The 16 Best Dice Games to Play Online (Ranked by Type)

Dice games range from thirty-second pub bets to hour-long cooperative board games, and the right one depends entirely on who is at the table. This roundup ranks all 16 games you can play free on Dice.now by what each is best at, with player count, play time and difficulty for every entry. Each game page includes a full rules guide, so this is a map rather than a manual.

How We Ranked Them

We sorted by purpose, not by a single score. A game appears in the one category where it is the best choice we host, judged on three things: how many real decisions it gives you per minute, how long it takes to teach, and how well it works at the player count most people have. Player counts and times are for the versions on this site; the boxed originals often seat more. The dice probability guide and dice game glossary explain any term you meet along the way.

Best Dice Games for Families

1. Yahtzee

Players: 1 (solo scorecard) · Time: 10–15 min · Difficulty: Medium · Dice: 5

The template for every scorecard dice game since 1956. Roll five dice up to three times, then fill one of 13 boxes: Ones through Sixes on top, with a 35-point bonus at 63, and Three of a Kind, Four of a Kind, Full House (25), Small Straight (30), Large Straight (40), Yahtzee (50) and Chance below. It is best for families because it scales with the player: children take the box that fits, adults protect bonus pace, and everyone gets the same 4.6% shot at a Yahtzee each turn. A perfect player averages 254.6; 250 is a very good human game. Play Yahtzee or read how it differs from Scandinavian Yatzy.

2. Qwixx

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 15 min · Difficulty: Medium · Dice: 6

The modern family classic. Everyone crosses numbers off a sheet with four colored rows, red and yellow running 2 to 12 and green and blue running 12 to 2, and every cross must land to the right of the last one, so every skipped number is gone. Its family strength is zero downtime: every player may use the white dice on every roll, so nobody waits. The scoring rewards depth (12 crosses in a row is 78 points; two rows of 6 are 42), which gives adults a real plan while children enjoy the simple crossing. About 15 minutes a game. Play Qwixx or print a Qwixx score sheet.

3. Roll For It

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 10–15 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 6

Three cards sit face up, each showing a set of dice faces and a point value. Roll your six dice, place any that match onto a card, and claim the card when you have covered every face with your own dice. First to 40 points wins. It is the best family game for players who cannot yet read a scorecard: matching pictures is the whole rule set. The decision that matters is greed versus speed, because a cheap card often finishes in one roll while a six-of-a-kind card can hold your dice hostage for turns. Play Roll For It.

Best Party Dice Games

4. Bunco

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 10 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 3

The great American living-room game. Roll three dice for a target number that changes each round, from 1s in round one to 6s in round six. Every die that hits scores a point, three of the target at once is a Bunco worth 21, and you keep rolling while you keep scoring. There are no decisions at all, which is exactly what a party needs: the traditional form seats 12 players at three tables with a bell, a traveling fuzzy die and prizes for most wins, most losses and most Buncos. The online version keeps the six rounds and the race to 21 intact. Play Bunco.

5. Left Center Right

Players: 1 vs 3 computer players · Time: 5 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 3 LCR dice

Everyone starts with three chips. Roll up to three dice marked L, C, R and a dot, and pass a chip left, right or into the center for each letter shown. The last player holding a chip wins the pot. It can be explained in one breath, played one-handed, and enjoyed by a five-year-old and a grandparent at the same table, which is why it turns up at reunions and office parties. Played with coins it becomes the gentlest gambling game there is. If your group wants one decision to argue over, move on to Pig; if none, stay here. Play Left Center Right.

Best Two-Player Dice Games

6. Liar’s Dice

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 10 min · Difficulty: Hard · Dice: 5 each

Each player rolls five dice under a cup and bids on how many dice of a face are showing across the whole table, hidden dice included. Bids must rise until somebody calls “Liar,” the cups lift, and the loser of the challenge loses a die. With 1s wild, each hidden die matches a bid one time in three, so the best players count before they bluff. It is the best two-player game we host because every bid is a probability estimate wrapped in a psychology test, and the ten-dice duel is tight enough that one bad call decides the game. Play Liar’s Dice.

7. Dice Poker

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 5–10 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 5

Five dice stand in for a poker hand. Roll up to three times, keep what you like, and finish with the best combination: pair, two pairs, three of a kind, straight, full house, four of a kind or five of a kind. Best hand wins the round. There is no betting or bluffing, which makes it the purest head-to-head test of the hold-and-reroll decision, and the odds are unlike card poker: a pair is the most common outcome, not a bust. Traditional poker dice show A-K-Q-J-10-9; ordinary dice with 6 as the ace play identically. Play Dice Poker.

Best Strategy Dice Games

8. King of Tokyo

Players: 1 vs 2 computer monsters · Time: 15–20 min · Difficulty: Medium · Dice: 6 custom

Giant monsters fight for the city. Roll six custom dice up to three times: numbers score victory points in sets of three, hearts heal, energy buys power cards and claws hit your rivals. Whoever stands in Tokyo scores every turn but cannot heal and takes every hit, so the central question is when to climb in and when to bail out. It is the best strategy pick because there are two ways to win (20 points or last monster standing) and the dice serve a plan rather than a scorecard. Easy enough for families, sharp enough for gamers. Play King of Tokyo.

