Best ring toss game

1. Differentiated scoring. A set with five towers at different values has a decision in every throw. A set with one peg is a bucket you throw at. This is the single biggest difference in the category.
2. Rope rings, not plastic. Rope has enough mass to drop over a peg and stay; a hard plastic ring bounces off and rolls under the deck. Rope is also the only ring material we would use indoors.
3. Solid wood, named. “Wood” means nothing. Solid pine is a published material and tells you what the finish will do outdoors.
4. A case in the box. Four small rings are four things to lose. A case is the difference between a game that survives a season and a game missing two rings by July.

We have not played with this set. Every figure on this page is from GoSports' own listing — how we pick.

Ring toss is the only game on this site with no minimum space. Every other game has a published court, a published toss line or a derived footprint. Ring toss has a target you put down and a line you choose, and the game works at six feet or twenty.

That makes it the answer to several awkward questions the rest of the catalog cannot solve:

• A balcony — it is the only throwing game that fits.
• Indoors or a garage — rope rings over a few feet break nothing.
• Under-fives — close the line until they can land one.
• Seated or low-mobility players — a gentle underarm toss from a chair is a real game, not a concession.

Nobody plays ring toss for two hours. Five towers at close range is a genuine skill test for a child and a warm-up for an adult, and a household that buys only this will be bored by the second cookout.

Treat it as the second or third game rather than the first. It is the one you set up for the children while the adults play something bigger, which is exactly the role how many yard games you need for a party argues you should be filling. For a first and only purchase, cornhole or ladder toss hold a crowd for an afternoon in a way this will not.