Best Yard Games for a Backyard BBQ or Cookout

Q: How much space do you need for cookout games?

Less than you think with corridor games. Cornhole needs 33 by 10 feet, bocce about 60 by 12, ladder toss about 20 by 8, and two can share an ordinary lawn side by side.

Q: What games work when people are holding drinks?

Bocce above all — one ball at a time, one hand, no running. Yard dice work too. Ladder toss is borderline, and anything with a net does not.

The short answer

Quick picks

Ranked on published specs, not on play we have not done. Tap any row to jump to the full write-up further down this page.

Ranked picks with what each is best for, our published-spec score and a live price link.
#	Product	Best for	Score	Price
1	No photo GoSports 4 ft x 2 ft Solid Wood Premium Cornhole Set Regulation 4 x 2 ft boards on solid pine frames with a 1/2 in cabinet-grade plywood top, eight 16 oz all-weather bags and a case — the complete tournament-legal setup in one box.	Best overall	8.6/10	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
2	No photo St. Pierre Sports Professional Bocce Set, 107 mm 107 mm thermo-set composition resin balls built to international bocce specifications and named an official ball of the United States Bocce Federation.	Best overall	8.8/10	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
3	No photo Yard Games Ladder Toss (Double Wooden Ladder Ball) A finished wood frame with real golf-ball bolas and a nylon case — the version that does not rattle apart the way tube-and-plastic ladder sets do.	Best overall	7.8/10	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
4	No photo GoSports Giant 3.5 in Wooden Playing Dice Set Six 3.5 in hand-sanded pine dice with heat-stamped numbers that will not rub off, plus a dry-erase scoreboard and a canvas bag.	Best overall	7.9/10	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money
5	No photo Yard Games Kubb Premium Size Set Hardwood kubb with a case, printed instructions and — the part that matters — boundary markers, so the 5 x 8 m pitch is set correctly the first time.	Best overall	8.4/10	Check price on Amazon #ad How we make money

The backyard cookout is what most yard games are actually bought for, and it has a specific shape that rules out a lot of otherwise excellent games. The host is at the grill. Guests arrive over an hour, not at once. Everybody is holding a drink or a plate. Nobody wants to commit to twenty minutes.

What survives that is a game with fast setup, one-handed play, and a round short enough to abandon.

Four questions

The cookout test

How each game performs against the four constraints of a cookout.
Game	Setup	One-handed?	Abandon mid-round?	Footprint
Bocce	Under a minute	Yes	Yes — a frame just pauses	About 60 x 12 ft
Cornhole	Two minutes	Almost	Yes	33 x 10 ft
Ladder toss	Two minutes	Mostly	Yes	About 20 x 8 ft
Giant yard dice	Seconds	Yes	Yes	About 8 x 8 ft
Kubb	Five minutes	No	Not really	About 26 x 16 ft
Spikeball	One minute	No	No	About 30 x 30 ft
Croquet	Half an hour	Yes	Yes	Up to 100 x 50 ft

Kubb is the interesting entry there. It is the best crowd game we cover — a published 2 to 12 players — and it is a slightly awkward cookout game because a round genuinely commits you. If your cookouts are large and structured enough that people commit, buy it. If people drift, buy bocce.

The thing that actually works

Set up two, not one

This is the highest-value advice on the page and it costs nothing. Cornhole is 33 by 10; bocce is 60 by 12; ladder toss is 20 by 8. All three are corridors. Two of them running side by side on an ordinary lawn puts eight people in play instead of four.

The combination we would pick, in order:

Cornhole along the fence line — the committed game, four players, scoreboard energy.
Ladder toss near the drinks — the casual game, where people who are waiting end up.
Yard dice on the table — for whoever is sitting down.

That is three purchases, no game larger than 33 feet, and roughly ten people occupied. Details in games for large groups.

Things that go wrong

Practical cookout details

Do not set up downwind of the grill. Smoke drifts and nobody wants to stand in it for twenty minutes.
Buy eight cornhole bags, not six. Several sets ship with six, which is a two-player game. Four players need eight — see cornhole bags.
Resin bag fill, not corn. Cookouts happen on damp evenings and nobody brings anything in until midnight.
Watch the low sun. Late afternoon, a game aimed west is unplayable. Set the court across the sun rather than into it.

The picks in full

Every pick, with its published specs

Best overall

GoSports 4 ft x 2 ft Solid Wood Premium Cornhole Set

GoSports

No product photo

Our spec score

8.6/10

Spec completeness: 9/10
Footprint clarity: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Pack-down: 7/10

Scored on published specifications only. We have not played this set.

