How to play TikTok’s viral Stacking Game

Like most social media apps out there, TikTok counts on a bit of a Mobius strip when it comes to user engagement. Users come to the platform to indulge in other users’ content, and often become content creators themselves, if only to recreate some of TikTok’s many viral dance and song trends. But the company’s higher-ups aren’t above hedging their bets when it comes to keeping viewers amused. TikTok’s newest viral challenge is “in-house” for a change — a built-in interactive game users can play themselves.

The Stacking Challenge is an interactive game that is part of the platform’s effects menu. The goal is straightforward enough; simply attempt to build the highest tower you can, by placing a repeating series of colorful blocks on top of each other. Of course, the challenge only appears easy on its face. In reality, the process is deceptively difficult. You can stop the blocks by blinking, but they must line up onto each other exactly. If they don’t, the overlapping part will fall off — resulting in an increasingly smaller surface to stack upon. Users playing the game can find themselves rapidly running out of space.

Some challengers are pulling in substantial likes by demonstrating their prowess. One user, _saddestnightout, even managed to go viral with 314 thousand likes when he demonstrated his own hack of blinking in time to the game’s soundtrack, in a video entitled “The Beat is All You Need”.

If you’d like to give the challenge a go yourself, you should be able to immediately, if you already have TikTok on your device (and if it isn’t available — the game hasn’t made it to every country just yet). To play along, follow the steps below:

1. Launch your TikTok app
2. Tap the Discover tab
3. Enter “Stacking Challenge” in the search bar
4. In “Effects,” tap the pink record button next to the challenge
5. Tap on “Try this effect”
6. Point your screen-side camera at your face and watch as the blocks float by. You must stop each block by blinking when they line up.
7. Once you miss, the game is over, and you can try again

Once you get a result you like, share it. Maybe your high score might be the next to go viral!