Despite the effects of the pandemic subsiding and global markets starting to wane, GGPoker continues to see its traffic grow unabated.
According to data tracked by independent industry monitor GameIntel and available exclusively on the Poker Industry PRO Data Platform, GGPoker’s cash game traffic is currently averaging over 4000 concurrent seats, an all-time high for the operator.
GGPoker is the only operator to ride a surge of momentum this long into the coronavirus pandemic that led to an online poker mini-boom between March and May.
No other operator has seen a growth in their traffic that exceeds that achieved at the peak of the coronavirus – in fact – all other sites saw a dip in their cash game traffic as the spurt from the coronavirus pandemic subsided.
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Dazzling Growth of GGPoker in the Last 12 Months
Several factors have contributed to the growth of GGPoker, but its upward trajectory was observed even before the coronavirus pandemic kicked in.
Year-over-year growth for GGPoker is quite phenomenal. The room has nearly tripled in size in the space of just a year, bursting past the likes of big guns such as partypoker, 888poker, and the iPoker network.
GGPoker averaged 1368 concurrent seats a year ago, and now it has grown to become one of the main competitors of PokerStars, the leading online poker room in the world for over a decade.
The achievement is quite remarkable indeed as GGPoker is a relative newcomer to the industry. It only launched in 2014 as a B2B network, primarily serving Asian markets. It started to make a name for itself in the western markets beginning in 2016 through its Natural8 skin and also through partnerships and affiliate deals in European markets.
2017 was the breakthrough year for the network as it acquired a license in the UK and launched GGPoker.co.uk. A year later, the GGPoker skin launched globally and the rest is history.
In fact, in the last seven years, except market leader PokerStars, no other globally accepted operator has averaged over 4000 concurrent cash game seats.
French online poker room, Winamax did peak at over 4000 seats during the peak of the coronavirus lockdown period, but it could only sustain that level for a few weeks before plummeting down to under 1500 concurrent cash game seats.
Has GGPoker Increased Market Share at the Expense of PokerStars?
A year ago, GGPoker held just 12% of the dot-com market share, but in recent weeks, it has gone up to nearly one-third of the market, taking a share of 28%.
In fact, just a few months ago during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, GGPoker only held an 11% share of the market. Following the WSOP 2020 Online series, it grew rapidly while other operators have almost returned to levels seen prior to the outbreak.
Meanwhile, online poker giant, PokerStars, has seen its market share shrink from the 51% seen last year to 45%. PokerStars still leads GGPoker by a big margin, averaging over 6500 seats compared to the 4030 of GGPoker.
While it may appear that PokerStars has lost its market share to GGPoker, actually, PokerStars is up almost 13% year-over-year. Partypoker is at a similar level compared with last year while 888 is down 6%.
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GGPoker’s Cash Game Traffic Expected to Further Rise with the Addition of Micro-Stakes
The WSOP 2020 Online series on GGPoker brought in a huge influx of new players, fueling its growth further. It is now seeing its second growth spurt since March, and that growth is expected to continue as the operator is preparing to deploy micro-stakes cash game tables down to NL2 and PLO2 in its next product update, scheduled for the end of the month.
Currently, the cash game tables on GGPoker start at $0.02/$0.05 for NLHE and $0.05/$0.10 for PLO.
The addition of 2NL cash game stakes coupled with the fact that we are moving towards the busy winter season, GGPoker’s traffic is expected to drive more traffic in the coming weeks and months.
