When it comes to choosing a place to play poker online, bigger is almost always better. Here's a list of the top 10 biggest online poker sites in the world by total traffic share. Our editors review & rank the best online poker sites based on cash games, tournaments, traffic, software, mobile apps & more!
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Top Online Poker Sites 2023
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What Are the Benefits of Playing on the Largest Poker Sites?
There are several key advantages to playing real money poker on larger websites with more overall traffic:
- More fish in the water. The more players on the site the more bad players or "fish" there will be. This is obvious when you think about it logically. If half of the player base at Poker Site A quit and went to Poker Site B, that means Site B now has twice as many bad players. That's good for the remaining good players because they get to play against more weak opponents. It also works in reverse. If all the fish suddenly decide to quit and play at a different site this will cause a noticeable drop off in overall skills level of the players you come up against on the site you're playing on. Thus it's always good to be aware of which sites are rising and which are falling.
- Fishy new players deposit more on big sites. It's not just the existing "fish" that bigger sites have more of. Thanks to their higher profiles and stronger brand recognition, large poker sites simply get more first time or first-time-back poker players. These people often make large deposals. Why? Because they're excited to play and possibly don't fully understand yet that $200 deposits are usually way too big. This is great news for the rest of us as it creates lots of juicy mid-size pockets for the site to draw from when running its own promotions and bonus schemes. (The bigger the bonus, the more it incentivizes people to make huge first deposits.) Once again more bonuses + more first time players = more fish!
- Better game variety. Another benefit to bigger poker sites is simply being able to offer more and/or better varieties of Texas Hold'em, Pot-limit Omaha and other poker variants. To run successful high-stakes tournaments you need a large number of quality players available who have the time to wait around for a big tournament to start. The same goes for high-stakes, high-profile special events like the World Series of Poker or the World Poker Tour. Simply put: Size matters! Even cash-game selection is improved on large poker sites since players can more easily find games at their preferred limit and variation. For example if I only want to play $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha on 9-handed tables with no max buy-in I might have to wait an hour at a small site but probably won't have to wait at all on PokerStars.
- More games running around the clock. Smaller poker rooms must trim back operating costs wherever possible in order to remain profitable. One common cost-cutting measure is to reduce the number of games and tournaments running on the site. This is normally done by grouping similar events together and running them at fewer, more spread out times. While this strategy ensures the room doesn't waste money on barely played events it does mean players will have to adjust their schedules in order to play their favorite types of poker. ("The $50 NL Turbo was my lunch break game!") Large poker sites do not have to worry about this problem as they can comfortably operate multiple identical games at once without losing any money. In fact they are literally losing money for every identical game they don't run so they'll typically have dozens - if not hundreds - of the same type of game running around the clock. »
- Soft play in side games/clubs. Yet another advantage to playing on larger poker sites is the ability to play in much softer "side games." Many of the larger poker sites have integrated instant-play flash gaming platforms or separate poker club sections where members can play for real money or frequent player points. These games can be absolutely brutal since the quality of the play is entirely dependent on the skill of the players themselves. In other words a PokerStay $1/$2 play money table is going to see much better play than an Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em table since PokerStay gets better players. However, an full tilt poker Texas Hold'em table played as a "poker club" game using real FPP currency sees none of poker stay's skill edge since it's literally just Omaha being played using disguised FPP currency. These club games are essentially just poker among friends so the amount of skill involved is directly proportional to the skill of the players involved. When you have a large member base like Full Tilt Poker does, however, the residents of the poker club can be absolute fish even at the highest limits. Many of the top pros in the world make far more money in the Full Tilt Poker poker club playing Omaha using FPP currency than they do at the real-money Omaha tables.
These are just a few reasons why some players prefer to play online poker on larger poker sites. If those benefits sound appealing to you we strongly recommend taking a look through our list of the best online poker sites. Alternatively you could just head over to our full site reviews to pick a new site to play on right away. All our recommended rooms offer solid game selection, fast software and generous sign-up bonuses so you really can't go wrong with any of them.
