The History of Online Solitaire: Windows to Web

Solitaire is older than the personal computer, but it became a piece of computing culture in 1990, when Microsoft included it with Windows 3.0. The history of online solitaire is partly a story about Klondike, the variant the world calls “Solitaire” by default, and partly about everything Microsoft did with it afterward. Today there’s more solitaire online than ever — free, ad-supported, app-locked, variant-rich.

Solitaire before computers

Card solitaire (or “patience,” as it’s still called in Britain) dates to the 18th century. Klondike — the variant with seven tableau columns and four foundation piles, the one most people picture — emerged in the late 19th century, possibly in the Klondike Gold Rush region (the name is suggestive but the origin isn’t documented). By the early 20th century, Klondike was the standard. Hundreds of other variants existed: FreeCell, Spider, Pyramid, Yukon, Golf, Accordion, and many more, each with its own loyalists.

The puzzle of solitaire is that it’s a single-player card game in an era when single-player card games meant inventing constraints. Cards are designed for opponents. Solitaire works by treating the deck itself as the opponent. The deal randomizes; the player picks at the random; the game ends in success or stuck, with no opponent to blame.

Microsoft Solitaire and Windows 3.0

Wes Cherry, a Microsoft intern in 1988, wrote the version of Klondike that shipped with Windows 3.0 in May 1990. The game was bundled to teach users how to use a mouse — click and drag was the new interaction model and a card game was a natural way to introduce it. Microsoft has been clear in interviews over the years that the educational framing was the explicit pitch internally.

The result was one of the most-played games in history. Microsoft Solitaire shipped on essentially every Windows PC for over two decades. The audience by the late 1990s was the entire office computing population of the developed world. Whether or not anyone meant it as a “game” in the dedicated-gaming sense, hundreds of millions of people played it.

The game’s art was simple, the rules were Klondike, and the cards animated when you won — a cascade of bouncing cards down the screen that became one of the most recognizable victory sequences in software. Cherry’s name didn’t appear in the credits at the time; the back-story emerged later, mostly through industry retrospectives.

FreeCell, Spider, and the Windows lineup

Windows 95 added FreeCell in 1995. FreeCell is a variant designed to be (nearly) always solvable — the 32,000 numbered deals in the original Microsoft FreeCell were almost all solvable, with the famous deal #11982 being the lone known unwinnable hand in the original set. FreeCell’s mostly-solvable nature changed how players approached the genre: where Klondike has hands you can’t win even with perfect play, FreeCell is a near-pure puzzle.

Spider Solitaire was added in Windows ME and Windows XP. Spider uses two decks shuffled together and demands long sequence-building across ten columns. It’s mechanically richer than Klondike and FreeCell — players spend more time per hand and the strategic decisions matter more. Hearts and Minesweeper rounded out the standard Windows games package through this era.

Each variant developed its own community over time. FreeCell solvers traded notes on which numbered deals required which techniques. Spider players debated four-suit (hardest) versus one-suit (easiest) play. Klondike’s draw-three versus draw-one variants split casual players from serious ones. For more on the underlying card-game history, see our deep dive on Solitaire’s history.

The web-based solitaire era

Online solitaire — solitaire in a browser — emerged in the late 1990s as Java applets and continued through the Flash years (1996–2020) and into HTML5 from the late 2000s onward. Sites like Solitaire.com, Worldofsolitaire.com, and Solitr.com built large free libraries of solitaire variants. Most ran on ad revenue. Some added accounts and stats. All of them were free.

The web format meant variant proliferation. While the Windows package focused on a handful of canonical variants, the open web could host dozens — Yukon, Scorpion, Golf, Pyramid, Accordion, Forty Thieves, Russian Solitaire, Klondike Turn One, Klondike Turn Three, and so on. Niche players found their preferred variant; casual players defaulted to Klondike or FreeCell because those were what they already knew.

Microsoft Solitaire Collection (2012)

Windows 8 launched in October 2012 without preinstalled Solitaire — a major break from two decades of bundling. Microsoft Solitaire Collection was published as a separate app via the Windows Store, free with ads, premium without. The Collection bundled Klondike, FreeCell, Spider, Pyramid, and TriPeaks under one umbrella.

