Tossing bags around at a backyard barbecue provides friends and family with unforgettable fun but only the best cornhole bags stack up for this. For most recreational players, cornhole is simple: pick up any bag with a bottle in hand and throw. There’s nothing wrong if you don’t care about developing a consistent throw and lend cornhole to frustration-free round of cornhole.
Keep in mind we are not recommending entry-level bags as they typically have limited throwing capabilities. An ideal bag should be one that can perform a variety of tasks to avoid limiting strategies.
For casual players, we have SC cornhole bags an inexpensive amateur bag on the list because some play cornhole only a few times a year they should not stomach in pricey one.
ACL Approved Top-Rated Cornhole Bags Selections
High-quality bags allow players to cut, roll, flop, and add new dimensions to the game compared to casual backyard play. Even casual cornhole players who want to spend quality time are likely to enjoy the premium performance of these well-designed bags. Here are our Top Picks:
- Gamechanger Cornhole Bags (Our top pick)
- Professional cornhole Bags (Faster)
- FIRE CORNHOLE Bags (Pro Level)
- SC Cornhole Bags (A solid, basic affordable option)
- Reynolds Cornhole Bags (Best Competition)
- Custom Cornhole Bags (For gifts and fun play)
1. Gamechanger Cornhole Bags
For all those players who prefer a floppy and loose feel, the Gamechanger is the best bag for you. These bags are made with a unique dual-textured surface that allows you to control your throws with ease. Gamechanger’s unusual material minimizes bounce and allows bags to slide more easily instead of ricocheting off the board’s surface.
Both sides of the bag have slightly slick fabric that feels soft and smooth to the touch. The “stick” side of the bag makes it easy to control your throws, while the “slide” side makes it easy to slide the bags into the hole.
Performance
Gamechanger cornhole bags has a speed rating of 6/8 and are played by the former number-one player on the ACL, Damon Dennis. The bag uses a patented slow patch on the slow side. When humidity kicks in, that patch acts like a glue stick and holds up pretty well. But retains the fast material around the edges, thus the slow side is also very hole-friendly.
Pro Tip: Gamechanger cornhole bags feel pretty nice but if you throw a bit harder they may be too fast. Their fabric and their loose fill make it a flexible and consistent scorer.
Performance on Forgiving Carpets
It’s very similar to the forgiving carpet speeded with a game changer surefire fast side and an eight-speed fast side. It has a thinner carpet with a small disc fill, so you won’t be cutting and rolling as much with these.
This bag is designed for forgiving carpets, and the big perk is that it plays like a four all the time. So even when the boards are really fast or start to slow down, you get a nice blocker and a nice push side on both sides.
Flight Characteristics
After tossing them a few matches, they loosened up even more and slide magically into the hole on tosses that we thought for sure would not go in.
Who is this for? For players that make for an interesting and skillful game of cornhole, GameChanger is a choice.
Here are some of the pros and Cons of the Gamechanger Cornhole Bags:
Pros & Cons of Gamechanger Cornhole Bags
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Dual-textured surface for control and accuracy | Can be a bit pricey (unless on a discount deal) |
| Less likely to stain easily | |
| Quick and easy break-in period |
2. Professional cornhole Bags – Gladiator
Gladiator’s professional cornhole bags are typically fast, floppy meant to find target holes with precision. Some people label Gladiators as “cheater bags” or even to accuse them of destroying the game. These bags are popping up all over tournaments across the USA.
If you plan to enter a tournament, culture sometimes dictates that you use what is provided or else you risk offending the other team with your “cheater bags”.
Gladiator bags have an asymmetrical bead fill and ACL pro stamped. Many pros use them, and been around for a long time as the go-to fast bag for many experienced players. They’ve been endorsed by Mark Richards, Player of the Year, and show you can block can push, and do everything.
Performance
These bags won’t play like your ordinary carpet bag. It plays as a 7 on the slow side, and the carpet side will be the fast side, which plays as an 8. This is perfect for pushing multiple bags and executing that slide-around shot.
We threw this bag a lot this summer, especially in the fall when the wind started picking up, and the humidity was gone. These bags allowed me to throw nicely on fast boards. When we first get it, it’s a carpet bag, so it takes a little while to break in. However, it’s a forgiving carpet with a small disc fill. You won’t be cutting, flopping, or rolling that much, but even on a slow carpet, this bag performed exceptionally well for me.