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There are a couple of things to take into consideration here. Firstly, the numbers mentioned below are approximations. We’re talking about massive amounts here and the slight variations are insignificant. Secondly, the majority of these sites use software provided by one company – . That means a lot of these sites are connected and share some of their player pools. More on that below.
1. - Star Group / 35%-40%
It’s no surprise that the biggest poker site in the world is also home to the most popular online tournament series, the Sunday Million. Nearly 40% of the total online poker market plays here and, as we said, a lot of sites are connected to PokerStars so its market share is actually even bigger. This European-owned site is available worldwide, in over 70 different countries, although a few US states are excluded.
Notable weekly tournaments: Sunday Million, Tuesday Thrill, Big Game, Turbo Series, High Rolller Club Series.
2. - 888poker / about 25%
is owned by 888Group and includes the likes of Pacific Poker and TennisClubPoker. It’s the third largest poker brand online – after PokerStars and poker – and has a number of exclusive regional markets, such as Spain and France. Interested? Then see our .
Notable weekly tournaments: XL Inferno, Saturday Night Showdown, Sunday Challenge, Sunday Super Storm.
3. - Unibet Poker / about 20%
In fourth place we have the combined network consisting of Unibet Poker, Maria Poker, SoiPao Poker, Kappapolitan Poker, Betsafe Poker, Bet365 Poker, Nordic Betting Poker, Evolution Poker, Sunde Poker, HeadsUp Poker, ChillyPoker, Energy Bet Poker. This collection of sites ran exclusive software developed by Amaya (the former owners of PokerStars) but sold the network to LeoVegas in 2022. The new owner moved the brand onto the proven industry-leading software of Stars and the network has exploded in size. This is now the third largest network overall and growing fast.
Notable Weekly Tournaments: Betsafe Weekend Deepstack, Sunday Supersize, Sun Party, ChillyPoker Arctic Blast, Sail & Win Satellites, Energy Poker Boost Series and HeadsUp Poker Titans Showdown.
4. - titan poker / about 15%-20%
This used to be the largest poker site in the world until the Americans at PokerStars came knocking. Now part of the Betfair brand, , the site continues to bring in a very solid 15-20% of the global online poker market.
Notable weekly tournaments: Sunday Hero, Break the Bank, Deepstacks, Freerolls.
Effortless Strategies To Find Gaming Rewards in Michigan5. - partypoker / around 10%-15%
partypoker used to be the biggest poker site in the world but after recurring problems with their software partys already started to erode. After Jennifer Tilly's naked chip races everything came to a halt. But party is back! Under new management the software has been completely revamped, tons of live poker events have been added and the weak players seem to love the new Cash Canon freeroll promo. Partypoint is now the 5th biggest poker site in the world.
Notable weekly tournaments: POWERSERIES, Millions, Kickoff, Heavyweight, Deepwater.
6. - GGPoker / around 10%-15%****.
This site has blown up in recent years, particularly in Asia, to become a strong competitor in the mid-tier region. Regular report of the highest 3 and 6 handed cash game volumes while signature events like the Christmas Grand Final and the Summer Festival have shown there is a lot of interest from recreational players across the region. GGPoker is also responsible for introducing the “Rabbit Hunt” feature to poker, which allows players to fast forward to the river card after they’ve folded.
Notable weekly tournaments: Sunday Millions, Tournament Of Kings, Daily Guaranteed Events, ChampionChips.
live casino online app7. - William Hill Poker / around 5%-10%
Rounding out the list is , part of the iPoker network that also contains the likes of and . Like most of the sites on this list William Hill offers healthy sign up bonuses, regular freerolls and tons of daily guaranteed tournaments.
Notable weekly tournaments: iPoker The Venetian, Sunday Freeroll, Missions, Twister Sit & Go’s.
