Percentage Shop is a free online percentages game that runs in the browser with no download and no account. An item comes up with its old price and a discount tag, and you pick what it costs now. Later levels stop asking for the price and start asking the harder question: given two offers on the same item — 30% off against $18 off, a third off against buy two get one free, 20% off followed by another 10% — which one actually leaves you paying less? The wrong answers are the point. Every wrong price tag is one of the four mistakes people really make: taking the percent off as if it were dollars, answering with the money saved instead of the money paid, quietly doing 10% because that is the one you can do in your head, or adding two discounts together when the second one comes off the already-reduced price. Get one wrong and the game names the mistake rather than just buzzing. Twelve levels run from half price on round numbers up to a closing-down sale mixing every offer type, all in whole cents so no answer is ever a rounding argument.
How to play Percentage Shop
- Press Start. An item appears with its old price and a discount tag, and the clock starts.
- On a price round, tap the tag showing what the item costs now. Four prices are offered and only one is right.
- On a deal round, two offers are shown for the same item. Tap the one that leaves you paying less — the cheaper offer is never a tie.
- A wrong answer costs three seconds, keeps the item on the rail, and prints the reason: which mistake that answer was, and what the right working looks like.
- Get the level's quota right before the clock empties to unlock the next one.
- From level ten the sale is a sale on a sale — 20% off and then a further 10% off. That is 28% off in total, not 30%.
- Level twelve mixes every offer type: percentages, money off, fractions, buy two get one free, and two-step sales.
- Restart replays the same shop; New Sale generates a different one at the same level.
Tips
- Find the discount, then subtract. 35% off $80: 10% is $8, so 30% is $24, plus half of $8 for the 5% — $28 off, so you pay $52.
- Percentages you can halve are the easy route: 25% is a quarter, 50% is half, 15% is 10% plus half of 10%.
- Watch which question is being asked. "How much do you save" and "what do you pay" have different answers, and one of the wrong tags is always the other one.
- Two discounts never add up. 20% then 10% leaves you paying 80% of 90%, which is 72% of the original — a 28% discount, not 30%.
- To compare a percentage with a money-off deal, turn the percentage into money on that exact price. $18 off a $60 item beats 25% off; off a $100 item it does not.
- Buy two get one free is a third off, no more and no less — 33.3%. Any percentage above 34% beats it.
- A fraction off is usually quicker than the equivalent percentage: a third off $90 is $30 off, whereas 33% off $90 needs real arithmetic.
FAQ
Is Percentage Shop free to play?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no download, no sign-up and nothing to buy. All twelve levels are included and unlock as you clear them.
What does it teach?
Working out a sale price from a percentage, converting between percentages and fractions, comparing unlike offers, and the fact that two successive discounts do not add together. It is the arithmetic of a shop window rather than a textbook.
Are the wrong answers just random prices?
No. Each wrong tag is one of four specific misconceptions — taking the percent off as dollars, giving the saving instead of the price, doing 10% instead, or adding two discounts. When you tap one, the game tells you which mistake it was.
Is 20% off then 10% off the same as 30% off?
No, and level ten is built on that. The second discount applies to the already-reduced price, so you pay 80% of 90% — 72% of the original, which is 28% off. It is the most common percentage mistake there is.
How is buy two get one free scored?
Per item across the three you have to take, which is the only honest way to compare it with a percentage. Paying for two of three items is exactly a third off, or 33.3%.
Can two offers ever be equally good?
No — the generator re-rolls any deal round where the two offers come to the same price, because a tie has no right answer.
Do the prices ever come out to fractions of a cent?
Never. Prices are whole dollars and the fraction and two-step levels only use prices those offers divide exactly, so every number on screen is a whole number of cents.
Does Percentage Shop work on a phone?
Yes. The answer row keeps a fixed number of columns per round so it never reflows under your thumb, and every action is a single tap.