Minecraft /scoreboard command generator

What is a scoreboard in Minecraft?

A scoreboard is a built-in Minecraft system for tracking and displaying numeric values tied to players. Every scoreboard is made of objectives: named counters that can count statistics automatically (such as deaths, kills or mined blocks) or be changed only by commands (the dummy type).

The scoreboard system is the foundation for building minigames, ranking systems, adventure map mechanics and advanced server setups. Without it, it is very hard to build PvP scoring, a leaderboard, a round countdown timer or many other mechanics players know from popular servers.

The /scoreboard command works through two main subcommands: objectives (managing objectives) and players (managing player scores). Teams are handled by the separate /team command, which this generator does not cover but which is closely tied to scoreboards.

Creating an objective - /scoreboard objectives add

The first step is always creating an objective. Every objective has three parts: an internal name (used in commands, no spaces), a criterion (which defines what is counted) and an optional display name (shown on the player's screen, can include spaces and colors).

Syntax: /scoreboard objectives add <name> <criterion> [display_name]

For example, /scoreboard objectives add zabojstwa playerKillCount "Players killed" creates an objective with the internal name "zabojstwa" that automatically counts how many players a player has killed and is displayed as "Players killed".

The most commonly used criterion is dummy: an objective that counts nothing automatically and only changes through commands. It is the ideal choice for custom scoring systems, server currencies, timers and boolean flags.

Scoreboard criteria types

Minecraft has dozens of built-in criteria, which fall into four categories:

Basic criteria

• dummy - changed only by commands. The most commonly used type for custom scoring systems, currencies, timers and flags.
• deathCount - automatically counts a player's deaths from any cause.
• playerKillCount - counts how many players (not mobs) a player has killed.
• totalKillCount - counts all kills (players + mobs).
• health - the player's current health (in half hearts, 0-20).
• xp - the current total amount of experience points.
• food - the current food level (0-20).
• armor - the current armor points.
• level - the current experience level (0-n).
• trigger - a special type that players without permissions can change with the /trigger command. Ideal for voting systems and interactive menus.

Entity statistics criteria

Format: minecraft.killed:minecraft.<mob> (how many of that mob the player has killed) or minecraft.killed_by:minecraft.<mob> (how many times the player was killed by that mob). For example, minecraft.killed:minecraft.zombie counts zombies killed.

Block statistics criteria

Format: minecraft.mined:minecraft.<block>. Counts how many times a player has mined that block. For example, minecraft.mined:minecraft.diamond_ore counts diamond ore mined. Useful for mining challenges and mining leaderboards.

Item statistics and custom criteria

There are also the criteria minecraft.used: (using an item), minecraft.broken: (breaking a tool), minecraft.crafted: (crafting an item), minecraft.picked_up: (picking an item up) and minecraft.dropped: (dropping it). Special statistics such as minecraft.custom:minecraft.play_time (play time in ticks), minecraft.custom:minecraft.jump (jumps) or minecraft.custom:minecraft.walk_one_cm (distance walked) let you track almost every aspect of gameplay.

Displaying a scoreboard - setdisplay

Creating an objective does not make it visible. To show a scoreboard on screen, you have to assign the objective to one of three display slots:

• sidebar - the sidebar on the right side of the screen. The most commonly used slot. Shows a table of player names and their scores, sorted from the highest score. Ideal for leaderboards, PvP results and game status.
• list - the player list (Tab key). Shows the score next to each player's name in the Tab list. Handy on servers for showing stats without taking up screen space.
• below_name - below the player's name above their head. Shows the score and the objective name under the name of a player you are looking at. Used for showing HP, player level or rank.

Syntax: /scoreboard objectives setdisplay <slot> <objective>. To hide a display, run the command without an objective: /scoreboard objectives setdisplay sidebar.

There are also colored sidebar variants (sidebar.team.red, sidebar.team.blue and so on) that are shown only to players on the matching team. This lets minigames show different scoreboards to different teams.