Again these percentages are approximate as different companies count certain regions and sites towards their totals while others don’t. For example PokerStars counts their Chile and Portugal facing sites separately while most companies lump all their sites together.
Also note that most of the top sites above share traffic thanks to being on the same network. So a huge chunk of GGPoker, Will Hill etc traffic is actually from PokerStars.
How Do PokerStars Numbers Compare to Everyone Else?
As you can see from our top ten online poker sites list above, PokerStars is in a league of its own. The two sites closest to PokerStars - 888poker and partypoker - are a good 25% behind in terms of traffic. You could argue that GGPoker is gaining quicky but PokerStars still had a dominant 63% market share in 2023 compared to GGPoker’s 13%. Basically, PokerStars is still by far the biggest online poker site in terms of players and action. And that equates to more games and more fish for you and me to play against.
online casino real money canadaOf course PokerStars numbers have reduced slightly in the United States due to lack of competition. As more US states regulate online poker and more sites enter the market, PokerStars market share will likely reduce further. For now, though, the numbers speak for themselves.
Why Do Players Prefer to Play On Bigger Poker Sites?
Because there are more fish in the sea! The law of probability suggests that more players mean more bad players. The more bad players on a poker site, the more likely you are to beat a good player and win a pot off a bad player. It’s as simple as that.
Look at it this way. Would you rather sit at a WPT Phuket final table with only seven of your good poker-playing friends or would you rather sit at the final table with seven randomers off the street?
It’s exactly the same concept. Naturally skilled poker players are going to wipe out on your home game; there’s not much you can do about that. It’s the unknown calling with the worst hand in every pot and Suited Trip Aces couching them on how best to get further milk out of that hand that keeps us coming back for more. Those players are extremely rare on small stakes home games but they’re relatively abundant on large international poker sites.
Another reason to choose one of the busier online poker rooms is the fact there will be more games offered and more games running at all hours of the day and night. If a site only has a few hundred players online at a time chances are there will only be one $1/$2 No-Limit Hold’em game running at the nine-seat Pokio Palace table structure.
Best Last Minute Staycation Ideas (2023 Staying Local)Meaning if only eight people are playing there won’t be a game for you. Contrast that to a site with 1,000 players at $1/$2 and you’ll likely be able to choose between six or seven different tables. If there’s not enough action for you at one table you can always open another tab and play at a different table. Having more games and more tables means a poker site can offer more varieties of poker as well.
A site with 500 players might be able to support $1/$2 Hold’em, $2/$4 Omaha 8 or Better and maybe a Pot-Limit Omaha game but probably isn’t going to invest the time or effort to set up and promote a Two Bad Aces or triple studied game as people just aren’t playing it. Meanwhile the big boys will have all of the above games running 24/7 in numerous table structures plus they’ll have a half dozen Stud games, Razz, Lowball, Highlow and probably some old school games like Chicago or Sevenceup.
Not only that but all the new and crazy poker variants that pop up online will be present at large sites. Ever played Pakutu or Tonk? Not many people have but someone has to be dealing the cards so why not try a new game and have some fun?
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If you’re a pesky tight-aggressive player constantly moving in on draws and three-betting all of shippunt player Jack Urel’s limps then you probably won’t enjoy the busy poker room quite as much. Yes there will be more fish to catch but there will also be more good players netting their chips faster than you can say “Jack Urel.”
Another potential downfall to busy poker rooms is the increase in collusion and other forms of cheating. It becomes increasingly difficult to police online poker sites as they add more and more players but the responsibility is still there.
When you’re battling 800 other players in a Sit-and-Go it’s pretty easy to observe the table next to you and collude with another player. Or perhaps one player at your table is just luckboxing unbelievably well because he’s feeding his sock puppet over on Table 86.
A final negative aspect to huge poker sites is the increased wait times to get into games and the amount of jarheads you’ll be seated with.
