What is a good three-dart average in darts?

For a pub or league player, anything above 50 is good and above 60 is strong. A county player averages 60 to 75. Professionals average 90 or more, and the very best sit above 100. If you are starting out, 30 to 40 is normal and it climbs quickly once you can hit the 20 bed consistently.

Does a bust count towards your average?

The darts do, and the score does not. A busted visit scores nothing but the darts you threw still count in the denominator, so a bust drags your average down. That is the standard convention every darts scorer uses, and it is the most common reason someone thinks the maths is wrong.

What is a first nine average?

The same calculation over your first three visits of a leg. It measures pure scoring before checkouts and safe leaves distort things, which is why it is quoted separately. A player with a high first nine and a low overall average is scoring well and finishing badly.

What is a good darts average?

What is a good three-dart average?

For a pub or league player, above 50 is good and above 60 is strong. County players sit between 60 and 75. Professionals average 90 or more, and the best in the world go above 100. If you are new, 30 to 40 is completely normal, and it climbs faster than you expect once you can find the 20 bed.

What each level looks like

Under 40 Starting out: A leg of 501 takes forty darts or more. You are still learning where the darts go, and the fastest gain is not scoring, it is hitting the double at the end.
40 to 50 A regular player: Thirty to thirty-six darts a leg. You hit the 20 bed often enough to score in threes, and legs start to feel like a race rather than a walk.
50 to 60 A decent league player: Twenty-five to thirty darts. You are scoring 60 most visits and the occasional 100. At this point checkouts decide most of your legs, not scoring.
60 to 75 A strong county player: Twenty to twenty-five darts a leg. Tons are routine and you finish from over 100 regularly.
75 to 90 Semi-professional: Under twenty darts a leg. You are hitting 140 more often than not and 180s stop being an event.
90 and up Professional: Twelve to fifteen darts a leg. A tour card average. This is what the players on television do for a living.

The number every darts player eventually asks about, and the one most of them have never actually measured. An average on its own means nothing until you know what it feels like, so each level is given in darts per leg as well.

How do you work out a three-dart average?

Divide what you scored by the darts you threw, then multiply by three. Take 501 off in 21 darts and that is 501 ÷ 21 × 3, which is 71.57. It is measured per three darts rather than per visit, so a leg you finish on the second dart still counts honestly.

Worked through

A leg of 501 in seven visits, the last on the second dart

Visit five busted, so it scored nothing. Its three darts still count in the twenty, which is exactly why a bust hurts: it costs you the score and the darts together. Without it the same leg would have averaged 88.41.
Visit	Scored	Darts	Left
1	140	3	361
2	100	3	261
3	60	3	201
4	140	3	61
5	bust	3	61
6	20	3	41
7	41	2	0
Total	501	20

501 ÷ 20 × 3 = 75.15

Why a bust drags it down

This is the single most common reason somebody decides a darts app has got its maths wrong. It has not. A busted visit scores zero and its darts still count, which is the convention every scorer in the sport uses.

The reasoning is that you threw them. An average measures what you produced per three darts, and a visit that produced nothing is part of that. Excluding busts would flatter every player who takes a wild swing at a finish and misses.

The same principle governs the rest of the numbers on this site. Where a visit was entered as a three-dart total rather than dart by dart, it counts towards your average and is excluded from anything per-dart, and the stats page says which figures it left out and how many visits that was.

Work out your own

You do not have to do any of that arithmetic. Play a leg on the scoreboard and it keeps your average, your first nine, your best leg and your checkout percentage as you go, and tells you at the end.

The first honest answer usually arrives about three legs in. One leg is a mood; a handful is a number.

Questions

What is a good three-dart average in darts?: For a pub or league player, anything above 50 is good and above 60 is strong. A county player averages 60 to 75. Professionals average 90 or more, and the very best sit above 100. If you are starting out, 30 to 40 is normal and it climbs quickly once you can hit the 20 bed consistently.
How do you work out a three-dart average?: Divide the total you scored by the number of darts you threw, then multiply by three. Score 501 in 21 darts and your average is 501 divided by 21, times 3, which is 71.57. It is points per three darts rather than per visit, which is why a leg finished on the second dart still counts properly.
Does a bust count towards your average?: The darts do, and the score does not. A busted visit scores nothing but the darts you threw still count in the denominator, so a bust drags your average down. That is the standard convention every darts scorer uses, and it is the most common reason someone thinks the maths is wrong.
What is a first nine average?: The same calculation over your first three visits of a leg. It measures pure scoring before checkouts and safe leaves distort things, which is why it is quoted separately. A player with a high first nine and a low overall average is scoring well and finishing badly.