Poker Traffic Update: Stars Reign Supreme; 888 and iPoker Battling Hard for Distant Second

The battle for the second largest online poker service has intensified this week as shown by the release of this week’s online player traffic figures.

According to PokerScout, both 888poker and iPoker are in equal second place on its list of largest sites by poker traffic, with seven-day player averages of 2300 players each.

It wasn’t the best week for 888 as their average decreased by 100 players from the previous week, which is something they will be hoping to rectify.

Perhaps those 100 players decided to play on iPoker, since that network’s seven-day player average increased by 100 over the previous week. Any further improvement on iPoker’s player numbers may just stifle the momentum 888 has been experience for most of this year, which saw it establish itself as the second most played on online poker site.

With a seven-day player average of 1450 players, PartyPoker has a somewhat comfortable position in fourth place on the list. Although that may be the case, that number is down from last week’s average of 1500 players, and is a continuation of a general downward trend in PartyPoker’s numbers.

That makes it interesting to see whether PartyPoker will be able to retain its fourth place status, or even be able to improve its position, in the near and medium term futures.

PartyPoker’s fourth place position could be attributed to lower than expected traffic numbers for rival network Bodog in the last week. Bodog’s seven day player averages dropped from 1450 to 1350 still keeping it in fifth place.

However, the network is now in grave risk of losing its fifth spot to Full Tilt Poker, which experienced a player traffic decrease of 50 players over the last week to put it neck to neck with Bodog on the online player traffic rankings.

The decrease in Full Tilt’s player average was not as large as Bodog’s decrease, which is why both networks had the same average. While the trend will likely not be welcomed by anyone from either network, the current state of affairs gives them both that extra motivation to get more players and firmly establish themselves on the rankings list.

As always, PokerStars continues to rule the roost in a big way, with the network having a seven-day player average of 20,000 players.

In the US, Party Borgata leads the way in the state of New Jersey, with a seven-day player average of 150, while WSOP continues to lead the way in the state of Nevada with a seven-day average of 100 players.