What are the best cornhole bags

While cornhole is best known as a tailgating tradition played with a beer in hand, it’s increasingly a professionalized sport with high-quality gear to match. After surveying the sport’s pros and testing out their favorites, we chose AllCornhole’s GameChanger Cornhole Bags and Tournament Series Cornhole Boards as the best setup for anyone who wants to push their game as far as it can go. For more casual players, we have options for you, too.

Our pick

AllCornhole GameChanger Cornhole Bags

The best cornhole bags

We can see why both pros and casual players love the GameChangers: They feel great and throw nicely, and the dual-textured surface helps them hit the target more often than any other bags we tested.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $90.

Players sometimes decry the AllCornhole GameChanger Cornhole Bags as “cheater bags” because of their unusual patch feature, which combines a slick, polyester-based upholstery fabric on the edges (so the bag can slide into the hole) with a rougher suede patch in the bag’s center (to help it stick in place when it lands). The GameChanger is one of the most popular bags among professionals and a favorite of our test panel of amateurs, and we can see why: This regulation-size bag is loosely filled with plastic beads that give it an almost liquid-like feel and make it a pleasure to hold. We hit our target more often with this bag, too.

Budget pick

If you play cornhole just a few times a year and can’t stomach the idea of spending close to $100 on gear for a yard game, we think SC Cornhole Games’s Weather Resistant Cornhole Bags represent a good compromise. Made from duck canvas with a plastic pellet filling, they look and feel like the bags most people learn the game on. They’re also a regulation size and weight. However, our test panelists consistently preferred the better control they had with the professional bags we tried.

Also great

Building or investing in a quality cornhole board is essential for achieving consistent and fun play. A heavy, wood board is the better choice over lighter, more portable options because it minimizes bounce and allows bags to slide more easily instead of ricocheting off the board’s surface. We like AllCornhole’s Tournament Series Cornhole Boards because they are regulation size, made from birch with a smooth finish, and built with cross beams to minimize bounce. They’re also used by professionals at the national championship of the American Cornhole League (ACL).

The research

• Why you should trust us
• Who this is for
• How we picked
• How we tested
• Our pick: AllCornhole GameChanger Cornhole Bags
• Budget pick: SC Cornhole Games Weather Resistant Cornhole Bags
• Also great: AllCornhole Tournament Series Cornhole Boards
• How to make your own boards
• The competition
• Footnotes

Why you should trust us

Personally, I’ve played a lot of bags. “Cornhole” is a more widely accepted term, but here in Minnesota, where I grew up, most people prefer “bags.” Playing it was a given at backyard barbecues, weddings, and graduation parties. I later attended a state university known for its tailgating culture and badger mascot, where I spent more time playing cornhole than studying for finals. I’m no pro, but I consider playing a yard game on a warm summer night one of life’s great simple pleasures.

Who this is for

Cornhole is a classic yard game (and now a professional sport) for anyone who likes casual competition and has access to a lawn, parking lot, or other wide-open area. You can practice cornhole by yourself, but it’s best played with two or four people. Keep in mind that it takes a decent amount of space to store the two 4-by-2-foot boards necessary for play; if you’re low on storage space or need something portable, a more compact yard game like kubb or bocce ball might make more sense.

We’ve divided this guide between top-of-the-line professional gear, for anyone who wants the absolute best, and budget or DIY options for everyone else. Professional bags are nicer to hold and easier to throw, and they seem to fall in the hole with more ease. However, it costs hundreds of dollars to buy professional bags and boards. If you want something cheaper for a few rounds of cornhole a year, that’s perfectly reasonable. Cheaper sets still satisfy that “throw an object through a hole” urge, and most enthusiasts go their whole lives playing perfectly fun rounds of cornhole on inexpensive equipment.

Some people want to build their own boards as a simple carpentry project or prefer to support a local maker who can meet ACO specs.

How we picked

After speaking with experts about their favorite bags, we reviewed pro cornhole players’ bios on Cornhole Addicts to tally up the bag brands most frequently listed as favorites. We also consulted retailers like Amazon and Walmart to learn about top-selling amateur bags. With all of that in mind, we decided to consider professional bags based on the following characteristics:

• Regulation size: The American Cornhole Organization states that bags should measure 6 by 6 inches and weigh between 15 and 16 ounces. They should also be approved by the ACL, which means players can use them in ACL tournaments. Not everyone wants to go pro, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
• Different sides: A bag made with a different fabric on each side, one “sticky” and one “slick,” allows the player more control over the types of shots they can make.
• Premium fabrics: The fabrics should be soft and a pleasure to hold, and a step up in quality from traditional duck cloth.
• Synthetic fill: While some people still fill their bags with corn kernels or beans, we think plastic beads are superior because they don’t produce dust, don’t mold, and don’t attract pests.
• Rounded corners: Compared with 90-degree corners, a rounded finish sits in your palm better and allows the bag to roll a bit if it hits the ground or board at an angle.
• Stain resistant: It’s unavoidable—bags will slide through dirt and wet grass. The longer they can go without looking dirty, the better.

