Pétanque vs. Kubb: The Complete Comparison Guide

Kubb, sometimes called "Viking chess" in marketing copy, is a wooden block-throwing game that has spread from the Swedish island of Gotland to backyards and parks across Europe and North America. Pétanque gets compared to it because both are inexpensive, sociable lawn games played standing still with a small group - and because both happen to be especially beloved in Sweden, where pétanque has become one of the country's most popular imported pastimes alongside homegrown kubb. Past that, the two games work quite differently.

This guide compares pétanque and kubb across history, equipment, playing area, gameplay, scoring, and accessibility.

Quick Comparison Table

1. History and Origins

Pétanque: A Documented Birth in 1907

Pétanque was invented in 1907 in La Ciotat, a coastal town near Marseille. A local merchant, Jules Hugues (nicknamed "Lenoir"), suffered from rheumatism that made the running throw of jeu provençal too painful. His friend Ernest Pitiot, who ran the café attached to the local boulodrome, suggested Hugues play from a fixed position instead, both feet planted inside a circle. The name comes from the Provençal pès tancats ("feet fixed"). The sport has been governed internationally by the FIPJP since 1958.

Kubb: A Swedish Folk Game, Not a Viking Relic

Kubb's history is far murkier, and much of what gets repeated about it online is simply wrong. The game is often marketed as "Viking chess" or an ancient Old Norse pastime, but no historian has verified that claim - it appears to be a modern marketing invention tied loosely to Gotland's Medieval Week festival. What's actually documented: the earliest confirmed written use of the name "kubb" dates to 1931, when a Swedish ethnologist visiting the island of Fårö, off the coast of Gotland, recorded local use of the term for a block-throwing game. Related but distinct throwing games existed earlier - including a Swedish game called kägelkrig documented in 1911 and an even older 16th-century Polish game - but no proven direct lineage connects them to modern kubb. The game as it's played today only became widely popular after commercial sets went on sale in the 1980s, and the first Kubb World Championship was held in Rone, Gotland, in 1995 and continues there annually. Unlike pétanque, kubb has never developed a single international governing body - national groups like USA Kubb (which runs a national championship in Eau Claire, Wisconsin) and UK Kubb (established 2006) organize the game independently in their own countries.

2. Equipment: A Boules Set vs. a Full Kubb Kit

Pétanque's equipment is minimal and interchangeable between brands; kubb's is a complete, self-contained kit that's harder to mix and match.

Pétanque Boules

Pétanque is played with hollow metal balls, usually steel, held palm-down and thrown or lobbed underhand.

• Diameter: 70.5mm to 80mm
• Weight: 650g to 800g
• Target ball: the cochonnet (jack), a small wooden or synthetic ball about 30mm across

See our guide on how to choose your first boules for buying advice.

A Full Kubb Set

Kubb requires several distinct wooden pieces rather than one type of ball, all sold together as a single kit.

• Kubbs (target blocks): 10 total (5 per side), each 10-15cm tall with a 5-7cm square base
• The king: 1 taller center piece, 25-30cm tall with a 7-9cm square base, that decides the game
• Batons (throwing sticks): 6 total (3 per side, or matched to team size in official play), 25-30cm long and 2.5-4.4cm in diameter
• Corner stakes: 4 pins that mark the corners of the rectangular pitch

3. The Playing Surface

Pétanque adapts to almost any surface; kubb needs a clear, marked rectangle of grass.

Pétanque: Play Almost Anywhere

Pétanque needs no dedicated court for casual play - a gravel driveway, a dirt path, a beach, or a park lawn all work, and the ground's natural unevenness is part of the strategy. Competitive matches use a marked lane, with the FIPJP specifying 15m x 4m for national and international championships (a 12m x 3m minimum is allowed for other sanctioned competitions). See our full court dimensions guide for the official specs.

Kubb: A Fixed Rectangular Pitch

Kubb is played on a 5-meter by 8-meter rectangular pitch, marked out with the four corner stakes. Five kubbs are lined up along each of the two short baselines, equidistant from one another, with the king standing upright at the exact center of the pitch. Unlike pétanque's flexible, loosely defined playing area, kubb's pitch dimensions and piece placement are fixed and precise even for a casual backyard game, since the throwing distances and baseline positions are part of what makes the game work.

4. How You Play: Landing Close vs. Knocking Down

Pétanque: Precision Throwing From a Fixed Circle

Players stand with both feet inside a small circle (35-50cm) and throw the boule underhand, typically adding backspin with a wrist flick so it stops quickly where it lands. There's no fixed target distance - the jack can be thrown anywhere within a legal range each round - and players can also aim to knock an opponent's boule away rather than simply landing close to the jack. Our pointing and shooting technique guides cover the two core throwing styles in depth.

Kubb: Elimination by Baton Throw

Teams alternate turns throwing their batons underhand from behind their own baseline, aiming to knock down the kubbs lined up on the opponent's baseline. Any kubbs knocked over by the attacking team are then thrown back by the defending team onto the attacker's half of the pitch, becoming "field kubbs" - these must be knocked down again before the attacking team is allowed to target the baseline kubbs on a later turn. This back-and-forth escalation, rather than pétanque's single closest-ball measurement, is what drives kubb's pacing; a single game can last anywhere from about 30 seconds to well over an hour depending on how the field kubbs pile up.

