How to play 301 darts
Everyone starts on 301. Every dart you throw comes off your score. First to exactly zero wins the leg, and in most games that last dart has to land in a double.
301 is the short game. It's what gets played when there are four people waiting for the board, and because it's often played double in as well as double out, it tests accuracy more than the low number suggests. The longer version is 501, and if the board is busy most bars switch to Cricket darts instead.
Written and maintained by Timothy Moose, who builds Dart Meister. On the App Store since 2012. These are the commonly played rules, not sanctioned tournament rules; how we write these pages.
Skip the mental math
Dart Meister subtracts every dart and tells you your out. Free for up to eight players.
The rules, in order
A leg of 301, dart by dart
That's a six-dart 301, the perfect leg, straight in and double out. In practice a decent bar player takes twelve to eighteen darts, and the last three are the hard ones.
The fastest way to win at 301
301 is short enough that one bad turn decides it. These are the four that matter.
{{ s.title }}
{{ s.body }}
Every finish from 2 to 170 is on the checkout chart.
Stop counting on a beer mat
301 is where mental arithmetic breaks down fastest, because the numbers get awkward early and everyone is watching. A scoreboard app removes the argument entirely.
Set 301 as the starting score, switch double in and double out on or off, pick your checkout advice level, and throw.
301 questions people actually ask
Where these rules come from
Bar games run on house rules, and the version on this page is the common one. The sanctioned rules are worth knowing too: the American Darts Organization publishes the tournament rulebook for US steel tip play, covering the bull off, the throw line and exactly what counts as a bust.
If your league does it differently, your league wins. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it.
Nobody can ever remember what you're on
Set it to 301, double in and out if that's how you play, and it just tells you. Free for up to eight players, and you can fix a bad tap without starting the whole leg again.
Download free on the App Store