About Squirm.io: the free online worm game, explained

How Squirm.io works

Every worm in the arena is controlled by a head. Steer with the mouse, turn with the left and right arrow keys, or drag anywhere on the screen with your thumb on mobile. Eating food adds length, and length is your score.

The single rule that matters is this: if your head touches another worm's body, you die. Bodies pass through each other harmlessly, and you can coil through your own body as much as you like. That makes this a game about cutting people off, not about ramming them. When two heads meet, the bigger worm wins, and two worms of about the same size both die — so charging at someone bigger than you is never a winning move.

Boost by holding the left mouse button or Space. You move much faster, but you burn a little length and it falls behind you as food that anyone can eat. Boosting away from a fight feeds whoever is chasing you.

Power-ups, Nuggets and the Burrow

Five power-ups turn up in the arena as big glowing orbs. Magnet pulls food in from further away, Feast makes food worth more, Telescope lets you see further, Nimble makes you turn faster and Sprint makes you faster and your boost free. Several can run at once, and you can carry charges to switch on when you choose.

Gold Nuggets glint on the arena floor. Swim over them and they are yours to keep, even if your worm dies a second later. Spend them in the Burrow — the game's wardrobe and shop — on skins, painted character worms, eyes and mouths, and power-up upgrades, or in Settings on arena floors and food themes. Nothing is sold for real money.

Levels, achievements and daily rewards

Every run earns XP towards your level, and levels unlock new arena floors and food themes. Tap your worm's face in the top left to see your profile and achievements, which have bronze, silver and gold tiers that pay Nuggets.

Come back each day for the daily gift, a 14-day track of Nuggets and power-up charges that never sends you back to the start if you miss a day, and a free spin of the prize wheel, whose Nugget prizes grow with your level. The leaderboard ranks everyone's best run for Today, This week and All time.

Why this worm game is different

In Squirm.io, size never slows you down. A worm of length 10 and a worm of length 10,000 travel at exactly the same speed. The only thing size costs you is turning circle, which is what keeps giants killable and small worms genuinely dangerous.

There are no rounds and no timer. The arena runs around the clock, grows as more worms join, and a run ends when you die and at no other moment — there is no size limit waiting for you at the top.

When a worm dies it gives back 85% of its length as food and the rest is gone. That small leak is what stops a long-running arena inflating until every worm is the size of the map.

Worm skins are cosmetic and always will be. A starter colour and the rarest character worm move, turn and die exactly the same way.

Play Squirm.io on mobile or desktop

On desktop, your worm follows the mouse and boost is the left button or Space. On a phone or tablet you drag anywhere on the arena — your worm goes where your finger is, exactly as it goes where the cursor is — and boost is the button in the corner, on whichever side suits your thumbs. Turn the phone sideways and the arena turns with it. It is the same arena either way: this is one browser game, not a desktop version and a cut-down mobile one.

There are servers in Europe and North America, and the game picks the nearer one for you. Because it is a browser game with nothing to install, Squirm.io also works on locked- down school and work machines where downloads are blocked. There is more on that on the Squirm.io unblocked page.