Jigsaw Explorer Defeats Home Isolation with Multiplayer Jigsaw Puzzles

Screenshot of a web-based jigsaw puzzle at Jigsaw Explorer

Jigsaw Explorer, a leader in online jigsaw puzzles, announced availability of its new multiplayer feature for all of its online jigsaw puzzles. Jigsaw Explorer has been providing jigsaw puzzles that can be played directly in the web browser for 10 years, but until now playing online jigsaw puzzles has always been a solo activity. 

The new multiplayer feature allows friends and family to collaborate on the assembly of the same jigsaw puzzle while connected over the internet. The idea is similar to a family gathering around a cardboard jigsaw puzzle at the kitchen table, but now the puzzle is online and the people playing that puzzle can be at different locations anywhere in the world.

"Our web-based jigsaw puzzles were already popular, but when the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders went into effect in the spring it created new demand for those puzzles," said Jigsaw Explorer's founder and owner, Bob Flora. "We knew there was also a new need to allow friends and family to play these puzzles together over the internet as a way to socially connect and engage with each other at this time when there are significantly less in-person interactions due to concerns related to the pandemic. That realization led us to immediately begin work on a multiplayer feature for our puzzles."

Screenshot of a web-based jigsaw puzzle at Jigsaw Explorer

Jigsaw Explorer provides all of their 7500+ jigsaw puzzles free of charge, including use of the new multiplayer feature. Players simply choose a puzzle subject they like and click the multiplayer button to switch the puzzle to multiplayer mode. The player is then shown a web link that can be sent via email or social media to the friends and family the player wishes to invite to participate in the assembly of the puzzle. When recipients receive the game link and click it, their web browser joins them to the game. The joined players can see the puzzle piece movements of all of the other players on their screens. If the players leave the puzzle unfinished, they can use the game link to return to it later and complete it.

• More information about Jigsaw Explorer's multiplayer feature can be found at the Jigsaw Explorer website.

SOURCE: Jigsaw Explorer