Best Tally Counter for Games & Tabletop

What makes a great game scoring counter?

When someone searches "MTG life counter online" or "board game scoring app", they need more than a single clicker. A game-worthy counter should offer:

• Multiple counters per player — track life, poison counters, commander damage, or individual player scores all at once without switching screens.
• Custom step amounts — MTG needs +1/−1, but also +5/−5 for big swings. Darts needs +1 through +60. A fixed +1 button isn't enough.
• Negative counting / life loss — life totals go down as often as they go up. The counter must handle subtraction natively, not just addition.
• Undo last action — accidental taps and misscored throws are inevitable at a noisy game table. One-tap undo is essential.
• Fullscreen for visibility — everyone at the table should be able to glance at the score from across a board. Big numbers, clean layout.
• Dark mode for atmosphere — game nights often happen in dim lighting. A dark theme reduces glare and fits the mood.
• Keyboard shortcuts — for PC players who don't want to reach for the mouse during a fast-paced card game.

Game scoring features — compared across 5 apps

We tested the five general-purpose online tally counters from our main comparison for game-night scenarios: multi-player tracking, custom point values, subtract support, undo reliability, and display readability in low-light environments.

The verdict

Best MTG life counter online — track life, poison, and commander damage

Magic: The Gathering players need to track life totals that start at 20 (or 40 in Commander), fluctuate constantly, and sometimes involve secondary counters like poison, energy, or experience. A physical d20 works in a pinch, but it's easy to bump and impossible to audit after a disputed play. A digital life counter keeps a full history of every change.

DigitalTallyCounter.com handles MTG scoring natively. Create a named counter for each player, set the starting value to 20 (or 40), and use custom quick-tap buttons for common changes like +1, −1, +5, and −5. The undo feature lets you reverse a miscount instantly, and the fullscreen layout makes life totals visible to everyone at the table. Dark mode keeps the screen from blinding players during evening sessions.

For Commander pods with four or more players, you can run multiple counters simultaneously — each labelled with a player name and color. No other free online counter offers this level of multi-counter flexibility with subtraction and undo built in.

Best darts scoring app — legs, sets, and checkouts

Darts scoring can be surprisingly complex. In 501, players start at 501 and count down, subtracting their throw total each turn. In cricket, you're tracking hits on specific numbers. Either way, you need a counter that subtracts reliably and lets you enter multi-digit scores (a perfect dart throw can score 60 in a single turn).

DigitalTallyCounter.com supports custom step amounts, so you can enter the exact score for each throw — whether it's +26 or +60 — and subtract from a starting total. The undo button catches mis-entered scores before they cascade, and the fullscreen display works great propped up at the oche. It's not a purpose-built darts app with automatic checkout suggestions, but for quick and accurate scoring, it's the most capable free option.

TheTallyCounter.com also supports custom step values and can handle basic darts subtraction, but its lack of undo means a single typo can derail the whole leg.

Best board game scoring counter — Catan, Carcassonne, and beyond

Modern board games generate points throughout the session — longest road in Catan, completed cities in Carcassonne, area control in Risk. Keeping a running tally on paper works, but it's slow and error-prone. A digital counter with named slots for each player, easy +/- buttons, and a visible scoreboard turns your phone into a shared display.

DigitalTallyCounter.com is ideal for this. Create a counter for each player, name them, and tap to add points throughout the game. The fullscreen mode shows all scores at a glance, and the app saves state automatically — so if someone accidentally closes the browser tab, the score is still there when they reopen it.

For trivia nights with larger groups, the same setup works perfectly: one counter per team, +1 (or +10) per correct answer, and a clear leaderboard on screen at the end of each round. No signup, no app install, just open the page and start scoring.