Amateur bags are much less likely to have all of these features, so we looked for the top-selling bag that was regulation size and had synthetic fill to test against the professional bags we found.

We also interviewed our experts about the best features to look for in a board and examined the options available from retailers like Amazon and Walmart, in addition to investigating what we’d need to construct our own. Experts advised us to use boards that met the following criteria:

• Regulation size: The ACO requires that boards measure about 4 by 2 feet and weigh at least 25 pounds, among other rules.
• Regulation hole: The hole should measure 6 inches across, sit 9 inches from the top of the board, and be perfectly centered.
• Regulation slope: The front of the board should sit 3 to 4 inches above the ground, while the back of the board should be at a height of 12 inches.
• Built with cross beams: Cross beams placed across the back of the board improve its stability and prevent bounce.
• Made from wood between ½ inch and ¾ inch thick: Although it’s tempting to buy cloth or plastic boards that are light and portable, heft is an important part of board design, as it keeps them from bending or bouncing. Regulations also say boards should be at least ½ inch thick and made from wood. One of our experts recommended baltic birch plywood because of its longevity and nice looks when left unpainted; we didn’t require that specifically, but it does sound nice.
• Smooth finish: Boards should be smooth, without any decals, nails, or screws to catch and slow the bags. But they shouldn’t be so slippery that bags slide back down after landing.

How we tested

We played three games of cornhole with each brand of bag, during which we considered how they felt to hold and throw, how difficult it was to land them on the board, how the two sides of the bag reacted differently, and whether they seemed to fall into the hole with ease. We also dropped them directly onto a board from a height of about 3 feet to test the differences between the slick and sticky sides of the bags.

We then assembled a test panel of seven more people, each of whom played at least a half game with each brand of bag. They then ranked the bags from favorite to least favorite.

The Tournament Series Cornhole Boards (above) are made from sturdy wood that barely moves when a bag hits. Video: Signe Brewster

Our pick: AllCornhole GameChanger Cornhole Bags

Our pick

AllCornhole GameChanger Cornhole Bags

The best cornhole bags

We can see why both pros and casual players love the GameChangers: They feel great and throw nicely, and the dual-textured surface helps them hit the target more often than any other bags we tested.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $90.

A favorite among professionals and amateurs alike, the AllCornhole GameChanger Cornhole Bags are our top pick because they are easy to hold and throw, they hit the board in a predictable way, and they fell into the hole the easiest of any of the bags we tried. They are made with an unusual suede patch that has prompted some people to label them “cheater bags” or even to accuse them of destroying the game, supposedly because it makes them slide into the hole even on imperfect throws. Whether you believe the claim or not, five out of eight of our testers, including myself, thought the bags felt the best to throw and seemed to make us play better.

Both sides of the GameChanger bags are made from a slick fabric that feels soft and smooth to the touch. Although AllCornhole won’t reveal the exact fabric, the company does say that it’s a polyester-based outdoor upholstery fabric. One side features a suede patch that covers about half of its surface. While the patch is meant to make the bag stickier and help it stay on the board instead of flying off the back, the fact that its edges are still slick is meant to help the bag fall into the hole even if only a corner is hanging over the hole. We suspect this also has something to do with the bag’s loose fill, which lets the beads pool into the lower corner and drag the rest of the bag down with them.

Pros and retailers use an unofficial scale of 1 to 10 to rank the slickness of bag fabric, with 1 meaning the bag hits the board and sticks in place and 10 meaning the bag slides with ease. The GameChanger’s patch side ranks at about a 7 while the fabric side is a 10. That makes it an unusually slick bag, well suited to the most basic throw: a straight pitch that hits near the middle of the board and slides directly into the hole. It’s the only bag we tested with a side that rated above a 7.

In our tests, the bags’ generously rounded corners and loose fill also made them feel the nicest to hold and throw (the Reynolds Pro-Advantage bags were a close second favorite for similar reasons, while the AllCornhole Slide-Rite bags felt a hair too stiff). GameChangers are filled with plastic beads that measure about ⅛ inch across. The bag oozes between your fingers, making it easy to grip. Once you fling it out of your hand, it seems to grow flatter and hit the board all at once with a satisfying thud. We also noticed that when it hits the ground in front of the board, it sometimes has enough momentum to roll up onto the board. This was an ability that all of the professional bags shared, further setting them apart from the amateur bag we tested.

