How to count your Shut the Box score
To count your Shut the Box score, add up the numbers on the tiles that are still open. If the 1, 5 and 9 are open, you score 15. If only the 4 is open, you score 4.
Tap the tiles still open to add them up:
Score: 0 (the box is shut)
What is a good score in Shut the Box?
A good score in Shut the Box is anything under 10, because even a player who makes the best possible choice every time scores 10 or more in about half of all games. Dice decide a lot. We worked out every possible game with the usual nine tiles and the one-die rule, assuming the best choice on every roll:
| Score | Share of games with best play |
|---|---|
| 0 (box shut) | about 1 in 10 (9.7%) |
| 5 or less | about 1 in 4 (27%) |
| 9 or less | just under half (47%) |
| 15 or less | about 3 in 4 (74%) |
| 20 or less | about 9 in 10 (88%) |
The average score with best play is 11. A score of 5 or less beats about three games in four, even for the best players.
What is the highest score in Shut the Box?
The highest possible score in Shut the Box is 43. All nine tiles add up to 45, and your first roll of two dice is always between 2 and 12, which some group of tiles can always match. So you always shut at least 2 points of tiles before you can get stuck.
Other ways to score Shut the Box
Shut the Box has three well-known ways to score, and each changes which tiles matter most:
- Golf is the usual way: add up the open tiles, and the lowest total wins.
- Missionary counts how many tiles are open, not their numbers, so leaving the 9 open costs the same as leaving the 1.
- Digital reads the open tiles from left to right as one number, so 1, 5 and 9 open scores 159. This makes the low tiles the ones to shut first.
More house rules are on the Shut the Box variations page.
Playing several rounds and keeping a running total
To play Shut the Box over several rounds, add each player's score to a running total after every round. In one popular version, a player whose total reaches 45 drops out, and the last player left wins. Another version plays on until someone reaches 100 points, and then the lowest total wins. Agree on the limit before you start.
A free Shut the Box score sheet
Our free score sheet has rows for each player and columns for each round, with a total at the end. Print it from the printable Shut the Box page.
How scoring works in our daily game
Our daily Shut the Box game uses the usual Golf scoring: the open tiles added up, lowest best. When you finish, you also see the score our Super Intelligence got with the same dice, knowing every roll in advance. Because it can see the future, it often scores lower than anyone could by playing well.