The launch was controversial. Many longtime Windows users were unhappy that Solitaire required a separate install on the new operating system and that the free version showed ads. The ad-supported model has since become standard, and Microsoft Solitaire Collection remains the most-played solitaire product on Windows. Microsoft reported over 50 million monthly players in mid-2010s figures.

In 2019, Microsoft Solitaire was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong museum in Rochester, NY — formal recognition of how many billions of hours have been spent on Klondike since 1990. Few games have a stronger case for cultural ubiquity.

The free-web alternatives

The free web ecosystem grew alongside Microsoft’s. World of Solitaire (launched around 2007, run by Robert Underhill as a passion project) became one of the most-recommended free Klondike sites. It loaded fast, had no required signup, and ran with minimal ads. The site is still active and free.

Solitr, 247Solitaire, Greenfelt, and many others have served free solitaire for over a decade. They survive on display advertising and have no real product evolution pressure — Klondike doesn’t need new features. The web’s free solitaire layer essentially provides a permanent fallback for anyone who doesn’t want to install Microsoft’s app or pay for a premium one. For more on the Microsoft side specifically, see our Windows Solitaire strategy piece.

Mobile solitaire

iOS launched in 2007, and solitaire apps were among the earliest popular categories. By the 2010s, solitaire was one of the highest-grossing mobile puzzle categories on both iOS and Android. The major publishers — MobilityWare (Solitaire by MobilityWare, the default Klondike app on many devices for years), Brainium (Spider Solitaire Brainium), Tripledot (Solitaire Cash), and others — built tens of millions of users.

The mobile shift introduced something solitaire had never had: in-app monetization. Solitaire Cash and similar products added real-money tournament play, where players pay to enter a head-to-head Klondike race against a similarly-skilled opponent. The legality of these games varies by jurisdiction. Whether or not they count as “real” solitaire is an editorial question; commercially, they’re the highest-grossing form of online Klondike today.

Why Solitaire survives

Most games age out of cultural relevance. Solitaire hasn’t. The reason is partly distribution — Windows put it in front of everyone — and partly the design itself. The card game predates Microsoft by a century, and its mechanics work in any era: short sessions, low stakes, one player, one outcome. It’s the format that matches a coffee break or a five-minute wait.

The online history is essentially a story of that distribution moving through formats — operating system, web browser, mobile app, streaming-style real-money product — without changing the underlying game. The cards still deal the same way they did in the 19th century. That’s its strength.

Frequently asked questions

Who designed Microsoft Solitaire?

Wes Cherry, a Microsoft intern in 1988, wrote the version of Klondike that shipped with Windows 3.0 in 1990. The card art was designed by Susan Kare, who also designed many of the original Mac icons.

Is Microsoft Solitaire still preinstalled on Windows?

Not as a built-in app. Microsoft Solitaire Collection ships as a separate Microsoft Store app on Windows 10 and 11, free with ads. The classic standalone Solitaire from older Windows versions is no longer bundled.

Are all FreeCell deals winnable?

Nearly all — in the original Microsoft FreeCell with 32,000 numbered deals, only deal #11982 was famously found to be unsolvable. Subsequent Microsoft versions and other implementations vary slightly, but FreeCell remains one of the highest-solvability variants.

What’s the best free online solitaire site?

World of Solitaire is widely recommended for its long-running independence, minimal ads, and broad variant catalog. Solitr and Greenfelt are also popular free options. Microsoft Solitaire Collection itself runs on web and mobile too.

When was Microsoft Solitaire inducted into the Hall of Fame?

Microsoft Solitaire was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong museum in Rochester, NY, in 2019 — recognition of the game’s enormous global player base over three decades.

The takeaway

Online solitaire’s history runs from a 1990 mouse-training tool to a 2010s-era ad-supported app and a permanent ecosystem of free web Klondike. The card game itself hasn’t changed; the delivery has. If you want something completely different to pass five minutes, the Chrome Dino game is open in one tab over. The Microsoft Solitaire Wikipedia article covers more of the dates and version history.