Yes there may have been a time when sitting and waiting was considered akin to meditation among Buddhist monks but in today’s fast food, drive thru world nobody wants to sit and wait. If you’re trying to play 4 or 5 games at 1/$2 during peak hours then you’re going to be doing a lot of clicking and possibly a lot of swearing. Popular games like the $1/$2 games will regularly have wait lists during prime hours so consider playing in less popular table sizes (six-max instead of five or nine instead of ten).
You’ll still have to wait occasionally but sometimes changing your clock or refresh rate helps confuse the software and bump you up the seat list a few spots. As for the bad players, well, you can’t have your suitty tent aces and wear them at the same time.
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Absolutely. There will always be weak players attracted to the sheer volume of action and fame associated with the biggest online poker rooms in the world. Just remember to apply all of the standard fish spotting methods.
Obviously the will differ greatly depending on the game and the player but here’s a rough guideline to get you started:
- Ship It or Flip With It: Probably a fish or a newbie. Any player that proudly announces they’re willing to commit the greatest percentage of their chip stack to a single hand are usually the types who never realized the fold equity in that situation.
- Newbie: A player who has yet to change the default avatics the poker site gave them. Generally easy to spot as they’ll have some cartoon character, sports star or scantily clad female representing them at the table. Some fish actually graduate from this category and should be treated accordingly.
- Kickers Only: May be a fish or a tough middle position player. Usually indicates a player that isn’t interested in playing suited hole cards or lower pocket pairs. Watch what this person folds and throws away to get a read on their true strength.
- Thinks a Long Time: Could go either way. Does this player know how to use the time bank or are they frantently pressing every single button in the hope of finding that magical call button? If they’re running through a checklist then they might be a fish mulling over the decision to go broke. If they’re frantically clicking everything then they’re probably a good player.
- Never Seen Best: Definitely a fish. Much like the Ship-It-Or-Flip-With-It player this one is incredibly reluctant to show anything resembling a losingly hand.
- Has to See Flop: Could go either way but probably leans toward fishy. Many good players are happy to play Suitted Trip Aces pre-flop and exploit all of the poor post-flop Trip Aces rolls to make a profit.
- Calls All the Way for Double Up: Most definitely a fish. Anyone willing to move instantly into rock star status at a poker table should immediately be targeted for a triple barrell.
- Checks Around pre-flop: Probably a fishy home game player transplanted to the online world. In a home game it’s considered extremely rude to peek or mustle anyone so when they see the habit continuing online they adhere to it even if it costs them their whole stack.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter what kind of players you’re facing because . Remember, good players win but great players profit.
How Do You Define a "Big" Poker Site? 500 Active Users or 5,000?
That, my friends, is the million dollar question. For the purposes of this article we considered a large poker site to be one with hundreds, if not thousands, of players sharing thousands upon thousands of poker tables.
At these sites you’ll be able to find any variety of poker you can possibly dream up at any stake you can possibly imagine. You’ll also be playing against literally hundreds, if not thousands, of other players meaning there will inevitably be a ton of fish in the sea.
On smaller poker sites the story is flipped. There won’t be as many games offered and you’ll have to wait your turn to get into some of them. However, the overall skill level of the players will likely be much closer to your own.
There are plenty of good arguments for playing on both small and large poker sites so it ultimately depends on what you want to get out of your online poker experience. If you want to grind out a living as a professional player then bigger is almost always better. If you’re a recreational player looking for the occasional thrill then a small site might be a better choice.
Is Traffic Really the Only Thing That Matters in Online Poker?
In a word, yes. Simply put: the bigger the poker site the better it is.
Obviously there are exceptions to every rule but for the most part the law of probability dictates that the larger the player pool the more bad players (fish) there will be. And let’s face it: we all keep coming back for more because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as watching Suited Trip Aces hit the dirt one more time.
Do Less Players Equal More Profit?
