Blokus: The Board Game, the Rules and the Editions

What the Blokus board game is

Blokus is an abstract strategy game. That means no theme, no dice and no cards: just shapes on a grid. Each player has 21 flat pieces in one color. The pieces come in every way you can join 1 to 5 squares edge to edge. You take turns placing one piece at a time on a shared square board, starting from your own corner.

The catch is the placement rule. Every piece you place must touch another piece of your own color, but only corner to corner. Your own pieces may never sit side by side. Other colors can touch you any way they like. The board fills up fast, corners disappear, and the player who keeps the most corners open places the most squares.

The box facts, from Mattel's Blokus instruction sheet (item BJV44, the 2013 sheet):

• Players: 2 to 4
• Ages: 7+
• Contents: a game board and 84 pieces in four colors, 21 pieces per color in red, blue, yellow and green
• Pieces per color: one 1-square, one 2-square, two 3-square, five 4-square and twelve 5-square pieces
• Co-op or competitive: competitive
• Luck: none. No dice, no cards, no draws.

Add up one color's pieces and you get 89 squares. That's the most any one player can place in a game, and it's the number you're chipping away at.

The sheet credits Blokus to an original concept by Bernard Tavitian.

How Blokus plays

These rules are in my own words, from Mattel's Blokus instruction sheet, BJV44. If your box has a different sheet, follow that one.

Setup

1. Put the board in the middle of the table.
2. Each player picks a color and takes all 21 pieces of it.
3. Choose who goes first. Play goes clockwise.

That's it. There's nothing to shuffle and nothing to deal. It's one of the few games in my closet that's ready before the snacks are.

Your first piece

Your first piece has to cover a corner square of the board. Each player starts in a different corner. From there, you grow toward the middle.

Every piece after that

On your turn, place one piece. It must follow two rules:

1. It touches at least one of your own pieces at a corner.
2. It does not touch any of your own pieces along a side.

There's no rule about other colors. Your piece can sit flat against an opponent's piece, block it, or slip into a gap it left. Mattel's sheet says it plainly: pieces of different colors can touch in any way.

Once a piece is on the board, it stays. No sliding, no taking back. I mention that because it's the rule a 7-year-old tests first.

Blokus is a game about personal space. Your own colors keep their distance. Everyone else is welcome to crowd in.

Passing and the end

If you can't place any piece legally, you pass. The game keeps going without you until nobody can place anything. Then it's over.

Basic scoring

Each player counts the squares in the pieces they didn't place. Lowest total wins. A player who placed every piece has 0 and can't be beaten on this scoring.

Advanced scoring

When the group is ready for more, the sheet offers advanced scoring, where the highest score wins:

• Minus 1 point for every square left in your unplaced pieces
• Plus 15 points if you placed all of your pieces
• Plus 5 more if the last piece you placed was the 1-square piece

That last bonus changes how people play the endgame. The smallest piece in the box becomes the most valuable one to save. The sheet's own example shows a player who placed everything and finished with the single square scoring +20. A player who couldn't place two 4-square pieces scores −8.

Two players

With 2 players, each person runs two colors. One player takes blue and red, the other takes yellow and green. The turn order stays blue, yellow, red, green. At the end, you add up the squares from both your colors.

Two colors per player means four starting corners and a lot more planning.

Three players

With 3 players, each person takes one color. The fourth color is shared, and the players take turns placing its pieces. The turn order is still blue, yellow, red, green. Score as in the four-player game, and ignore the shared color's score.

Lucho's take: "Whoever's losing places the shared color. Evens it out." That's his rule, not Mattel's. I keep the sheet in the box lid for the moment someone objects.

Teaching Blokus in two minutes

This is what I'd say to a new player, in order:

1. "Pick a color. These 21 pieces are yours."
2. "Your first piece covers your corner square."
3. "Your pieces touch each other only at the corners. Never flat sides."
4. "Other colors don't count. Touch them, block them, whatever fits."
5. "Can't place anything? Pass."
6. "When nobody can place, count the squares you have left. Fewest wins."

