Traffic overview across major poker rooms in December 2021

Author: Vargoso Published: 16.12.21

Usually in winter the online poker industry experience grown in terms of traffic. But every player is interested in how many active tables of his stakes can be found at the particular poker room at a convenient time. Therefore, we monitored 6-max Hold 'em NL10$+ traffic at six poker rooms during the so-called European and American prime times.

Traffic overview across major poker rooms in December 2021

Two groups of poker rooms

Top poker rooms try to attract players from all over the world. Differences in time zones lead to traffic peaks at specific periods when most players join the tables after the end of the working day.

These two European and American peaks correspond to late evening hours in Western Europe and the Americas. According to the current data from PokerScout (mid-December 2021) for the six top poker networks, the following picture emerges in terms of the total number of cash games connections (CET+2):

	22:00-24:00	06:00-08:00
PokerStars	8,391	4,314
GGPoker	6,878	4,105
iPoker	1,55	713
WPN	924	1,625
partypoker	1,188	583
Chico	497	781

This general data confirms the classical division of poker rooms into two groups: European (PokerStars, iPoker, partypoker) and American (Winning and Chico networks). Although GGNetwork has bigger traffic during late evening hours, its drop by the early morning is not as large as in other poker rooms focused on Europe (40% compared to 50%-55%). It indicates the greater popularity of this network in the Western Hemisphere.

Regular tables

The numbers above are barely helpful to any player. Therefore, we figured out what was hidden behind them and collected the active 6-max Hold 'em cash game tables (NL10$+) data at six poker rooms during the European and American traffic peaks.

European prime time

	PokerStars	GGPoker	iPoker	Winning	Chico	PartyPoker
NL10-16$	108-130	71-74	28-31	12-15	6-7	15-18
NL20-25$	58-62	60-70	32-33	11-13	6-8	4-5
NL50$	42-48	40-51	32-35	6-8	6-10	1-3
NL100$	20-26	31-34	20-21	10-11	4	3-4
NL200$	12-14	17-21	10-16	6-10	5-6	2-3
NL400-600$	6-8	12-15	6-12	3-4	1-2	1
NL1K$	2-3	9-10	2-3	3-4	5-6	1-2
NL2k+	1-3	3		2-7

PokerStars clearly outperforms its main competitor only at the NL10$ stakes.
GGPoker is ahead at all other stakes, starting from NL25$. There are active games at up to NL400k$ stakes.
iPoker is inferior to the two leaders, but at the NL50$-NL600$ stakes, this gap is no more than 30%.
WPN and Chico Poker Network have fewer active tables across almost all stakes during the European evening hours. There were active tables at up to $25/$50 stakes on WPN but for no more than a couple of hours.
At partypoker there is only traffic up to NL50.

American prime time

	PokerStars	GGPoker	iPoker	Winning	Chico	PartyPoker
NL10-16$	30-34	44-49	8-10	10-19	19-21	7-8
NL20-25$	23-25	40-42	4-7	18-21	11-12	5-6
NL50$	14-17	25-29	8	8-9	12-13	3-4
NL100$	6-13	23-35	3-7	12-14	7-9	1-2
NL200$	4-6	15-20	2-3	9-10	3	1-2
NL400-600$	3	6-9	3	5-8	4-6	1
NL1K$	1-5	7-8	1	3-6	5-8
NL2k+	1	4		2

PokerStars and iPoker confirmed their European focus. The traffic had significantly dropped at our selected 6-max Hold 'em stakes by the morning.
In terms of the number of active tables at stakes from NL10$ to NL200$, GGNetwork is the most American-oriented network. In addition to Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Canada (a top location for US poker expats), we noticed many players from other Latin American countries there.
On the other hand, WPN did not show any significant traffic growth in the morning hours, except perhaps for NL25$ and NL400$-600$ stakes. It indicates that the network's traffic is evenly balanced during the night.
There was a noticeable traffic surge on Chico Poker Network at all stakes, especially at NL10$.

Fast-fold poker

This poker variant has stable traffic at different stakes at only four of these poker rooms (only NL10$ stakes action with 50-80 connections on Chico Poker Network).

	PokerStars		GGPoker		Winning		PartyPoker
	Evening	Morning	Evening	Morning	Evening	Morning	Evening	Morning
NL10-16$	489-503	162-228	335-353	207-208	92-137	123-137	79-107	7-40
NL20-25$	306-362	112	257-338	175-207			70-78	43-119
NL50$	204-211	76-115	142-194	109-128	83-128	81-109	11-35
NL100$	133-159	47-67	87-88	63-69			59-70	34-91
NL200$	96-97	51-57	68-88	31-36	51-75	86-104	9-10	6-32
NL500$	33-45						6-7

In the evening, PokerStars has an advantage over GGPoker at all stakes. This is the only poker room that can offer a more or less acceptable number of connections at NL500$ stakes but only during the European prime time.
In the morning hours, GGPoker is ahead of PokerStars at NL25$-100$ stakes.
At partypoker, only three stakes can actually be called active (NL10$, NL25$, and NL100$), but you can't expect more than a hundred connections even there. In the morning hours (after 6:00), fastforward traffic significantly drops.
In the American prime time, Blitz traffic (WPN) noticeably grows, but only at NL200$, where the network competes on equal terms with much larger poker rooms.

Conclusions

There is no doubt that PokerStars, GGPoker, and iPoker Network have a clear "European" traffic peak. As well as the fact that there are more active tables in the early morning on the Winning and Chico networks.

At the same time, several points were clarified, including the following ones:

GGPoker has a leading position in terms of the total number of active regular cash game tables in the morning hours, while they are on par with PokerStars at the fast-fold poker.
WPN offers high-stakes cash games (several active tables at up to $25/$50) and great traffic at NL200$ fast-fold poker stakes.
iPoker has decent traffic at NL50$-NL600$ stakes, even compared to the competitors, which occupy higher spots in the PokerScout rankings.
partypoker became a room to play only NL50-100.

Along with the data from the tables above, all that should be considered by the players working on choosing a poker room and the optimal time of play at the stakes they are used to.