What Is a Good 3 Dart Average?
Ask ten players what a good darts average is and you will get ten different answers, most of them wrong in one direction or the other. Social players tend to overestimate what the pros throw. League players tend to underestimate how good they already are. And almost everybody compares themselves to a televised final rather than to somebody standing at the same oche on a Tuesday night.
So let us settle it properly.
This guide gives you honest three dart average benchmarks by playing level, shows you how to work yours out, and explains what to do with the number once you have it.
What a 3 dart average actually means
Your three dart average is the number of points you score, on average, with every three darts you throw in a game of 501.
It is not your best visit. It is not the score you hit when everything clicks. It is the whole game, treble 20s and bounce outs and missed doubles included, divided out evenly across every dart you threw.
That last part matters more than most players realise, and we will come back to it.
How to work out your 3 dart average
The maths is simple:
Total points scored, divided by darts thrown, multiplied by three.
If you win a leg of 501 in 18 darts, that is 501 divided by 18, which gives 27.83 points per dart, multiplied by three for an average of 83.50.
Across a full match, add up every point you scored and divide by every dart you threw. Most scoring apps and online platforms do this for you automatically, which is one of the quiet advantages of playing online: you get a real average rather than a remembered one.
What is a good darts average? Level by level
Here is the honest picture of where averages sit across the game.
3 dart average | Level | What it looks like in practice |
Under 40 | Beginner | Still learning the board. Scores arrive in ones and fives as often as trebles. Finishing is guesswork. |
40 to 50 | Casual social player | Can find the 20 bed some of the time. A 60 feels like an event. Doubles are a lottery. |
50 to 60 | Solid pub player | Hits regular 60s, occasional 100s. Knows a handful of finishes. Competitive in a friendly. |
60 to 70 | Good league player | Reliable scoring, some 140s, a first 180 or two. Genuinely useful in a team. |
70 to 80 | Strong league and county fringe | Consistent trebles, proper finishing knowledge, wins more than loses in open competition. |
80 to 90 | County and top amateur | Serious standard. Regularly threatens 12 and 15 dart legs. Would beat most club players comfortably. |
90 to 100 | Challenge Tour and Tour Card standard | The level where darts becomes a realistic career conversation rather than a hobby. |
100 plus | Elite professional | Top of the PDC ranking list. Sustained over a match, this wins televised titles. |
If you are somewhere between 50 and 70, you are a normal, capable, improving darts player. That covers a huge slice of everyone who throws regularly in a league.
What is a good average for a pub or league player?
For most players in a Sunday or midweek league, anything from the mid 50s upwards is a respectable average, and anything around 60 makes you a genuinely dangerous opponent in that setting.
Break it down like this:
55 to 60 puts you at or slightly above the level of a typical league player.
65 to 75 makes you one of the better throwers in most local leagues.
80 plus and you should be testing yourself in county darts or open events, because your local league is no longer stretching you.
There is a useful rule here. If you are winning your league comfortably, your average has stopped being a measure of progress and has become a measure of your opposition. Go and find harder games.
What do professional players average?
The top of the PDC is a different sport in numerical terms. The leading players sit in the high 90s and low 100s across a full season, and the very best regularly post match averages above 105.
A tournament average over 100 is no longer remarkable at the top level, which would have been unthinkable a generation ago.
The highest televised three dart average on record belongs to Michael van Gerwen, who threw 123.40 in a 2016 Premier League match against Michael Smith. That is a useful number to know for one reason only: it shows you the ceiling of what a human being can do with three darts, and it is a very long way above what winning your local league requires.
Do not use pro averages as your benchmark. Use them as your reminder that there is always more in the board.
Why your average is not the whole story
Here is the part most players miss.
Your match average includes every dart you throw at a double. Sit on 40 and miss six darts at it, and every one of those darts goes into the calculation as a zero for scoring purposes. Two players can have identical scoring power and end up two or three points apart in average purely because one of them finishes and one of them does not.
This is why you should look at two numbers, not one:
Your first nine dart average tells you about pure scoring power, before finishing muddies the water.
Your match average tells you about the whole performance, scoring and finishing combined.
If your first nine average is well above your match average, you do not have a scoring problem. You have a finishing problem, and no amount of treble 20 practice will fix it.
How to improve your 3 dart average
Averages move when your process improves, not when you try harder. A few things that genuinely shift the number:
Score in threes, not in ones. Chasing a big visit after a poor first dart is how good legs get thrown away. Treat every visit as a unit and take what the board gives you.
Practise finishing under pressure, not just scoring. Doubles routines with a consequence attached, such as restarting when you miss, replicate match feeling far better than casually throwing at double 16 for twenty minutes.
Fix your setup before you change your throw. Alignment, stance and where your eye actually sits over the dart account for far more inconsistency than most players believe. This is the area where a trained eye watching you throw pays for itself fastest.
Track it weekly, not daily. A single session tells you almost nothing. Four weeks of data tells you whether you are actually improving.
Play people better than you. Nothing raises an average like being forced to score at somebody else's pace.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 60 darts average good?Yes. A 60 average puts you above the typical social player and firmly in solid league territory. It means you are hitting regular 60s and finding trebles consistently.
What average do you need for a PDC Tour Card?Realistically, you need to be averaging in the low to mid 90s consistently to be competitive at Q School, and higher again to survive on tour once you have the card.
Does a 3 dart average include darts thrown at doubles?Yes. Every dart you throw in the leg counts, including the ones you miss at a double, which is why poor finishing pulls your average down even when your scoring is strong.
What is a good average for a beginner?Anything above 40 within your first year of regular practice is decent progress. Focus on consistency of grouping rather than the number itself at that stage.
What is the highest darts average ever recorded?Michael van Gerwen's 123.40 against Michael Smith in the 2016 Premier League is the highest televised three dart average on record.
The number is a signpost, not a verdict
A good three dart average is simply one that is higher than yours was three months ago. Somebody averaging 45 and climbing is doing better darts than somebody who has averaged 70 for six years and stopped looking at why.
Find your number, work out whether it is scoring or finishing holding you back, and go and fix that one thing.
Want help moving your average?
That is exactly what I do at DartsMatt. I coach players online and in person from my studio in Worcester, from first time league throwers through to county standard, using Sight Right technique work and the mental frameworks that keep averages steady when the pressure comes on.
If you know your number and you want it higher, book a session with DartsMatt and let us find the two or three things actually costing you points.
