The game begins with a full screen of randomly placed gems. Choose 2 or more adjacent gems to switch places on the game board. If the switched gems create a row of 3 or more identical gems, the gems switch and disappear, and you earn points! Thereafter, new gems appear on the top of the game board, and the player continues to make matches until the timer runs out. Bejeweled 2 is the newest and advanced versions of Bejeweled with improved graphics, sound and new special pieces, it's the best way to exercise your puzzle muscles.

If a player make 5 like-coloured gems, one of the pieces will remain in a converted state as a Hyper Gem. When you switch this special gem with another gem, ALL gems of the same color will be removed. A "cascade" indicates the successive clearings of multiple gem clusters following a single move.

Scoring in Bejeweled 2 for cleared gems follows the following cascade guidelines:
x1: 10
x2: 20
x3: 30
x4: 40
x5: 60
x6: 80
x7: 110
x8: 160
x9+: 210