What is Total Games? Total Games Explained in 2 minutes
Jesse M. Cox Last Verified
26/06/2026
What is a Total Games?
Tennis matches are usually best of three or best of five sets – depending on the tournament. To win a set a player must win six games with a winning gap of at least two games. Tiebreaks occur when the set gets to six games each but there are no tie breaks in a final set. The total games are the complete number of games played in a single match.
How is Total Games used in Sports Betting?
Not all bookmakers offer total games prices but it is a selection that bettors can take time to work out and become relatively successful at. The price is usually offered on an over/under basis so the bettor must predict whether there will be, for example, more or fewer than 22 games.
Sets can have anywhere from six to 13 games played and the most common amount is around nine or 10. By researching into the strengths of the players involved bettors can predict how they will play their games. For example, if a player is a particularly strong server it may be concluded that they will win most of their service games and the sets could be high scoring affairs.
Did You Know...
The longest ever match was between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. The match took just over 11 hours to play over three days and until the final set the total games number was fairly average with the first four sets resulting in 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6. But because there are no tiebreakers allowed in the final set of a match the two players battled to a fifth set score of 70-68. Bettors should definitely have taken the over on this one.