Regulation 4 x 2 ft boards on solid pine frames with a 1/2 in cabinet-grade plywood top, eight 16 oz all-weather bags and a case — the complete tournament-legal setup in one box.

Skip this if

Skip this if your yard is under 30 ft long. A regulation court is 27 ft board-front to board-front plus throwing room behind each board, and there is no shortening it without changing the game.

What works

Regulation 4 x 2 ft, so the game you practice on is the game you would play in a league
Plastic-pellet bags do not rot if they get rained on — the biggest failure point in cheap sets
38 lb for the whole set is genuinely two-trips-to-the-car territory, not four
Retractable legs on steel bolts rather than a folding hinge that racks over a season

What does not

Pine frame plus plywood top means the set does not want to live outdoors uncovered
Varnished surface, not the painted-and-clear-coated finish tournament players prefer

Published specifications

Court footprint: 33 ft x 10 ft (about 330 sq ft)
Board size: 4 ft x 2 ft (ACA regulation)
Playing surface: 1/2 in varnished cabinet-grade plywood
Frame: Solid pine, mitered corners
Leg hardware: 3/8 in galvanized steel bolts with wing nuts
Set weight: 38 lb
Bags: 8 x 16 oz, recycled plastic pellet fill
Players: 2 or 4
Age floor: —
Surface: Grass, hard, sand

Manufacturer listing: GoSports product listing

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Best overall

St. Pierre Sports Professional Bocce Set, 107 mm

St. Pierre

No product photo

Our spec score

8.8/10

Spec completeness: 9/10
Footprint clarity: 9/10
Durability: 9/10
Pack-down: 6/10

Scored on published specifications only. We have not played this set.

107 mm thermo-set composition resin balls built to international bocce specifications and named an official ball of the United States Bocce Federation.

Skip this if

Skip this if the set is mainly for kids or a beach bag. Full-size 107 mm balls are heavy enough that a small player cannot roll one accurately.

What works

Official ball of the United States Bocce Federation — the strongest sourcing claim of any set here
Striped for 2, 3 or 4 players, which is the format most backyard games actually use
Thermo-set resin holds its shape on gravel where softer resins scar

What does not

Full 107 mm weight is a lot of ball for a mixed-age game
No published set weight for the carry

Published specifications

Court footprint: 86.92 ft x 13.12 ft (about 1,140 sq ft)
Backyard footprint: About 60 ft x 12 ft
Ball diameter: 107 mm
Ball material: Thermo-set composition resin
Balls: 8 (4 dark red, 4 dark green), striped for 2 to 4 players
Pallino: 57 mm yellow
Players: 2 to 4
Age floor: —
Surface: Grass, sand, gravel, dirt

Manufacturer listing: St. Pierre product listing

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Best overall

Yard Games Ladder Toss (Double Wooden Ladder Ball)

Yard Games

No product photo

Our spec score

7.8/10

Spec completeness: 6/10
Footprint clarity: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Pack-down: 8/10

Scored on published specifications only. We have not played this set.

A finished wood frame with real golf-ball bolas and a nylon case — the version that does not rattle apart the way tube-and-plastic ladder sets do.

Skip this if

Skip this if you need the set to stand up in wind. A wooden ladder frame has a big sail area and no ground stakes.

What works

Golf-ball bolas have real mass, so they wrap a rung instead of bouncing off
Wood frame stays rigid where PVC flexes and drops the top rung
About 160 sq ft of lawn — one of the smallest footprints on the site

What does not

No published weight or packed dimensions
Wooden ladders blow over in a breeze

Published specifications

Footprint: About 20 ft x 8 ft (about 160 sq ft)
Toss distance: 15 ft
Scoring: 3 top rung, 2 middle, 1 bottom; first to exactly 21
Bolas: 6, real golf balls
Frame: Finished wood
Case: Durable nylon carrying case
Players: 2 or 4
Set weight: —

Manufacturer listing: Yard Games product listing

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Best overall

GoSports Giant 3.5 in Wooden Playing Dice Set

GoSports

No product photo

Our spec score

7.9/10

Spec completeness: 7/10
Footprint clarity: 7/10
Durability: 8/10
Pack-down: 9/10

Scored on published specifications only. We have not played this set.

Six 3.5 in hand-sanded pine dice with heat-stamped numbers that will not rub off, plus a dry-erase scoreboard and a canvas bag.