Managing player scores

The /scoreboard players command lets you change the scores of individual players. The available operations are:

• set - sets the score to an exact value. /scoreboard players set @p punkty 100
• add - adds a value to the current score. /scoreboard players add @p punkty 10
• remove - subtracts a value. /scoreboard players remove @p punkty 5
• reset - resets the score (removes the player from the table). /scoreboard players reset @p punkty

You can target a player with a selector (@p, @a, @s, @r) or type a player name directly. The @a selector applies the command to all players at once, which is handy for resetting scores at the start of a round.

A neat trick: you can use names that are not player names, for example /scoreboard players set #timer punkty 300. Names starting with # do not show up on the sidebar. These are so-called "fake players", ideal for storing global variables.

Colored display names

An objective's display name can contain colors and text formatting. In Java Edition 1.13+ this uses the JSON text component format:

/scoreboard objectives add cel dummy {"text":"My points","color":"gold"}

Minecraft supports 16 colors: white, yellow, gold, red, dark_red, green, dark_green, aqua, dark_aqua, blue, dark_blue, light_purple, dark_purple, gray, dark_gray, black. Our generator formats the name in the chosen color automatically.

Besides color you can add formatting: "bold":true (bold), "italic":true (italic), "underlined":true (underline), "strikethrough":true (strikethrough). You combine these options in one JSON object.

Practical uses of scoreboards

PvP scoring system

The simplest PvP ranking takes just two commands: /scoreboard objectives add pvp playerKillCount "Players killed" and /scoreboard objectives setdisplay sidebar pvp. From then on the board counts kills automatically and shows the ranking.

Countdown timer

Create a timer objective of the dummy type, set a starting value (/scoreboard players set #czas timer 300) and hook up a repeating command block that subtracts 1 every second (20 ticks): /scoreboard players remove #czas timer 1. Add a comparator that checks whether #czas = 0 to end the game.

Health display under the name

The commands /scoreboard objectives add hp health and /scoreboard objectives setdisplay below_name hp show each player's current HP under their name.

Server currency

A monety objective of the dummy type works as a currency: players earn it for kills (/execute as @a run scoreboard players add @s monety 5 in a command block that reacts to a kill) and spend it in an NPC shop (a plugin or a block system that checks whether the player has enough points).

Detecting events

A scoreboard combined with /execute if score can detect almost any event. For example: /execute as @a[scores={ skok=1.. }] run say I jumped! runs the command when a player jumps (with an objective of type minecraft.custom:minecraft.jump). After the action runs, reset the score to detect the next jump.

Scoreboards and teams

The team system is closely tied to scoreboards, although it is managed by the separate /team command. Teams let you color player names, turn off friendly fire, set collision rules and use colored sidebar variants. For example:

• /team add czerwoni - creates a team
• /team modify czerwoni color red - sets the team color to red
• /team join czerwoni @p - adds a player to the team
• /scoreboard objectives setdisplay sidebar.team.red tajny_cel - shows the objective to the red team only

Combining teams with scoreboards is the foundation of every team minigame: Capture the Flag, Bed Wars, SkyWars and so on. Each team sees its own sidebar with different information, and name colors let players tell allies from enemies.

Scoreboard operations

The advanced /scoreboard players operation command lets you run math operations between two scores. Syntax: /scoreboard players operation <targets> <targetObjective> <operator> <source> <sourceObjective>.

The available operators are: += (add), -= (subtract), *= (multiply), /= (divide), %= (modulo), = (assign), < (take the smaller value), > (take the larger value), >< (swap the values).

For example, /scoreboard players operation @p wynik *= #mnoznik stala multiplies the player's score by the value of the fake player #mnoznik. This allows advanced math in vanilla Minecraft without mods or plugins.

Scoreboard limits and restrictions

• Internal name: no spaces. Allowed: letters, digits, underscore, dot and hyphen.
• Value range: from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 (a signed 32-bit integer).
• Display slots: 3 main ones at a time (sidebar, list, below_name) + 16 colored sidebar variants.
• Bedrock Edition: supports scoreboards, but without colored JSON names, without per-mob/block statistics and without the hearts render type.
• Performance: a large number of objectives with automatic criteria (non-dummy) can affect server performance. Use dummy where possible.

Frequently asked questions