There is a genuine sense that the balance of power has shifted in the world of online poker. We’re not talking about specific poker players but rather the online poker rooms themselves. Although several operators have been leading the way for the industry since the online poker “boom”, there are signs to suggest that a changing of the guard has already occurred.
Using the latest data from Poker Scout on global online traffic to poker sites, we can gauge just how many players are active, both at the time of writing and as a seven-day average. You may be surprised to find a new name at the top of the list.
GGPoker
According to Poker Scout, whose latest data was taken on July 19, 2024 at 2.10pm GMT, 167,123 players were online on the GGPoker platform. This made it comfortably the most active online poker room. This site also looks at the active players specifically for cash games and a weekly average of 10,000 players were found at GGPoker’s cash games across various buy-in levels.
GGPoker was originally founded in 2014, with an initial target of the Asian online poker market. A few years later, the brand expanded into Europe too. It also secured a license to operate in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in early 2021. It’s now intrinsically linked with the World Series of Poker (WSOP), after co-hosting the Las Vegas-based festival in 2020.
The brand is also cemented as one of the three most recommended sites for sign-up offers, in terms of their competitiveness and fairness. Now that operators are encouraged to display and explain their terms and conditions more clearly, it’s easier to learn to use a poker welcome bonus by visiting an iGaming comparison site with the aim of building a poker bankroll.
PokerStars
PokerStars was founded in September 2001, just a couple of years prior to the online poker boom. It was best positioned to take full advantage of this surge of poker interest. Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 WSOP Main Event was achieved after qualifying via an online satellite at PokerStars, shining a spotlight on the possibilities at this site.
For the best part of two decades, PokerStars has been the market leader for online poker rooms by a considerable distance. Some of its online tournaments are iconic in the online poker community, namely the Sunday Million, as well as “festivals” like the Spring Championship of Online Poker.
However, having previously welcomed two-thirds of the online poker market worldwide, it’s been recently usurped by GGPoker. On July 19, 2024 at 2.10pm GMT, PokerStars had 96,543 active players, with almost half (5,400) of the 10,000 active cash game players compared with its new rival.
IDNPoker
IDNPoker is one of the lesser-known online poker room brands, largely because it focuses squarely on the Asian online poker market. Initially founded in Indonesia – as the brand suggests – it has since expanded its offering into China, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam.
On July 19, 2024 at 2.10pm GMT, Poker Scout said IDNPoker had 8,760 active players, making it the third-busiest online poker room on the planet. It had fewer active cash game players (2,027) than fourth-placed WPT Global, which suggests most players here prefer to play tournaments and sit-and-go’s.
WPT Global
In fourth place, WPT Global sits well off the pace of GGPoker and PokerStars. The official online poker room of the World Poker Tour (WPT), WPT Global has been live since April 2022, offering online poker games to players in over 130 nations.
One of the biggest pulls of WPT Global is its online satellite tournaments, allowing players to enter to win a place in some of the biggest live WPT poker tournaments which carry eight-figure prize pools. According to Poker Scot, WPT Global had just 5,554 active players, with almost half of these (2,880) sat down at their cash games.
With GGPoker seemingly at the forefront of the online poker industry in 2024, all eyes are fixed on this brand to see what it has in store in the coming months and years. With poker icon, Daniel Negreanu, firmly established as its brand ambassador, its exposure is certainly at an unprecedented level.