Photo: Mohamed Marey on Unsplash
How to keep score with a score sheet
A score sheet is one column per player, one row per round and a total at the bottom. It works for every game where you score points round after round: President, Crazy Eights, Hearts, coinche if you work out each hand yourself, but also cornhole, bocce, darts, a homemade quiz or a game you made up on vacation.
For belote, French tarot, rummy or Yacht dice, use their own page on the score counter instead: there, the site already knows the scoring rules.
For everything else, three choices are all you need, before the first round:
- Who wins? The highest total, or the lowest for penalty games, where every point is a bad point.
- When does it end? At a limit: the game ends in the round where someone reaches it. Or after a set number of rounds. Or whenever you like.
- What about a tie? If two players finish with the best total, they both win.
Then, every round, you write down each player’s points, negatives included, and add them up. The sheet doesn’t know your game’s rules: you’re the one who knows what each round is worth.
Worked examples, round by round
Highest total, limit of 21: cornhole. A game of cornhole is usually played to 21, with cancellation scoring: in each round, only the team with more points scores the difference. Set the sheet to “highest total wins,” limit 21, with one name per team. In each round, one team scores and the other gets 0.
| Round | Liam and Ava | Noah and Mia |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 | 6 | 0 |
| 4 | 0 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 | 0 |
| 6 | 4 | 0 |
| 7 | 3 | 0 |
| Total | 21 | 7 |
After six rounds, it’s 18 to 7. In the seventh, Liam and Ava move up to 21: the game ends, and they win 21 to 7.
Lowest total, limit of 50: Hearts. Each heart you take is worth 1 point and the queen of spades 13: that’s 26 penalty points per hand, and the lowest total wins. Hearts is often played to 100; for a shorter game, set the sheet to “lowest total wins” with a limit of 50.
| Hand | Emma | Jake | Priya | Marcus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 13 | 9 | 4 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 13 | 5 |
| 3 | 2 | 6 | 15 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 14 | 7 |
| Total | 11 | 23 | 51 | 19 |
Each row adds up to 26: handy for checking that nobody was left out. After three hands, Priya is at 37. In the fourth, she moves up to 51: the game ends, and Emma wins with the lowest total, 11 points.
A set number of rounds: darts. Each player throws three darts per turn and scores their total; after four turns, the highest total wins. Set the sheet to “highest total wins” and 4 rounds.
| Turn | Sam | Grace | Diego |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 41 | 60 | 26 |
| 2 | 57 | 22 | 45 |
| 3 | 33 | 40 | 60 |
| 4 | 45 | 54 | 19 |
| Total | 176 | 176 | 150 |
Sam and Grace both finish on 176: the sheet declares them joint winners. For a single winner, settle it with one question on the quiz buzzer.
With the Buzzloo score counter
At the top of this page, type the players' names, or the team names. Choose whether the highest or the lowest total wins and, if you like, a limit or a number of rounds. Create the game and you get a link to send on WhatsApp, by text message or to copy.
Everyone opens the link on their phone and sees the same scoreboard, updated live.
Only one person keeps score: whoever created the game. Everyone else watches. The scorekeeper can hand over the pen to someone else with a separate link, and take it back whenever they like.
For each round, the scorekeeper types each player’s points, negatives included. Before you confirm, the site shows the calculation. Made a mistake? You can undo the last round, or fix a name.
At the end, the winner appears in big letters, with the ranking. Sharing the result sends it to the group chat, and a new game with the same group starts the rematch. Your group keeps its game history: who wins most often, how many wins for each name.
It’s free, nothing to install, no account and no email address: first names are enough. A game is deleted 30 days after its last round, a group’s history 6 months after its last game.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting “lowest total wins.” In a penalty game, the sheet would crown the player with the most penalties. Choose it before you create the game.
- Typing the running total instead of the round’s points. Type only the points for that round: the site does the adding.
- Forgetting the minus sign. A 10-point bonus to subtract is typed −10, otherwise the player ends up 20 points too high.
- Changing the rules halfway through. Agree on what each play is worth before you start, not in round three.
Variations
A score sheet has no rules of its own: it follows yours. The most common settings:
- highest total, with a limit: cornhole to 21, bocce, a homemade quiz to 50 points;
- lowest total, with a limit: Hearts, Crazy Eights and any game where you count the cards left in your hand;
- a set number of rounds: darts, President over ten hands, a quiz with five categories;
- no limit and no set number of rounds: you play until dessert, then end the game with one tap.
House rules (a bonus for the winner, double points for a special play) work the same way: you do the math, then type each player’s result. In Hearts, for example, if someone shoots the moon, type 0 for them and 26 for everyone else (some tables take 26 off the shooter instead: then type −26 for them and 0 for the others).
Our counter does exactly what you set at the start: it adds up the points you type, with no hidden rules, and declares the highest or the lowest total the winner, as you chose.
For the next game
To mix up the players, make random teams; to decide who deals first, draw a random order. Want to end the evening with a quiz? Follow our guide to host a quiz night, or browse all the Buzzloo tools.