Two players can make the same number of merges in 2048 and end up hundreds of points apart. The difference is the order they merge in.
Every merge in 2048 scores the value of the tile it creates, so it is tempting to think that more merges always means more points. It does not. What matters is that merges happen in the right order, on the right side of the board.
Get the order wrong and you stall at 256 with a board full of small tiles. Get it right and the same board compounds.
Merge small tiles before large ones
Small tiles are cheap to relocate and expensive to leave around, because they clog the lanes your large tiles need to travel. Clear them first, always.
Large tiles should be moved as rarely as possible. Every time you shift a 512 you risk trapping it against a wall it cannot escape from.
Keep the merge zone in one corner
Your largest tile belongs in a corner and should not move for the rest of the game. Everything else merges toward it in descending order along the adjacent edge.
This produces the descending chain that makes 2048 solvable: largest at the corner, then the next largest beside it, and so on down to the twos and fours on the far side.
Never merge across your anchor column
The anchor column is the one holding your largest tile. Merging sideways across it breaks the chain and forces you to rebuild from scratch, which is where runs die.
If a merge can only happen by crossing the anchor, leave it. A missed small merge is survivable; a broken chain is not.
FAQ
Is the corner strategy always best?
For scoring on a fixed board, yes. There are exotic strategies that reach higher tiles with more risk, but they are far less reliable over a three-level daily run.