Skip this if

Skip this if your lawn slopes. Giant dice roll further than you expect and a slope turns every throw into a search.

What works

Heat-stamped numbers instead of printed ones is the difference between two seasons and ten
The scoreboard turns a bag of dice into an actual game with rules
Also offered at 2.5 in if the yard is small

What does not

No published set weight
Pine soaks up dew if the dice are left out overnight

Published specifications

Footprint: About 8 ft x 8 ft of clear rolling space
Die size: 3.5 in
Dice: 6
Material: Hand-sanded pine, heat-stamped numbers
Included: Dry-erase scoreboard and canvas carrying bag
Players: 2 or more
Set weight: —

Manufacturer listing: GoSports product listing

Check price on Amazon

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Best overall

Yard Games Kubb Premium Size Set

Yard Games

No product photo

Our spec score

8.4/10

Spec completeness: 9/10
Footprint clarity: 10/10
Durability: 8/10
Pack-down: 6/10

Scored on published specifications only. We have not played this set.

Hardwood kubb with a case, printed instructions and — the part that matters — boundary markers, so the 5 x 8 m pitch is set correctly the first time.

Skip this if

Skip this if your only space is 20 ft long. The pitch is 8 m end to end and shortening it breaks the throwing distances the game is built on.

What works

Boundary markers included — most sets leave you pacing out a pitch you will get wrong
Hardwood rather than pine, which matters because the whole game is wood hitting wood
Scales to twelve players, so it absorbs a crowd nothing else here handles

What does not

430 sq ft is a serious commitment for a lawn game
No published set weight, and ten hardwood blocks plus a king is not light

Published specifications

Footprint: 5 m x 8 m (about 16 ft x 26 ft, 430 sq ft)
Kubbs: 10 blocks, 15 cm tall x 7 cm square
King: 30 cm tall x 9 cm square
Batons: 6, 30 cm long x 4.4 cm diameter
Material: Solid shock-absorbent hardwood
Included: Nylon carrying case, instructions, boundary markers
Players: 2 to 12
Age floor: —
Surface: Grass, sand, dirt

Manufacturer listing: Yard Games product listing

Check price on Amazon

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FAQ

Questions people actually ask

What is the best yard game for a BBQ?

Cornhole if you have 33 feet of clear run, bocce if you do not or if guests are holding drinks. Both start in under a minute, both can be abandoned halfway through a round without anyone minding, and both work with a host who is busy at the grill.

How much space do you need for cookout games?

Less than you think if you pick corridor games. Cornhole needs 33 by 10 feet, bocce about 60 by 12, ladder toss about 20 by 8. Two of those can share an ordinary lawn side by side, which is the single best thing you can do for a cookout.

What games work when people are holding drinks?

Bocce, above all — one ball at a time, one hand, no running. Yard dice work too. Ladder toss is borderline: the underhand swing needs a free hand but not much of one. Anything with a net does not.

Why you can check our work

We have not played these. Every figure above is copied from a manufacturer's published listing or a governing body's published rules, and named so you can verify it. Where a maker publishes nothing, the field is blank rather than filled in. How we pick explains the whole method, including what would change a recommendation.

Every figure on this page is copied from one of these sources. If you find one that is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

Best yard games for a backyard cookout

Quick picks

The cookout test

Set up two, not one

Practical cookout details

Every pick, with its published specs

GoSports 4 ft x 2 ft Solid Wood Premium Cornhole Set

St. Pierre Sports Professional Bocce Set, 107 mm

Yard Games Ladder Toss (Double Wooden Ladder Ball)

GoSports Giant 3.5 in Wooden Playing Dice Set

Yard Games Kubb Premium Size Set

Questions people actually ask

Yard games by occasion

Best cornhole boards

Best bocce ball sets

Best yard games for large groups

Best yard games for adults

Best yard games for small yards

Quick picks

The cookout test

Set up two, not one

Practical cookout details

Every pick, with its published specs

GoSports 4 ft x 2 ft Solid Wood Premium Cornhole Set

St. Pierre Sports Professional Bocce Set, 107 mm

Yard Games Ladder Toss (Double Wooden Ladder Ball)

GoSports Giant 3.5 in Wooden Playing Dice Set

Yard Games Kubb Premium Size Set

Questions people actually ask

Related pages

Yard games by occasion

Best cornhole boards

Best bocce ball sets

Best yard games for large groups

Best yard games for adults

Best yard games for small yards