Google Block Breaker: How to Play Google’s Breakout Game

“Google Block Breaker” is what most people now call the brick-breaking game that Google once hid inside Google Images. In 2013, searching atari breakout in Google Images turned the image results into bricks you could smash with a paddle and ball. Google quietly retired that Easter egg years ago, but fan sites have restored it, and dozens of “Google Block Breaker” clones have appeared online. This guide explains what’s official, what isn’t, how to play the restored version safely, and which Google games still work today.

The story behind Google’s Breakout Easter egg

Breakout is one of the founding games of the arcade era. Atari released it in 1976. You control a paddle at the bottom of the screen and bounce a ball upward to destroy rows of bricks, losing a life whenever the ball slips past you. It inspired countless remakes, from Arkanoid to the brick-breaker games on early mobile phones.

In May 2013, Google marked the game’s 37th anniversary in its own way. As TechCrunch reported at the time, typing “atari breakout” into Google Image Search transformed the results into a playable game. The thumbnail images became the bricks, and the game was called “Image Breakout.” Search Engine Land noted you could steer the paddle with the mouse or arrow keys and share your score after losing your five lives.

It became one of Google’s best-loved hidden features, and that is why the search phrase lives on long after the game itself left Google.

How to play Google Block Breaker today

Because Google no longer serves the original, there are two realistic ways to play:

Option 1: The restored version on elgooG

1. Go to elgoog.im/breakout, a fan archive that restores retired Google Easter eggs.
2. Wait for the image grid to load. It turns into bricks automatically.
3. Move the paddle to start bouncing the ball.
4. Press Esc to return to the image results.

elgooG states clearly that it is not affiliated with Google. It’s a long-running fan project, which makes it the closest thing to the original experience.

Option 2: Search for it

Searching “Google Block Breaker” brings up several browser versions. Some are faithful remakes, others are new games that borrow the name. They can be fun, but read the safety section below before you click on random results.

Controls and how the game works

Action	Desktop	Phone or tablet
Move the paddle	Mouse, trackpad, or left/right arrow keys	Drag your finger left and right
Pause or exit	Esc key	On-screen controls (varies by version)
Mute	Sound toggle on screen	Sound toggle on screen

The basic rules are the same as the 1976 original:

• Each brick you hit disappears and adds to your score.
• Clear every brick to move on to the next level, which is usually faster.
• If the ball gets past your paddle, you lose a life. The 2013 Google version gave you five.
• Where the ball hits the paddle changes its angle. Hitting near the edges sends it out at a sharper angle.

Tips for higher scores

1. Use the edges of the paddle. Controlling the angle is the whole game. Centre hits go straight up, and edge hits go sideways.
2. Dig a tunnel. Aim repeatedly at one side of the wall. Once you break through to the top, the ball bounces between the ceiling and the bricks, clearing many in a row without you touching it.
3. Watch the ball, not the bricks. Track where the ball will land rather than where it is now, and move early.
4. Slow, small movements win. Big swipes with a mouse cause overshoots. On a laptop, arrow keys can be steadier than the trackpad.
5. Expect the speed-up. The ball gets faster as levels progress, so position yourself in the middle between hits.
6. Play full screen where the version allows, to give yourself more reaction time.

Official vs clones: staying safe

Many sites using the name “Google Block Breaker” have nothing to do with Google. Some are harmless hobby projects. Others exist mainly to show ads. A few simple rules keep you out of trouble:

• Never download anything. Brick-breaker games run in the browser. A site asking you to install an app, extension or “launcher” is a red flag.
• Decline notification requests. “Allow notifications to play” is a common trick to send spam to your device later.
• Watch out for fake buttons. Large “Play” or “Download” buttons on ad-heavy pages are often adverts.
• Don’t sign in. A free brick game has no reason to ask for your Google account or email.
• Prefer well-known archives such as elgooG, which have been around for years.

Google Gravity and other “broken Google” tricks

The other classic people search for is Google Gravity. Created by developer Mr.doob and launched on 18 March 2009 as a Chrome Experiment, it shows what looks like the Google homepage and then lets everything fall to the bottom of the screen. The logo, search box and buttons tumble down, and you can grab and throw them around. Google itself highlighted it in a 2012 blog post, but it was never an official Google feature.

You can still try it through elgooG’s Google Gravity page, which adds touch controls for phones. The same archive restores other Easter eggs such as Zerg Rush, Google Mirror and Do a Barrel Roll, along with fan-made extras.

Google games you can still play on Google

If you want something that is genuinely official and still live, Google has plenty of games built into Search and Chrome:

• Chrome Dino: the dinosaur runner that appears when you’re offline. You can also open it any time by typing chrome://dino in Chrome’s address bar.
• Snake: search “play snake” and Google shows a playable Snake game in the results.
• Pac-Man: Google’s 2010 Pac-Man Doodle is still playable from a search for “pac-man.”
• Solitaire, Minesweeper and Tic-tac-toe: search any of these names to play directly in the results.
• Utilities that feel like games: “flip a coin,” “roll a die” and “spinner” give you instant on-screen versions.
• Doodle games: many interactive Google Doodles are archived and playable at doodles.google.

