Online Game Clock

Run the clock like the venue does

Every grassroots game needs a timekeeper. At five-a-side football someone's phone stopwatch disappears into a pocket at 38 minutes; at youth basketball a parent is drafted to count down quarters on a wristwatch; at junior hockey the scorekeeper juggles three twenty-minute periods and a pen. This page replaces all of that with a proper match clock: set the period length and how many periods you play, press Start, and the big display — plus the PERIOD 2 OF 4 line — keeps everyone honest. The clock is worked out from your device's own time, not counted tick by tick, so it stays accurate even if the browser tab is throttled in the background.

Count down or count up — every sport has its convention

Basketball, futsal, ice hockey and handball run a countdown: the period starts at 10:00 or 20:00, falls to 0:00, and the horn ends it. Football is the famous exception — the referee's watch counts up from 0:00 to 45:00 plus stoppage, and the half ends on the whistle, not the clock. This tool does both. Count-down mode stops hard at zero and fires the buzzer; count-up mode keeps running past the nominal length so you can play stoppage time, and you press Next period at the whistle. Plenty of grassroots football leagues still prefer a straight 45:00 countdown — no stoppage arguments, everyone can see exactly what's left — so the direction toggle lets you run either convention with the same preset.

The buzzer

When a countdown reaches 0:00 the clock stops and sounds a one-second arena-style horn, generated right in the browser — no file to download, no volume surprise mid-period. It fires on every period end, including full time, and you can switch it off for quiet venues. Because browsers only allow sound after you've interacted with a page, the horn is armed the moment you first press Start.

Put it on the TV or projector

Press 📺 Fullscreen and the page becomes a giant clock and period line on a clean background — nothing else on screen. Plug a laptop into the venue TV or projector over HDMI, AirPlay or cast the browser tab, or open this page directly in a smart TV browser. Tap or click anywhere on the fullscreen clock to start and pause, so the person nearest the screen can run it; on a laptop the spacebar does the same job from across the room.

Frequently asked questions

How do I put the game clock on a TV?

Press the fullscreen button and the clock fills the whole screen with nothing else on it. Then get the browser onto the big screen the way you would any web page: plug a laptop in over HDMI, AirPlay or cast the tab to the TV, or open this page in the smart TV's own browser. Tap or click anywhere on the fullscreen clock to start and pause it.

Which sports count down and which count up?

Basketball, futsal, ice hockey and handball count down — the period ends on the buzzer at 0:00. Football counts up: the referee runs 0:00 to 45:00 plus stoppage and ends the half by whistle, which is why count-up mode here keeps running until you press Next period. Plenty of grassroots football still prefers a straight 45:00 countdown, and both work — just flip the direction toggle.

Why is there no sound until I press Start?

Browsers block web pages from making any sound until you have interacted with the page — an autoplay rule that stops sites blasting audio the moment they load. The buzzer is armed the first time you press Start, which counts as that interaction, so the horn can fire at zero even if you never touch the page again.

Is it accurate if the tab is in the background?

Yes. The clock never counts ticks — it stores the moment you pressed Start and works the time out from your device's own clock, so minutes spent in a background tab or a throttled browser cost nothing and the display catches up instantly when you return. One caveat: if zero is reached while the tab is hidden, some browsers hold the buzzer sound until you come back.