Mobile vs Desktop: Who Wins More at Solitaire?
Mobile vs Desktop: Who Wins More at Solitaire?
Data period: April 15–30, 2026 Sample: 21,608 games
Most people would guess desktop players win more solitaire. Bigger screen, mouse, easier to see the board. Our data shows the opposite.
The Numbers
| Game | Desktop | Mobile | Mobile Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Klondike Draw 1 | 31.5% | 52.7% | +21.2pp |
| Spider 2-suit | 24.2% | 37.3% | +13.1pp |
| Spider 1-suit | 58.7% | 70.4% | +11.7pp |
| Mahjong Turtle | 59.7% | 54.5% | -5.2pp |
| Klondike Draw 3 | 12.5% | 13.7% | +1.2pp |
Win rate is wins divided by all starts. Abandoned games count as losses.
Mobile wins on four of five games. The Klondike Draw 1 gap is the biggest — 21 points. Mobile players win that game nearly two-thirds more often than desktop players do.
Why Mobile Wins Klondike
Mobile and desktop players play the same way once they’re playing. Both average 91 moves per winning game. Both finish in similar time. The difference isn’t skill.
The difference is who’s playing.
A player who opens Klondike on their phone is there to play. They tapped the app, sat with it, finished the game. Desktop traffic is mixed. Some players are focused. Many open a tab between emails, start a game, and never come back. We count those bounces as losses.
Mobile sessions are more committed. The win rate shows it.
Where the Pattern Holds
Spider 1-suit and 2-suit follow the same pattern. Mobile wins by 11–13 points. Spider takes longer than Klondike, and players who start it on mobile are committing to a longer session.
Mahjong Turtle is the only game where desktop wins. The gap is 5 points and the sample is smaller (468 games). Mahjong needs you to spot matching tiles in a dense layout — a bigger screen genuinely helps.
Klondike Draw 3 is flat. Both devices win around 13%. Draw 3 is hard enough that commitment doesn’t change much — the game wins either way.
What This Means
If you play Klondike Draw 1 on desktop and feel like you’re losing more than you should, you’re probably right. The data says players who put their phone down and focus do better.
It’s not the device. It’s the attention.
A Note on the Data
We use two weeks of data here (April 15–30) because we updated our abandon tracking mid-April. Mixing pre- and post-update data would produce numbers we can’t stand behind. Two weeks is a smaller sample than we’d like for a finding this strong. We’ll revisit in the May monthly report.
We only included games with at least 50 starts on both devices. That’s why TriPeaks, FreeCell, Golf, Pyramid, and Spider 4-suit aren’t in the table — they had volume on one device but not the other.
Play Klondike → | Play Spider →
All data is anonymous. TrySolitaire does not track individual users. Win rates are wins divided by total starts, treating abandons as non-wins. Data covers April 15–30, 2026. For Klondike rules, see our Klondike Solitaire Guide. For Spider, see our Spider Solitaire Guide.
Published May 8, 2026 | TrySolitaire Blog · Play Free Solitaire