How to use the Rock Paper Scissors
- Click the Scissors, Rock or Paper button. You can also press the number keys 1, 2 or 3 on your keyboard.
- The computer's hand flickers for a moment, then stops and the result appears. Scissors beats paper, rock beats scissors, and paper beats rock.
- Your stats below the game show your wins, draws, losses, win rate, current streak and best streak. They're saved in this browser.
What are your odds of beating the computer?
Each round, the computer uses your browser's cryptographic random number generator (crypto.getRandomValues) to pick rock, paper or scissors, each with a 1/3 chance. That means your odds are the same whatever you throw.
| Result | Probability |
|---|---|
| Win | 1/3 (about 33.3%) |
| Draw | 1/3 (about 33.3%) |
| Loss | 1/3 (about 33.3%) |
If you ignore draws and only count rounds with a winner, your chance of winning is 50%. Streaks get unlikely fast. If you replay every draw, the odds of winning 3 in a row are 1/8 (12.5%), 5 in a row are 1/32 (about 3.1%), and 10 in a row are 1/1,024 (about 0.1%).
Is there really a way to win at rock paper scissors?
If your opponent picks completely at random, no strategy can change your odds, and this game's computer picks at random. Playing against people is different, because people have habits. Experiments that watched people play have reported a tendency for winners to throw the same hand again in the next round and for losers to switch to a different hand.
These habits vary from person to person, though, and an opponent who knows about them can use them against you. They aren't a guaranteed way to win, so treat them as a bit of fun.
Rules and popular variations
Each hand beats one hand and loses to the other, so no hand is always the best choice. That's why rock paper scissors (also called roshambo) has long been used to settle things fairly, like who goes first, who's "it" in a game of tag, or who gets the last slice of pizza.
- Best of three: the first player to win two rounds wins the match. Luck in a single round matters less.
- Rock, paper, scissors, shoot: in many places, players count "rock, paper, scissors" and throw on "shoot" so nobody throws late.
- Group games: if all three hands show up, or everyone throws the same hand, the round is replayed. With a big group it can take a long time to get a winner, so a ladder game or a spinner wheel is often quicker.