The GameChanger’s fabric barely stained, though its suede patch quickly picked up dirt. However, the fabric’s paint-spatter-like pattern helped disguise the grime. We recommend buying bags in a dark color, which will further hide any stains. GameChanger bags measure a regulation 6 by 6 inches, weigh about a pound, and are approved for use in ACL tournaments.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The GameChanger’s biggest drawback is its price: At over $90 for a set of eight bags in two colors, it’s several times more expensive than amateur bags and about 50 percent more expensive than the other pro bags we tested. When we revealed its price to our test panelists, most said they would choose inexpensive amateur bags instead because they play cornhole only a few times a year. (If you’ve lived your entire life eating and enjoying Tootsie Rolls, it might be easier to just pretend Recchiuti chocolates don’t exist.)

Although we think GameChangers are the best bags we tossed, if you’re trying to do certain types of shots, especially trick shots, you may prefer a more specialized bag. GameChangers are slick bags, well suited to basic throws: a straight pitch that hits near the middle of the board and slides directly into the hole. It takes some practice to understand just how hard to throw them so that they don’t slide off the back of the board. Bags with a true slick side and sticky side are better suited to a wider range of shots: A slick side is great for sliding the bag into the hole and a sticky side is great for landing the bag in a precise location to block the other team. Whether you prefer the GameChangers’ focus on sliding comes down to your particular type of play. If you’re set on a bag with a slick side and a sticky side, we recommend the Reynolds Pro-Advantage bags, which you can read more about in the Competition section. Landing trick shots with the GameChangers is still possible; it just takes a bit more practice.

Budget pick: SC Cornhole Games Weather Resistant Cornhole Bags

Budget pick

Although all of our panelists ranked the SC Cornhole Games Weather Resistant Cornhole Bags dead last when testing them against professional bags, these bags get the job done at a significantly lower price. If you play cornhole only a few times a year and don’t care about developing a consistent throw to ensure which side your bag lands on, these bags lend themselves to a fun game. Most people haven’t experienced using a nicer bag, anyway, and few would think twice about tossing these good-enough bags around at a backyard barbeque.

The SC bags are made entirely from a rough duck canvas, a thick fabric commonly used for tote bags and upholstery, that makes them slow and sticky. They don’t slide much, and as a result they tend to stay wherever they hit the board (though some of our testers actually described them as extra slippery; the difference in perception might come down to pitching style). While that might mean someone with an inconsistent throw will land more bags on the board, that player is less likely to slide the bag into the hole.

Like the GameGhangers, these bags are filled with plastic pellets. Compared with the more loosely filled GameChangers, though, the SC bags felt overstuffed to us. This helps them hold their shape, which can leave them hanging over the hole without falling in. In a few cases, the bags’ 90-degree corners gripped the edges of the hole, suspending the bag in the air instead of allowing it to fall. We thought the sharp edges and overfilled bags also made them less comfortable to hold because they don’t conform to the hand.

Among the bags we tested, the SC bags were the fastest to pick up dirt and grass stains. As with all bags, we recommend buying darker colors to hide the worst of it.

Our experts emphasized that it isn’t the bag but the player that makes for an interesting and skillful game of cornhole. Although we don’t think the SC bags stack up to professional options, they’re still a regulation size and weight. Once you practice with them for a bit, you’ll find yourself adapting to their particular quirks and making shots. Note too that these mimic the bags found at many amateur leagues, so if you plan to enter a tournament, check what bags they use and practice with a similar set first. Even if a league allows you to bring your own bags, culture sometimes dictates that you use what is provided or else you risk offending the other team with your “cheater bags.”

Also great: AllCornhole Tournament Series Cornhole Boards

Also great

Whether you’re buying amateur or pro bags, a well-built board is essential to playing a frustration-free round of cornhole. We like the AllCornhole Tournament Series Cornhole Boards because they are built to ACO regulation specs, designed with a smooth finish that doesn’t catch on your bags, and sturdy enough that they don’t move when bags hit them. The ACL uses them for professional tournaments. You also get the option to add a custom or NFL logo if you’re going for more of a tailgating vibe.

The Tournament Series boards meet ACO regulations for size, weight, and design. They measure 4 by 2 feet and each weigh more than 25 pounds. The hole is centered, measures 6 inches across, and is 9 inches from the top of the board. The board’s slope is regulation.

If you turn the board over, you see legs that fold down for more compact storage, plus a series of cross braces that keep the board from bending or bouncing when bags hit it. During our tests, these boards barely budged, in stark contrast to a cheap set of portable boards we tested that shook and popped bags back into the air upon impact. The Tournament Series boards are made from birch plywood and have a smooth-finished surface free of nails, screws, stickers, or other obstacles that catch or slow bags. We tested a version of the boards featuring the ACL logo and found that because the logo is underneath the finish, it didn’t slow bags down.

