What is a 180 in darts?

A 180 is the highest score you can throw with three darts: three triple 20s, sixty points each. It is the maximum, and it is the reason the 20 bed is the most crowded piece of real estate on a dartboard.

It is also called a maximum, or a ton 80, because 100 is a ton and this is eighty more.

Written and maintained by Timothy Moose, who builds Dart Meister. Updated August 25, 2026. How we write these pages.

Why 180 is the ceiling

The highest scoring single target on the board is the triple 20 at sixty points. The bullseye is worth fifty, so three bullseyes is only 150. Three triple 20s at sixty apiece is 180, and nothing beats it.

That is also why the numbers either side of the 20 are the 1 and the 5. The board is arranged so that the biggest reward sits next to the smallest punishment, and a dart that drifts off a triple 20 attempt often scores one or five instead of sixty. It is a deliberately cruel piece of design.

What a 180 is actually worth

In a leg of 501, a 180 takes you to 321 in one turn, which is roughly a third of the leg gone in three darts. Two 180s and a decent third turn puts you on a finish.

It is worth less than people assume, though. A leg is won at the double, and a player who throws a 180 and then misses six darts at a finish loses to a player who scored 60 a turn and hit the first double they saw. Big scoring gets you into range; the checkout wins the leg.

The exception is Cricket, where three triple 20s is worth nine marks. That closes the 20 and puts sixty points on the board in a single turn, which in Cricket is genuinely decisive.

How rare is it?

For a casual player, rare enough to be the story of the night. For a strong league player, a handful across a season. On the professional tour it happens several times per match, and a televised session will produce dozens.

The crowd shout exists because of that gap. Professional callers announce it with a drawn out "one hundred and eighty" and the room reacts, because the shot is routine at the top and impossible for almost everyone watching.

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Common questions