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How Skyjo scoring works
In Skyjo, each player has 12 cards laid out in front of them, in columns of three, and the cards are worth −2 to 12. The goal: end each round with as few points as possible. Just like in penalty-point rummy, points are bad, and the lowest total wins.
Skyjo is a game published by Magilano. Buzzloo has no connection with the publisher: our counter just adds up your points.
The round ends when a player has turned over all their cards. Every other player then gets one more turn. After that, everyone flips their remaining face-down cards and does their sum.
Three rules are all you need to score correctly:
- Every card counts its value, negative ones too: a −2 brings your score down by 2.
- A column of three matching cards is removed and no longer counts at all.
- The player who ended the round must have the strictly lowest score of the round. If another player has less, or the same, their points for the round are doubled.
One detail is often forgotten: doubling only applies to positive scores. A score of zero or below is never doubled. Ending on −3 is still a good deal, even if your neighbor scored −5.
Worked examples, round by round
Let’s take a four-player game: Emma, Ben, Priya and Jake.
Round 1, no doubling. Emma flips her last card. The other three play their final turn, then everyone counts: Emma 8, Ben 15, Priya 21, Jake 12. Emma has the strictly lowest score, so she simply scores her 8 points.
Round 2, doubling. This time, Ben finishes first, with 14. But Priya has only 9. Ben doesn’t have the lowest score: his 14 points become 28. The others score their cards: Emma 17, Priya 9, Jake 20.
Round 3, a tie. Jake ends the round with 6, and Emma has 6 too. Jake doesn’t have the strictly lowest score: he’s doubled and scores 12. Emma keeps her 6 points, Ben scores 19 and Priya 25.
Round 4, a negative score. Priya ends the round with −3, but Ben does even better: −5. Priya doesn’t have the lowest score, yet there’s no doubling, because her score is negative: she scores −3. Emma has 10 and Jake 4.
Here is the sheet after those four rounds:
| # | Ended by | Emma | Ben | Priya | Jake |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emma | 8 | 15 | 21 | 12 |
| 2 | Ben, ×2 | 17 | 28 | 9 | 20 |
| 3 | Jake, ×2 | 6 | 19 | 25 | 12 |
| 4 | Priya | 10 | −5 | −3 | 4 |
| Total | 41 | 57 | 52 | 48 |
Emma leads with 41 points, despite a rough second round. Ben pays dearly for round 2: without the doubling, he’d have 43 points, not 57.
And the column of three? Imagine that in round 3, Priya had lined up three 7s in one column. Those 21 points are removed: her nine other cards add up to 25, so she scores 25, not 46.
With the Buzzloo score counter
At the top of this page, type the players' names and create the game. You get a link to send on WhatsApp, by text message, or to copy. Everyone opens it on their phone and sees the same scoreboard, updated live.
Only one person keeps score: whoever created the game. Everyone else watches. You can also hand over the pen to someone else with a separate link, and take it back whenever you like.
For each round, type each player’s total and tap the player who ended the round. The doubling happens on its own, and the calculation appears before you confirm: you see right away if someone was doubled, and why. Made a mistake? You can undo the last round or fix a name.
At the end of the game, the winner appears in big letters, with the ranking. You can share the result in the group chat, or start a new game with the same group. 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. The same score counter works for other games, like Uno or Yacht dice.
Common mistakes
- Counting too early. When a player has flipped everything, the others still play one more turn before counting.
- Leaving face-down cards out. At the end of the round, everyone flips everything and counts all their cards, even the ones they never looked at.
- Forgetting about ties. If another player has exactly the same score as the player who ended the round, that’s a doubling: they needed strictly less.
- Doubling a negative score. A player who ends on −2 while someone else has −4 keeps −2. Doubling it would hand them a bonus.
- Counting a column of three matching cards. It’s removed, so it’s worth nothing.
Variations
Not every table plays the doubling the same way. Some only double if another player has strictly less than the player who ended the round: a tie then goes unpunished. Others handle negative scores differently, for example by doubling them too: a −3 becomes −6, a nice bonus for the player who ended the round.
Our counter follows the most common rule: the points of the player who ended the round are doubled if they don’t have the strictly lowest score of the round, and only if those points are positive. If your table plays differently, the score sheet lets you type the points you worked out yourself, with “lowest total wins.”
The end of the game
The game ends at the end of the round in which a player reaches 100 points or more. You see it once the round is scored, doubling included. The lowest total wins.
For example, at the end of the seventh round, Ben goes to 103 points. The game stops there, with these totals: Emma 84, Priya 91, Jake 97. Emma wins, ahead of Priya, Jake, then Ben.
To decide who deals first, draw a random order. And to end the evening on a different note, a quick quiz with the quiz buzzer will cheer up the losers. You’ll also find all the Buzzloo tools for your game nights.