9. Elder Sign

Players: 1 (co-op style) · Time: 15–20 min · Difficulty: Medium · Dice: 6 custom

A cooperative Lovecraft game set in a museum in 1926. Each adventure card shows rows of symbols; roll six green dice and cover a row with matching results, where investigation numbers add together and lore, terror and peril must match exactly. Succeed and you re-roll the rest for the next row; fail and you lose a die. The strategy is in choosing which adventure to attempt, which row to lock first and when to spend your limited help, all against a doom clock that advances whether you roll well or not. The best pick for solo players who want a campaign feel from dice. Play Elder Sign.

Best Push-Your-Luck Dice Games

10. Farkle

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 15–20 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 6

Roll six dice, set aside 1s, 5s, triples and the six-dice shapes, then bank or roll again. A roll with no scoring dice is a farkle and the turn’s points vanish. First to 10,000 wins. It is the definitive push-your-luck game because the odds move every time you set a die aside: a six-dice roll farkles 2.31% of the time, three dice 27.78%, one die 66.67%. The official PlayMonster table is used here (three 1s = 300, three pairs = 1,500), and the computer opponent banks at 300 with three dice left. Play Farkle or compare the tables in Farkle vs Ten Thousand.

11. Ten Thousand

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 15–20 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 6

Farkle’s folk ancestor with the classic table: three 1s are worth 1,000, each extra matching die doubles a triple (six 1s = 8,000), a straight is 1,500 and three pairs 750. You must score 500 in a single turn before your first bank counts, which a roll-until-500 turn achieves about 56% of the time. The bigger combinations make it the swingier of the two games, and the entry rule adds a tense opening that Farkle lacks. If you learned the game as Greed, Zilch or Dix Mille, this is the version that will feel like home. Play Ten Thousand.

12. Zombie Dice

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 10 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 13 custom

You are the zombie. Draw three dice from a cup of 13, roll them, set aside brains eaten and shotgun blasts taken, then stop or draw more. Three blasts and the turn’s brains are lost; 13 brains wins. The twist is the cup: green dice are mostly brains, red dice are mostly shotguns, and you never know what you will draw. Tracking which dice are left turns a themed Pig into a real risk-management game, and it delivers more tension per minute than almost anything else we host. Play Zombie Dice.

Quickest Dice Games

13. Shut the Box

Players: 1 · Time: 2–5 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 2

Nine tiles numbered 1 to 9 on a wooden tray. Roll two dice, flip down tiles that add up to exactly the total, and roll again until the remaining tiles cannot make your throw. Open tiles are your score; low wins; zero means you shut the box. A game lasts a minute, yet nearly every roll offers a choice (does a 9 shut the 9, the 4 and 5, or the 2, 3 and 4?), and those choices decide how often you shut the box. The quickest game with a real decision in it. Play Shut the Box.

14. Ship Captain Crew

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 5–10 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 5

Roll five dice up to three times and find a 6 (ship), a 5 (captain) and a 4 (crew) in that order; the two dice left are your cargo and their total is your score. Miss any of the three and you score zero. The order rule makes every turn a small drama: a fistful of 5s and 4s is worthless without the 6. Also known as 6-5-4, it is the classic pub round, quick enough for a coin per game and simple enough that nobody needs the rules read twice. Play Ship Captain Crew.

Best Dice Games for Learning Probability

15. Pig

Players: 1 vs computer · Time: 5 min · Difficulty: Easy · Dice: 1

One die, one decision. Roll and add 2 through 6 to your turn total, or hold and bank it; roll a 1 and the turn total is gone. First to 100. Because there is nothing else to think about, the expected value of one more roll is visible: you gain about 3.33 points five times in six and lose the turn total once in six, so rolling pays until you reach 20. First described in print by John Scarne in 1945, Pig is now a standard classroom example, and Neller and Presser’s 2004 paper computed its exact optimal strategy. Play Pig.

16. Craps

Players: 1 (free chips) · Time: Open-ended · Difficulty: Medium · Dice: 2

The casino classic and the best live lesson in house edge. A shooter rolls two dice through a come-out roll and a point phase, and the layout offers more than a dozen bets whose fairness varies enormously: the Pass Line gives the house 1.41%, the free odds bet behind it has no edge at all, and Any 7 hands the casino one chip in six. Learning craps is mostly learning which bets to ignore, which makes it the ideal place to see two-dice probability (six ways to roll a 7, one way to roll a 2) turned into money. Play Craps with free chips.

Which Should You Start With?

If you have five minutes, play Shut the Box or Pig. If you have a family and fifteen minutes, play Yahtzee or Qwixx. If you want to beat a computer that plays visibly and makes real decisions, Farkle, Liar’s Dice and King of Tokyo are the three with the most to learn. And if you only own a handful of dice at home, the games by number of dice guide lists what you can play with what you have.