Teachers looking for games that are fun and educational might prefer platforms built for the classroom, such as Blooket or Gimkit.

Google Search Easter eggs that still work

Alongside the games, Google has a long tradition of jokes hidden in Search itself. Try typing these into google.com:

Search for	What happens
do a barrel roll	The whole results page spins around once
askew	The results page tilts slightly to one side
recursion	Google asks “Did you mean: recursion,” a programmer’s joke
anagram	Google suggests “nag a ram,” an anagram of the word
play snake	A playable Snake game appears
flip a coin / roll a die	Instant on-screen coin toss or dice roll

Google adds and removes these over time, so if one doesn’t work in your region or language, that’s probably why.

From Atari to Arkanoid: why Breakout still matters

Breakout’s formula, one paddle, one ball and a wall of bricks, became one of gaming’s most copied ideas. Taito’s Arkanoid (1986) added power-ups such as paddle extensions and lasers, and that style became the standard for decades of “brick breaker” games on consoles, PCs and phones. Google’s 2013 Easter egg was a tribute to that lineage, and the modern clones that borrow its name are its latest descendants.

The game also has a second life in education. Because the rules are simple, Breakout is one of the most common first projects for students learning to code. Tutorials for Scratch, Python and JavaScript walk beginners through drawing the paddle, moving the ball and detecting collisions with bricks. If a child loves playing it, building their own version is a great next step.

Build your own Block Breaker in an afternoon

If you or your kids enjoy the game, recreating it is a classic first coding project. The logic breaks into a few small pieces:

1. Draw the scene: a rectangle for the paddle, a circle for the ball, and a grid of rectangles for the bricks.
2. Move the paddle with the mouse position or arrow keys, and stop it at the screen edges.
3. Move the ball by adding a horizontal and vertical speed to its position every frame.
4. Bounce off walls by reversing the horizontal speed at the sides and the vertical speed at the top.
5. Bounce off the paddle, changing the angle depending on where the ball lands.
6. Break bricks: when the ball overlaps a brick, remove it, reverse the vertical speed and add to the score.
7. Lose a life when the ball goes below the paddle, and end the game at zero lives.

Free platforms such as Scratch let younger learners build this with drag-and-drop blocks, while older students can write it in JavaScript with an HTML canvas or in Python with a game library. Getting the paddle-angle maths right is a satisfying lesson in coordinates and geometry.

A note on school and work networks

Searches for Google’s mini games spike during school hours, and many students look for them on “unblocked games” sites. Those sites are often packed with ads and sometimes unsafe. Built-in Google games like Snake, Solitaire and Chrome Dino usually work on school Chromebooks because they run inside Google Search or Chrome itself. If a site is blocked by your school’s filter, the safer choice is to play later at home rather than through a proxy or mirror site.

Whether you’re chasing a high score in the restored Image Breakout, letting the Google homepage collapse in Google Gravity, or playing Snake straight from the search results, Google’s playful side is still easy to find. Just remember which versions are real Google features, which are fan restorations, and which are ad-filled copies, and you’ll get all the nostalgia without the pop-ups.

FAQ

Does the Google Images Breakout Easter egg still work?

No. It was removed from Google Images, around 2020 according to the elgooG archive. You can play a restored copy on elgooG.

Is Google Block Breaker made by Google?

The original 2013 “Image Breakout” was. Most sites using the name “Google Block Breaker” today are unofficial remakes.

Is Google Block Breaker free?

Yes. Legitimate versions are free browser games. Never pay or install anything to play one.

Can I play Google Block Breaker on my phone?

Yes, on most modern versions. Drag your finger to move the paddle.

Who made Google Gravity?

Mr.doob (Ricardo Cabello) created it in 2009 as a Chrome Experiment. It isn’t an official Google product.

What other Google Easter eggs can I try?

Try “do a barrel roll,” “askew” and “play snake” in Google Search, or open chrome://dino in Chrome.

Why can’t I find the Breakout game by searching “atari breakout” anymore?

Because Google removed that Easter egg from Image Search. Searching the phrase now just returns normal results and links to remakes.

Is Google Block Breaker safe for kids?

The game itself is harmless. The risk comes from ad-heavy clone sites, so stick to well-known versions and never let a site install anything or send notifications.

Sources

• TechCrunch: Google commemorates the 37th anniversary of Atari’s Breakout
• Search Engine Land: Google’s Atari Breakout Easter egg
• elgooG: Play Google Atari Breakout
• elgooG: Google Gravity