You can choose to buy the Tournament Series boards finished or unfinished; if you don’t want to pay more for a customized or NFL design and would rather add your own paint job, you can save about $30 buying the unfinished version, although you’ll still be spending over $200 for this high-quality board.

How to make your own boards

Google “how to build a cornhole board,” and you’ll find hundreds of options. We don’t think they’re all created equal. After talking with our experts about what qualities a DIY board should have and reviewing the ACO’s criteria in materials, design, and size for its approved boards, we recommend consulting a how-to that includes the following features:

• Three cross braces on the back and an additional one on the legs to decrease the amount of bounce: When a bag hits a board hard, it should slide straight and flat.
• Wood as the primary material: One of our experts recommended baltic birch plywood, which will last for years and looks nice even if you leave it unpainted. The wood should measure at least ½ inch thick, though up to ¾ inch is okay. A local lumberyard or Home Depot should have an acceptable plywood in stock and may even be able to cut it to size for you.
• A polyurethane finish: This makes the board smooth but not too slick.
• Regulation size and design: The ACO rules spell out the details.

One tutorial that comes close to meeting all of these requirements (we recommend adding an extra brace on the back and finishing the board with polyurethane) was created by MossBoards for Instructables. No matter what tutorial you choose, it’s a good idea to confirm whether it meets the above requirements and make adjustments to its design as necessary.

The competition

Bags

While only one of our panelists ranked the Reynolds Pro-Advantage Bags as their favorite, six people listed them as their second-favorite bag. The Pro-Advantage is also the most popular bag among the professional players listed on Cornhole Addicts. It uses different fabric on each side to make one side slicker than the other. Its sides are about a 4 and a 6 on the stick-to-slick scale, according to ESPN cornhole analyst and ACL media director Trey Ryder (Reynolds, unlike AllCornhole, doesn’t publish where its bags rate on the 1-to-10 scale, so we asked an expert for their take), and as a result its slicker side still isn’t as smooth as the GameChanger’s sticky side. This means the Pro-Advantage is a good all-around bag for switching between slide and trick shots. It is soft to the touch, with nearly as much of a liquid feel as the GameChanger offers. It also stained the least of any of the bags we tried. I liked the Pro-Advantage nearly as much as the GameChanger and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who wants a well-rounded, professional-level bag. However, we didn’t feel like we played quite as well with this bag; the GameChanger’s patch did seem to add a bit more magic sauce in improving our game.

The AllCornhole Slide-Rite Cornhole Bags turned out to be controversial. Two of our panelists ranked the Slide-Rite as their favorite bag, while half listed it as their third-favorite. Our experts described it as a good bag for beginners who want to practice different types of shots; like the Reynolds bags, these bags are used by some professionals (though not nearly as many) and designed with one slicker side. The Slide-Rite’s slicker side is a hair slicker than that of the Reynolds bag but still not as slick as the GameChanger material. Its 3-level sticky side and 7-level slick side represent one of the biggest spreads we saw on a bag. Some of our panelists had a negative reaction to the feel of its stickier suede side, which one expert said tends to collect moisture on humid days and thus loses its stickiness. It also got dirty fairly quickly. We think the Pro-Advantage bags are a better buy if you are looking for a bag with a wide spread.

Boards

The Parkside Bean Bag Toss Game we tested is no longer available, but it mimics the design of many other portable wooden boards. It’s lightweight, a bit smaller than regulation size, and packaged with a set of bags. However, in our tests the board bounced and wobbled so badly when bags hit it that it made for a frustrating and unsatisfying game; bags tended not to behave in a predictable way and sometimes hit the board and jumped over the hole. The bags included with the board aren’t regulation, either. We recommend sticking to boards that weigh at least 25 pounds each, include cross braces, and are made from high-quality wood.

Similarly, while out at the beach or a park, you might have seen fabric or plastic cornhole sets like the GoSports Portable PVC Framed Cornhole Toss Game Set, an Amazon top seller. They’re easier to carry and store because they roll up. We didn’t test any, but it’s safe to say they won’t be nearly as sturdy as a wooden board. They’re also not regulation size, weight, or material.

If you absolutely prefer an inexpensive set, we think the GoSports Solid Wood Premium Cornhole Set looks a bit more promising (though we haven’t tested it). While the boards weigh less than 25 pounds and don’t have any cross braces advertised—whose absence will likely lead to some wiggle—they’re made from ½-inch pine and a regulation size. The set also comes with a carrying case and regulation-size bags.