Six lines, and the first round teaches the rest. New players usually make the same mistake once: they lay a piece flat against their own color. Point at the sides, point at the corners, and let them fix it. Nobody needs to hear it twice.

A few things the rules don't say out loud

These are observations about how the game works, not rules.

The middle matters early. Every color starts in a corner and grows inward. The first player to reach the center has corners pointing in every direction, and that's room to place pieces later.

Every piece you place makes new corners. A long, skinny piece opens corners along its length. A compact square piece opens fewer. When you're choosing between two shapes that both fit, count the open corners each one would leave you.

Blocking is half the game. A piece placed right against another color's open corner can shut that corner for good, since only that color can use it. It costs you nothing extra to block if the piece also helps your own spread.

The endgame is about small pieces. By the last few rounds, the board has small gaps left. A player holding only 5-square pieces may pass while someone with 1-, 2- and 3-square pieces keeps going. That's why so many players save a few small ones.

Optional extras from our table

None of these are in Mattel's sheet. They're optional.

• Ours: a practice round. New players play one game where nobody keeps score, just to learn the corner rule.
• Ours: hands off until it's your turn. You may plan, but you can't hold a piece over the board while someone else is thinking. It slows the game down and gives your plan away.
• Ours: the shared color goes to whoever's behind. That's the Lucho rule from the 3-player section. Use it only if everyone agrees before the first piece.

Blokus editions on Amazon US right now

Our data for this page lists 3 Blokus boxes on Amazon US as of October 2026, all from Mattel. The table above shows the players, age and play time each listing states, with a dash where a listing leaves a field out.

• Mattel Blokus (84 pieces). Listed for ages 7+, 2 to 4 players, strategy play, with 84 pieces in four colors. That matches the rules sheet above, so this is the box the rules on this page describe.
• Mattel Blokus XL (Amazon Exclusive). Listed for ages 7+, 2 to 4 players, strategy play, and labeled a giant edition. Our data doesn't give its board size or piece count. Same players and age as the standard box, so the same rules should apply. The difference is in the name: bigger.
• Mattel Blokus (second listing). A second listing under the plain Blokus name. Our data doesn't give its players, age or contents. Compare the photos and description on the listing to the 84-piece box before choosing.

Check the age label on the listing. Toys with small parts are a choking hazard for children under 3. Every Blokus piece is a small part.

Which Blokus fits your table

There are only three boxes here, so the choice is short.

• A first copy: the 84-piece Mattel Blokus. It matches the rules sheet.
• Bigger pieces on the table: Blokus XL, listed as a giant edition. Check the listing for its size before buying if table space is tight.
• Two players most nights: any of them. The 2-player rules use the same box, with each player running two colors.
• A kid who just turned 7: the 7+ listings fit the box age. Basic scoring is a good place to start.

Sam is 7, so he qualifies for the box, and he says so. He plays the big 5-square pieces first, every game. That's also the first strategy tip most players learn: a big piece left for the end may not find a gap. The 1-square piece he saves for last, mostly because he likes the sound it makes going down. Advanced scoring pays him 5 points for that. He considers this proof.

Who should skip Blokus

Skip it if your group wants a story, a theme or a lot of talking. Blokus is quiet. Players stare at the board looking for corners, and the board doesn't explain itself.

Skip it if a player gets upset at being blocked. Blocking is legal and constant. Every color can crowd every other color, and late in the game somebody will be stuck passing while others keep placing.

Skip it too if you usually play with five or more. The box seats four at most, and the 3-player rules already need a shared color to make the board work.

If you like Blokus, look at these

Same family of game as Blokus: no luck, pieces on a grid, and quick setup.

• Othello: two players, one grid, and pieces that change color as you play
• Connect 4: another short grid game with no luck
• Qwirkle: tiles placed by matching rules, for 2 or more
• Kanoodle: fitting shapes into a space, as a solo puzzle
• Strategy board games: the wider shelf of thinking games
• Family board games: for a table with mixed ages

For the rest of the maker's lineup, see the Mattel brand page.

Corners only. Keep one open.