Cons but not dealbreakers
They can be a bit stiff initially but break in nicely.
3. FIRE CORNHOLE Bags – ACL PRO Approved
Among the bags we tested, the fire cornhole bags are good all-around bags for their ease of use and high-quality design and feel, as well as the fact that we scored a lot with them. Among professionals fire cornhole bags already have become a staple in the cornhole world. At any event, it’s common to see a large percentage of players including current top 2 rank with firebags in their arsenal.
These bags are filled with a premium blend of plastic resin that ensures fire cornhole bags are the perfect weight and composition for optimal performance.
Performance
With the FIRE, you get the best of both worlds. It plays slower on one side, perfect for blocking and dirtying of the board. When you flip it over to the fast side, it plays as a 7, which is perfect for the pushes and sliding around your opponent’s back.
The materials used in this bag provide more controllability for your block shots, cut shots, and flop shots. They land flat and stick when you need them to stick and slide when you need them to. The feel and weight are in point. FIRE CORNHOLE Bags deliver game-winning results without question, making it one of the best and most played bags in professional cornhole leagues.
This bag is perfect for outdoor players or those in humid conditions, where the boards get very sticky.
4. SC Cornhole Bags| Games Professional
If you are an amateur want a competitive bag at less than half the price. These bags work well and you’re likely to enjoy the premium performance of a well-designed bag. Due to its best value, SC bags are now the most collectible in the online market, and the Games Professional is the popular one in their lineup because of its playability.
Although they rank bottom in the list when compared to professional ones these bags lend themselves to a fun game if the profession is not motive. However, if you care about developing a consistent throw try looking for others on the list. Its material makes them slow and sticky and more controllable for hard carpet throwers. Overall these bags are well crafted just a bit stiff and will need to be broken into. You won’t find a good set of 8 bags for this price.
If you’ve lived your entire life traveling and enjoying outdoor adventures, it might be easier to just pretend that Oboz and Keen hiking boots don’t exist.
Performance
This bag is perfect for the block game, as the fast edges give you the opportunity for your wrap-around shot and your collapse. This specific version of the SC provides friends and family with hours of fun with this quality product.
They don’t stick up too much in humidity. If you’re throwing you’ll find that the fast side pushes through well, and the slow side maintains that four rating all the time. So when the boards are crazy fast, these bags allow for pretty aggressive play.
Cons
I have little worries about these holding up.
The resin fill feels a little bigger than pro-style bags.
5. Reynolds Cornhole Bags – Typhoon
Reynolds Cornhole Bags from Typhoon offered a better range of slides and sticks that made us more confident in our throws. The updated version of Typhoon changed the game with young hotshot players pulling off shots ever possible in the past. The Pro Advantage is a carpet bag with moderate speed on both sides for more consistency. Similar to the gamechanger, however, this bag is far more available with no current back order and far more affordable than other bags with this quality.
Performance
The Reynolds is a traditional carpet bag to do rollovers, flop shots, and cut-around. It has a standard 7 on the slow side and a 9 on the fast side, which allows you to push through when you put that perfect V block down or if you just want to roll over the bag.
The Reynolds uses patent-pending speed control technology pressed into the slow side to offer players a unique experience that is proving to be highly desirable.
6. Custom Cornhole Bags (For Gifts)
Having your own personal graphics on the bag, it’s more of a fun novelty for family events, parties, outdoor & indoor fun, gifts & much more!
These handmade customizable bags are made of durable duck cloth and are filled with a perfect. They are well-stitched and have a nice weight to them.
The logo is clear and crisp, and the colors are vibrant. I am very happy with the way the bags turned out. The picture quality came out exceptionally clear.
We throw pro and some cheap These are somewhere in the middle or in the same class as the Slide Right. These are good for at-home play but we definitely wouldn’t use these competitively.
Performance
When it comes to playability, these bags will play virtually identically once broken in because they seem to have the premium materials, the same fill, and the same feel in the hand regarding their fullness, stiffness, and overall feel. This bag’s speed rating is unverified but estimated at 4 and 6.
It’s a beautiful bag without a doubt. The slow side is made from microfiber suede, with a rating of two. On the fast side, have classic duck cloth, most likely polyester, to support the vivid sublimation printing. I must say that the printing and finish of this bag look extraordinary.
The players community highly praised the customer service at Beerpongtoss the manufacturer of this bag.