5. Scoring

• Pétanque: Games are played to 13 points. After all boules are thrown in a round (a mène), only one team scores: one point for every boule closer to the jack than the opponent's closest boule. See our full scoring guide for the details.
• Kubb: Has no running point score at all. A team wins outright the instant it has knocked down every one of the opponent's kubbs (including all field kubbs) and then topples the king with a final throw. Knocking over the king by accident before every kubb is cleared results in an immediate loss, no matter how far ahead a team otherwise was - a single mistake can undo an entire game's progress in a way pétanque's incremental scoring never allows.

6. Physical Demands and Accessibility

Both games are low-impact and playable by a wide range of ages and fitness levels, though kubb asks for slightly more movement than pétanque. Pétanque is played entirely from a stationary circle and remains genuinely competitive for players well into their 80s and 90s, including people with limited mobility (see our guide on pétanque for players with disabilities). Kubb players stay mostly stationary too, throwing from behind a fixed baseline, but do walk out onto the pitch between turns to retrieve batons and reposition fallen kubbs, and the heavier baton (up to several times the weight of a pétanque boule, depending on the set) requires a somewhat different, more forceful underhand throwing motion. Neither game demands running, jumping, or significant cardiovascular fitness, making both good choices for mixed-age groups.

7. Popularity and Growth

Kubb's popularity is concentrated but growing: it remains most deeply rooted in Sweden, where the annual Gotland World Championship has run since 1995, and has spread through dedicated national scenes in the United States (with an annual national championship in Eau Claire, Wisconsin) and the United Kingdom (organized by UK Kubb since 2006), plus an active tournament circuit in Belgium and other parts of continental Europe. It has no single international governing body coordinating these efforts the way the FIPJP does for pétanque. Pétanque's footprint is both older and considerably broader - it's the dominant boules sport in France, with major strongholds across Southeast Asia (notably Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia) and, notably for this comparison, a thriving scene in Sweden itself, where the French import has become one of the country's most popular outdoor pastimes alongside homegrown kubb. It's genuinely common for the same Swedish backyard to own both a kubb set and a set of boules.

Which Should You Play?

Choose Pétanque if:

• You want a game with incremental scoring, so a close match stays interesting round to round rather than resetting between games.
• You want equipment that's easy to find and compare across many manufacturers, from budget leisure sets to competition-grade boules.
• You're playing in a smaller group, since pétanque tops out at 3-a-side.

Choose Kubb if:

• You want to fit a big group in at once - kubb comfortably scales up to 6-a-side, making it a natural fit for large family gatherings.
• You like the all-or-nothing tension of an elimination format, where a careless throw at the king can end the game in an instant.
• You have a flat, open stretch of lawn to dedicate to a fixed 5m x 8m pitch for the afternoon.

Plenty of people who own one eventually pick up the other, since both fit the same relaxed backyard-gathering niche. A pétanque set suits a quieter, more strategic session for two to six players; a kubb set suits a bigger group looking for a louder, more dramatic team format.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is pétanque similar to kubb?

Somewhat - both are social, low-impact lawn games especially popular in Sweden - but the mechanics differ: pétanque scores incrementally by closeness to a target ball, while kubb is a knock-down elimination game with no running score.

Is kubb really an ancient Viking game?

No, that's a modern marketing myth. The name "kubb" is first documented only from 1931, and the game only became widely popular after commercial sets appeared in the 1980s.

What equipment do you need for pétanque vs. kubb?

Pétanque needs hollow steel boules and a small wooden jack. Kubb needs a full kit of 10 wooden blocks, a king piece, 6 batons, and 4 corner stakes.

How big a team can you have in kubb compared to pétanque?

Pétanque caps out at 3-a-side. Kubb commonly scales from 1v1 up to 6-a-side under World Championship rules.

How do you win at kubb versus pétanque?

Pétanque is played to 13 points scored round by round. Kubb has no running score - a team wins the instant it clears all the opponent's kubbs and then topples the king, with an accidental early king knockdown causing an immediate loss.

Ready to get started?

• Check out our Beginner's Guide to Pétanque
• Browse the best pétanque sets for backyard and garden play
• Learn the official pétanque scoring rules
• Curious how pétanque compares to other backyard games? See Pétanque vs. Horseshoes, Pétanque vs. Spikeball, Pétanque vs. Pickleball, Pétanque vs. Cornhole, Pétanque vs. Bocce Ball, and Pétanque vs. Lawn Bowls
• Curious how it compares to croquet, a mallet-and-hoop game that may share French royal-court roots with pétanque? See Pétanque vs. Croquet
• Curious how it compares to boccia, the Paralympic sport built on the same boules family and adapted for athletes with disabilities? See Pétanque vs. Boccia
• Curious how it compares to curling, a winter sport that swaps pétanque's fixed circle for a sliding stone steered by sweeping brooms on ice? See Pétanque vs. Curling
• Curious how it compares to a court game where a disc is pushed with a cue instead of a ball thrown by hand? See Pétanque vs. Shuffleboard
• Curious how it compares to darts, a stationary precision game thrown overhand at a fixed board indoors instead of underhand at a moving jack outdoors? See Pétanque vs. Darts
• Curious how it compares to bowling, an indoor game where the goal is to knock down ten pins rather than land closest to a target? See Pétanque vs. Bowling
• Curious how it compares to Mölkky, Finland's own numbered-skittle throwing game invented in 1996? See Pétanque vs. Mölkky