Slither.io is currently one of the most searched for things in Google. It has twice the search volume as the iPhone 7, according to some metrics, and is available on Android and iOS and also inside your web browser.

The game is HUGE and not just in scope and the amount of people playing it, either. No, like all big hits Slither.io pretty much came out of nowhere. You might not have even heard of it. But like Angry Birds and Flappy Birds before it, Slither.io is fast becoming one of the most popular online games on the planet.

What The HELL is Slither.io?

Put simply: Slither.io is basically like a modern version of Snake, the game we used to play on the Nokia 3310. But unlike that Snake, this Snake-based game is played in real-time against real people from all over the globe.

The idea behind Slither.io is simple too: you start out as a grub and navigate your way around, eating food. Once you scoff enough bits of food you start to grow. The idea here is not to get killed by other, bigger snakes. You eat and grow, eat and grow. That’s it. And once you’re big enough you can start killing other snakes by banging into them or encircling them.

But beware, some of the snakes you will encounter are ENORMOUS. I’ve probably clocked up a couple of hours playing the game and have seen some absolute monsters. I have no idea how long it takes to get THAT big, but there are clearly people out there playing Slither.io full time because I had a run of about 20 minites -- my best yet -- and wasn’t even a sixteenth of the snake that ended up killing me.

How To Hit The Leaderboards In Slither.io

The objective of Slither.io is to grow the longest snake on the server. The server is always on and measures the length of your snake so that you can compare it to the leader board, which sits on the right hand side of the screen. Slither.io is tough as hell, though, and I have yet to make my debut on this board.

I’m not even a novice at this game; it’s something I read about and then tried out while taking smoke breaks. I don’t tend to play mobile games all that much, but this one is definitely keeping me entertained, despite NEVER hitting the leaderboards.

In order to get onto the leaderboards, you need size, and that means you need to eat LOTS of food and not get killed, which, trust me, is NOT as easy as it sounds, especially if you encounter a big one -- and those guys are everywhere. So what’s a leaner to do?

“A snake starts out small,” says Touch Arcade, “and it usually doesn’t pay to get aggressive early on. Look for an area with lots of dots and just work your way back and forth eating them all. If you find yourself having to travel too far between meals then cruise around and look for better feeding grounds. In a good area with lots of food you should be able to reach a length of 1000 in only a minute or two, but if you spawn somewhere with very few dots to eat you may need to cruise around a bit. When you’ve hit a length above about a thousand finish chewing and move on to scavenging.”

You can play Slither.io on Android and iOS as well as inside your browser. If you’re bored right now, I suggest you have a go -- it’s rather fun.