Global Online Poker Traffic Plunges 14% Last Week

Last week global online poker traffic took a 4% dive, with the bad news further compounded by the fact it was the fifth week in a row of declines with just one week from the last nine now showing an improvement over the previous week. Overall, last week global online traffic was down 14% compared to the same week in 2013, in spite of the fact $76 million was returned to U.S. players by Full Tilt two and a half weeks earlier.
Helping to explain the downward figures was spring getting off to an early start with temperatures across the whole of Europe significantly higher than last year. As a result, online poker players deserted their PC’s in their droves in favour of more outdoor pursuits.
Ten years ago poker was going through its glory days and a year after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP Main Event, players around the world were in the grip of the online poker phenomena. Examining the disappointing results so far this year, analysts have suggested that back then when Fixed Limit variants were more popular, those games were much better at attracting sociable and casual players. Thesedays No-Limit Hold’em is all the rage, with analysts suggesting recreational players are more likely to lose their money quicker, and suffer the unpleasant experience of losing all their money on one hand, therefore likely dissuading them from returning to the game.
For the week ending March 18, 2014, nine out of the top ten ranked sites saw their traffic numbers decline, with Full Tilt Poker also continuing to languish in 5th place behind PartyPoker. Commenting on Full Tilt’s 4% decline in traffic last week, PokerScout.com, wrote:
“Full Tilt has, in the past, responded aggressively to such shifts, twice offering its successful ‘Big Bonus’ promotion to re-incentivize cash game players. This time, however, the response has been more muted. Full Tilt ran a Team Pro missions promotion last week, but the multi-stage promo may have been too complicated to generate much excitement.”