It’s simple math. The more bad players online there are the more juice they squeeze into the system and the more opportunity there is to make a profit.
Less talented players mean fewer tough tables and more opportunities to move up a limit. It’s a sad fact of life but the vast majority of players, no matter how hard they study and work at the game, will never be as good as most amateurs.
Put 100 random No-Limit Hold’em players away at a holiday tennis camp for a week and maybe four or five of them will return with a decent grasp of the game. Put the same 100 players on an online poker site and maybe four or five of them will also improve but the other 95 will get smashed on a regular basis.
That means the fish are getting smoked twice as fast which means there’s twice as much money floating around waiting for some hungry predator to gobble it up. And guess what? You’re a predator, isn’t you?
What About Competition and Variety?
This is arguably the one major flaw in the “bigger is better” theory. Many poker purists would rather choke a bison than play No-Limit Hold’em and when those games are your only option besides a handful of low-stakes Limit Hold’em games it’s time to pack it in for the day.
No Deposit Bonus Codes (November 2023) - Best Codes and SitesFortunately the truly large poker sites have deep pockets and can afford to license and promote new and innovative poker varieties to give their customers more options and keep them happy. Ultimately it comes down to which kinds of games you like to play and how important they are to your bottom line.
Are you a No-Limit Hold’em specialist making $8.00/hr., or an Omaha-8 aficionado raking in $12/hr.? Maybe you’re a tripped-out proponent of Crazy Pineapple raking in a cool $20/hour. Who cares?
If there’s only one $3/$6 PLO game going and you’re making $20/hr. while the No-Limiter is lucky to crack $6/hr. it’s a winning game. That being said it’s nice to have options.
There are a handful of sites with the volume to offer a wide assortment of games and thousands of players agree, making those sites destinations in themselves. For most players, however, a moderately busy site that offers a good mix of games is perfect. When your game gets soft you should absolutely jump on it but it’s nice to know a good home game exists when the action is tight.
Do You Have a Favorite Online Card Room?
Let us know in our poker forums. You could also leave a comment in the box below.
Are there any emerging online poker markets that could challenge PokerStars' dominance?
While PokerStars still leads the pack in terms of market share, there are indeed signs of other operators closing the gap. Online poker in Pennsylvania and Michigan have gained traction in recent years, and PokerStangel, a partnership between PokerStars and Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort, has dominated the market. However, competitors such as Global Poker and partypoker US Network are also making strides. Additionally, if California ever legalizes online poker, PokerStars will face significant challenges as it is unlikely to secure a license due to its ownership structure.
Things You Didn’t Know About Hollywood Casino At AuroraWhich state contributes the most to the collective US online poker market?
New Jersey takes the lead, contributing approximately 40% of the market, followed by Pennsylvania with 30%, and Michigan bringing up the rear with 25%.
Why did Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware form a compact to share player pools?
These states formed a liquidity sharing agreement to combat the limited player pool in individual states. By sharing player pools, the compact aimed to provide sufficient volume to attract major operators like PokerStars. Unfortunately, California, the largest potential market, suspended discussions for online poker in 2023, hindering the industry's growth.
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Despite facing challenges such as high taxes and a 1-2% transaction fee, PokerStangles maintains its dominance through effective operations and a strong reputation. Other operators, including Global Poker and the partypoker US Network, also contribute to the market's success.
What role do comp points play in online poker marketing?
Comp points serve as a currency that players can use to redeem for prizes. While their value varies, they are commonly awarded based on the amount of rake generated. In 2006, the US passed legislation prohibiting the payment of bonuses, awards, or other compensation to any person, house bank, or agent for playing this game. As a result, comp points became a marketing tool that operates similarly to loyalty programs at retail establishments.
What are the most popular types of poker played in the US online poker market?
Texas Hold'em remains the most favored poker variant, followed by Pot-Limit Omaha. However, Seven-Card Stud and Razz are also included in the definition of "poker" under US gaming laws.
