. Computer players go for captures, finishing moves and safe squares, and they try to move tokens that are in danger. Your win record against the computer is saved in your browser, along with any game in progress. Best for: A quick ludo game against the computer, or a family game on one screen.

2. Ludo King

Ludo King is the most popular Ludo app in the world. It was made by Gametion Technologies, a studio in Navi Mumbai, India, and launched on the App Store in 2016. Wikipedia describes it as the first Indian gaming app to pass 1 billion downloads. Most people play it on a phone, but Gametion also publishes an official HTML5 version that runs in a browser.

How it plays: The browser version lists two modes: online multiplayer with 2 or 4 players, and a computer mode against a bot. The full apps add pass-and-play on one device, private rooms with friends and a Snakes and Ladders mode. Controls: Tap or click to roll and to move a token. Best for: Fans of the app who want to play ludo online against real people from a laptop.

3. PlayOK Ludo

PlayOK, also known by its Polish name Kurnik, is a long-running site for classic board and card games, created in 2001 by Marek Futrega. Its Ludo room is built for live play: you join a table with other people rather than a computer.

How it plays: You play in real time against other people who are online at the same moment, and the site often shows thousands of players logged in. There is free sign-up and a guest mode, and PlayOK runs player rankings and automated tournaments. The look is plain and old-fashioned, but it supports mobile devices as well as desktops. Controls: Click or tap to roll and move. Best for: Ludo online against live human opponents, without a big app around it.

4. Snakes and Ladders (play it right here on Dinogame)

Snakes and Ladders is Ludo’s closest cousin on the family shelf. Both are dice races from India, and both are about watching your lead disappear on a single roll. Our Snakes and Ladders runs in the browser for 2 to 4 players, and every seat can be a human or a computer.

How it plays: Roll the die and move along the board from square 1, winding back and forth toward 100. Land at the foot of a ladder and you climb it, land on a snake’s head and you slide down. There are two board layouts, Garden and Jungle, and optional house rules for an exact roll to finish and an extra turn on a 6. Controls: Press the Roll button, Space or Enter, or tap the board or the die. Best for: Young kids, or anyone who wants Ludo’s suspense with no decisions at all.

5. Royal Game of Ur

The Royal Game of Ur is one of the oldest known board games, a two-player race from ancient Mesopotamia that is about 4,500 years old. Boards were dug up at the Royal Cemetery at Ur, and the rules were later reconstructed from a cuneiform tablet by Irving Finkel of the British Museum. RoyalUr.net is a free, open-source site where you can play it in a browser.

How it plays: Each player races seven pieces along a short track. Instead of one die you throw tetrahedral dice, so moves run from 0 to 4. Like Ludo, you send a rival piece back by landing on it. Landing on a rosette square earns an extra throw, and under Finkel’s rules a piece on a rosette is safe from capture. RoyalUr.net uses Finkel’s rules by default, with other rulesets available, and its community finds online opponents through the site’s Discord. Controls: Click to throw and to move a piece. Best for: Ludo fans curious about where race games began.

6. Backgammon (play it right here on Dinogame)

Backgammon is the race game for players who want more control over the dice. You and your opponent move fifteen checkers in opposite directions, and hitting a lone checker sends it back to start, just like a capture in Ludo. Our Backgammon plays in the browser against a computer opponent.

How it plays: Roll two dice and move your checkers by each number, bring all fifteen into your home board, then bear them off. Choosing which checkers to move, and when to leave one exposed, gives it far more strategy than Ludo. Controls: Click a checker, then the point to move it to. Best for: Ludo players who want the dice to matter a little less.

Ludo variants you may know by other names

Ludo has relatives all over the world. Germany has Mensch ärgere Dich nicht, from 1914, and Spain has Parchís. Colombia has Parqués and China has Aeroplane Chess. In Britain, the Royal Navy plays a version called Uckers. In the US, the best-known cousins are commercial board games like Parcheesi and Trouble. The rules shift from place to place, with two dice instead of one, extra safe squares, or blocks that rivals cannot pass. That is why a good ludo game lets you switch house rules on and off.

Frequently asked questions

Can I play Ludo online for free?

Yes. Our Ludo runs free in your browser with no account, against the computer or with friends on one device. Ludo King’s browser version and PlayOK are also free to play online against other people.

Can I play Ludo against the computer?

Yes. In our Ludo game you can set any seat to Computer, from one opponent up to three. Ludo King also has a computer mode.

Can 2 players play Ludo?

Yes. Ludo works for 2, 3 or 4 players. In our version, turn on any two seats as Human to play a friend on the same screen, or play one-on-one against the computer.

Do you need a 6 to start in Ludo?

Under the standard rules, yes. A token leaves its base only on a 6, and the 6 also gives you another roll. Some families relax this as a house rule, but most online ludo games keep it.

What is the difference between Ludo and Parcheesi?

Both come from the Indian game Pachisi. Ludo uses one die and a square cross-shaped board, while Parcheesi uses two dice and lets two tokens form a blockade that rivals cannot pass.

Roll the die

Whether you want a family game on one screen, a live table of strangers or a 4,500-year-old ancestor of the race game, there is a ludo game here for you. Start with our own Ludo, or pick a pack of rivals online. Between turns, the Chrome Dino game is always one jump away.