Frequently Asked Questions

Win by being the first to complete a winning hand of 14 tiles: four melds plus a pair in Classic, a valid hand with at least one yaku in Riichi, or a hand matching one of the 72 lines of the official NMJL card in American Mahjong.

Riichi is a Japanese mahjong declaration: when your concealed hand is one tile away from winning (tenpai), you may declare riichi and bet a 1,000-point stick. It adds 1 fan, but you can no longer change your hand.

Furiten is the riichi rule that stops you from winning on a discard (ron) when that tile is one you have already discarded yourself. You can still win by drawing the tile yourself (tsumo).

The Charleston is an American mahjong pre-game ritual: players pass three tiles to the right, then across, then left. This site implements the first (right) pass.

Jokers are wild tiles that can stand in for any tile inside a meld of three or more — but never as a pair or for the special 2026/NEWS tiles. They are never passed in the Charleston.

Classic is the gentlest introduction: simple melds and relaxed win rules. American Mahjong is also beginner-friendly because the card tells you exactly what to build. Riichi is the deepest and best learned second.

Each variant scores differently: Classic uses a practical subset of the International Standard fan list (any legal win counts at least 1 fan); Riichi uses exact fan/fu with the full yaku list, including yakuman; American scores the points of the matched NMJL card line.

Fan counts the value of your yaku (patterns); fu counts the structural detail of your hand — waits, triplets and how you won. Riichi multiplies base points by fu and 2 to the power of fan; 5 fan is already mangan.

Yes — Mahjong Sports is completely free to play in your browser. The site is supported by advertisements.

No. All games run directly in your browser on any device.

Classic (Chinese) Mahjong, Japanese Riichi Mahjong and American Mahjong, each with illustrated tutorials.

Not yet — the current version is a single-player game against three AI opponents. Online multiplayer is planned for the future.

To keep the games fun and approachable for beginners, this MVP implements a practical subset of the official rules. The differences are documented on each tutorial page.

Use the contact link in the footer and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

No. There is no registration, no account and no data collection beyond basic analytics. Just open the page and play.

The site is fully translated into English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean, and runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet or phone.