Where to click first in Minesweeper
Short answer: on this site, click in the middle of the board. In older versions of Minesweeper, including the classic Windows game, a corner gives you the best chance of an opening.
The reason the answer changes is one small rule: what the game does to keep your first click safe. We tested both versions of that rule on 3.6 million boards, using the same code that runs the game here. The numbers are below.
Two kinds of first click
Every modern Minesweeper makes sure your first click isn’t a mine. They don’t all do it the same way.
- Only the square you click is safe. This is how the classic Windows game worked. Your first square is never a mine, but any of the squares around it can be. So your first click often shows a single number and nothing else.
- The square you click and all eight around it are safe. This is how this site works, and many other modern versions. Because none of the neighbours can be a mine, your first click always shows a blank square, and the game opens up an area for you.
That difference decides where you should click.
How we tested it
For each of the three classic boards, we dealt 200,000 random boards for every combination of rule and starting spot, and recorded what the first click revealed. We tested three spots:
- Corner: the top left square.
- Edge: the middle of the top row.
- Middle: the centre of the board.
That’s 18 combinations of 200,000 boards, or 3.6 million boards in total.
Classic rule: corners open most often
With only the clicked square kept safe, this is how often the first click opens an area rather than showing a single number:
| Board | Corner | Edge | Middle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner (9 × 9, 10 mines) | 66.6% | 50.2% | 32.6% |
| Intermediate (16 × 16, 40 mines) | 59.8% | 42.3% | 25.2% |
| Expert (30 × 16, 99 mines) | 49.9% | 31.2% | 15.5% |
Corners win clearly. A corner square has only three neighbours, so there are fewer places for a mine to sit next to it. The middle has eight neighbours, so on Expert it opens an area less than one time in six.
But the areas that corners open are smaller, because a corner can only spread in two directions. Here’s the average number of squares the first click reveals, counting the times it shows just one number:
| Board | Corner | Edge | Middle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 19.0 | 18.3 | 15.6 |
| Intermediate | 16.5 | 18.2 | 17.0 |
| Expert | 8.4 | 8.8 | 7.1 |
On average the three spots are close. The real difference is how reliable they are. A corner gives you a usable start most often, which is why experienced players of the classic game usually start there.
This site’s rule: click the middle
When the eight neighbours are kept clear too, every first click opens an area. The only question is how big it is, and the middle wins by a long way:
| Board | Corner | Edge | Middle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 27.8 | 35.6 | 45.9 |
| Intermediate | 26.9 | 41.6 | 64.4 |
| Expert | 15.8 | 26.0 | 40.3 |
On Intermediate, a first click in the middle reveals about 64 squares on average, a quarter of the board. A corner reveals about 27. On Expert, the middle opens two and a half times as much as a corner.
A bigger opening gives you more numbers to work with, a longer edge to read, and fewer early guesses. So on this site, start in the middle.
What to do after the first click
The first click only gets you started. What you do next matters more:
- Read the edge of the opening. The numbers along its border are where all the information is. Go round it and check each number on its own before looking for anything clever.
- Look for the common patterns. Shapes like 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 turn up along straight edges all the time. The strategy page shows how to read them.
- Flag, or don’t. Flagging makes it easier to keep track, but fast players often skip it. Flagging or no flagging compares the two styles.
- If you get stuck, look again before guessing. If there really is no safe move, why Minesweeper sometimes makes you guess explains how to make the best guess.
Quick answers
Is the first click in Minesweeper always safe? In almost every version, yes. Here, the square you click and the eight around it are always clear.
Should I click a corner or the middle? In the classic Windows game, a corner gives you the best chance of an opening. On this site every first click opens an area, and the middle opens the biggest one.
Does the first click matter on Expert? More than on any other board. Expert is crowded, so a large opening makes the early game much easier.
Want to see it for yourself? Start an Intermediate game, click the centre square, and watch how much of the board opens. If you’d rather never guess at all, try No guess mode.