Darts Games: 5 Classic Variants

Also called Around the World, or just 'Clock'. Each player throws at number 1 first; land it, and you move on to 2 on your next turn. Miss, and you stay on the same number until your go comes round again.

Work through 1 to 20 in strict order, then finish on the bullseye. First player to hit the bull after clearing all 20 numbers wins.

House-rule call: some tables let a double count as landing on that number plus the next one up (skip ahead one extra), and a treble skip two extra. Others play it dead straight — any segment of the right number counts, no skipping. Agree which before you start; it changes how long the game runs by a lot.

Killer needs at least 3 players to work properly — 1v1 skips the whole point of it. Each player throws one dart at the board without aiming for a specific number, to find their own number; if two players land on the same one, both re-throw until everyone's number is unique.

Give each player a set number of lives — 3 to 5 is standard, and the exact count is a house-rule call for your group. To become a 'killer', you have to hit the double of your own number. Only killers can take lives off opponents, by hitting an opponent's number; you also lose a life if another killer hits yours.

Missing your own number does nothing either way. Last player with at least one life left wins. A player who isn't yet a killer is safe from attack but can't attack anyone else either — getting your own double first is the whole early game.

Cricket only uses six targets: 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, and the bullseye. Everything else on the board is dead — landing anywhere else does nothing.

Each number needs three hits to 'close': a single counts once, a double counts twice, a treble counts all three in one dart. Once you've closed a number and your opponent hasn't, every extra hit on it scores points equal to that number — a treble 20 after it's closed is 60 points.

Once both players have closed a number, it's dead for the rest of the game and nobody scores on it again. First player to close all six numbers, while level or ahead on points, wins outright. Close everything while you're behind on points, and the game carries on until you catch up or your opponent closes out too.

House-rule call: some tables play 'cut-throat' Cricket, where hits on a number you've closed but your opponent hasn't add points to their score instead of yours. Confirm which version you're using before you start — it flips the whole strategy.

Standard darts scoring. Everyone starts on 501 (or 301 for a shorter game) and subtracts their score after each throw of three darts, aiming to reach exactly zero.

Go below zero, or land on a score you can't legally finish from, and it's a 'bust' — your whole turn is cancelled and your score resets to what it was before you threw.

The traditional rule is that you must finish on a double, or the bullseye, which counts as double 25 — miss that and you're not allowed to go below 1, however tempting the extra dart looks. Plenty of house games drop the double-out requirement entirely and just play to zero. Agree which version you're using before the first throw, not after someone's celebrated a finish that didn't count.

First to reach exactly zero wins the leg. Best of three or five legs is the usual way to make it a proper match instead of one quick game.

Halve-It runs on a fixed sequence of targets — something like 20, double, 19, treble, 18, bullseye — though the exact list is a house-rule call every group makes for itself. Write the sequence down before you start so nobody argues about what's coming next.

Each round, every player throws at that round's target. Hit it, and you add points to your running total — a straight number adds its value, a double or treble adds the doubled or tripled value, the bull's worth the most. Miss it entirely, and your running total gets halved on the spot.

That halving is the whole game — a good total built over four rounds can vanish in one bad throw, which keeps the scoreboard live right to the last round. Play through the full sequence once each; highest total left standing at the end wins.