September 19, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — Times may be tough, with world economies feeling a strain, but online poker marches on! This seemed to be the theme for the August – September period, as tracking site MarketPulse reports surging visitor numbers at several of the premium websites.
The already-booming PokerStars has been particularly busy, with August traffic figures (as quoted by MarketPulse) up a very respectable 34 percent. The site currently hosts an average of 17,451 players over the course of a single day — placing PokerStars far ahead of its nearest rival, Full Tilt Poker.
September 14 — a Sunday — proved to be the busiest day of the year so far for PokerStars, as the average surged to 20,496 players, with peak periods running from 16:00 to 18:00. This peak time seems to be a common industry experience, and an estimated 80,000 playerstypically can be found online playing poker in this time slot.
Full Tilt Poker remains Poker Stars's chief competition, and showed a 28 percent increase in traffic to an average 7,890 visitors. Gains at Titan Poker (up 2 percent to 5,025 players on average) and Party Poker (up 1 percent to 4,205) were positive but less spectacular, while Hollywood Poker showed gains of 11 percent to 6,495) and Mansion Poker surged 12 percent to 4,200. Paradise Poker also did well — up 20 percent to 1,701 players, as did Doyles Room, which saw increases of 12 percent to 1,656, and Pacific Poker, which was up 7 percent to 1,010.
The MarketPulse traffic page has the full report, where interested parties can find a comprehensive breakdown by day, month, and year, including industry averages and traffic volume charts.