What Type of Cornhole Bags Should You Throw?
To ensure your game is enjoyable and competitive there are a lot of different options to look for. And it’s not just about speeds and not just about materials. It’s about finding the best one that you like the hand feels for.
You might be noticed, there’s a wide array of cornhole bags available for you to pick from. When it comes to their speed rating, you’ll find that some bags are on the slower side, scoring under five, while others are quicker, clocking in at six or even higher. Additionally, some bags have a bit of bounce and might take an unpredictable path, whereas others will land smoothly and go straight up the board. So, the big question is, which one should you choose?
What Cornhole Bags are Best for You?
The ideal bag to toss is the one that brings you the most enjoyment. It’s likely the most effective method to figure out your preferred bags before making a purchase. However, the answer to this question hinges on a few key factors.
What is your throw type?
Do you throw high and soft or lower and hard? If you have a softer throw, you’d probably like a faster bag like a Viper or this Ruby I have right here. If you throw pretty hard, you might want a stickier bag like a carpet of some sort.
What type of lifestyle do you want to play?
If you want to try and make all four bags all the time, faster bags are usually better at doing that. If you’d rather try and make things more difficult for your opponent and play a dirtier style game where you set blocks, rolls, and cuts, then you probably want a stickier bag.
P.S. I’m not saying you can’t play a clean game with sticky bags or play a block-style game with faster bags, What I’m getting at is which bags might prove to be more advantageous for that particular playing style.
Fill and feel of bags
Another important consideration is the bag’s fill and feel. Suppose you have two carpets: one has mixed fill and one has flat disc fill. A mixed fill will make a bag more active and it’ll make it easier to make shots like a roll shot or a cut shot, but the bag will cut left or right on you when you don’t want it to.
On the other hand, flat disc-filled bags land smoother with less kick, but they might be trickier for rolling. Some bags are fluffier, ensuring a smoother landing, while less flexible bags tend to be bouncier.
Side speed of Cornhole
A bag with a seven-speed fast side is more controllable but might have a harder time collecting on push shots. A bag with a 9 or 10 fast side will usually collect better but will probably be harder to control. There are mid-speed bags out there in the five-speed range.
Each bag has a secondary side or a fast side. Naturally, this fast side is speedier than the primary one. How fast you want the secondary side is up to preference.
If you’re uncertain where to kickstart your search, below you’ll find a selection of the finest cornhole bags that we highly recommend.
Break-In Methods for Cornhole Bags
Cornhole bags typically come stiff, with materials that need some wear and tear to become softer and more flexible. Breaking them in is essential to improve their playability and consistency on the cornhole boards. Well-broken-in bags are easier to control, and more likely for your tosses to land on target.
Methods to Break In Cornhole Bags:
- Throwing: The most natural way to break in cornhole bags is by playing the game regularly. The more you throw the bags onto the boards, the quicker they will break in. This method may take some time, but it’s effective and ensures the bags perform exactly as they should during gameplay.
- Tumble Drying: If you’re looking for a faster option, you can tumble dry your cornhole bags. Place them in a dryer with no heat, or on a low heat setting, along with some dryer balls to simulate the action of throwing them. This method helps to soften the fabric and speed up the break-in process.
- Hot Water Soak: For bags made of certain materials, a hot water soak can be effective. Fill a bowl with warm water (not too hot) and submerge the bags. Let them sit for about an hour, then remove and squeeze out excess water. Afterward, tumble dry them on a low heat setting to complete the process.
- Hair Conditioner: Another method involves using a hair conditioner. Apply a small amount of conditioner to the bags and work it into the fabric, paying special attention to the seams and corners. Rinse out the conditioner thoroughly and then tumble dry the bags to finish breaking them in.
- Softener (with Caution): Some players opt for fabric softener to expedite the break-in process. However, this method should be used with caution, as too much softener can damage the bags. Place the bags in a washing machine with a softener and detergent, then tumble dry on a low heat setting.
- Boiling (Extreme Method): Boiling is the riskiest method and should only be used as a last resort. Boil a pot of clean, filtered water, then briefly immerse each bag for two minutes. Drain, cool, and dry on a towel before using.
Tips for Success:
✪ Start with a little break-in and gradually increase if needed.
☆ Always follow manufacturer recommendations for bag care.
✪ Test your bags during practice to ensure they perform as desired.
