Counter-stop

A "counter-stop" refers to when a score counter reaches the maximum amount that it is able to reach, commonly displayed on a HUD as a series of 9s in each score digit. When a counter-stop is achieved, in most cases, the game stops counting score for the player. It is not possible to score higher than a counter-stop, so often players will stop using scoring techniques upon reaching it.

Games with particularly exploitable counter-stop strategies due to oversights in game design, such as Dogyuun, are in many cases not played for high scores, or are played in ways that specifically avoid counter-stop strategies.