How many players..... in the UK...

[Russell Smith]

The following is a quote I have lifted from another UK based forum, the writer is someone who has been involved in paintball for a long time and owns a shop and site.

According to the people within the airsoft industry there are 10,000 players with their own gear.

There used to be 3 paintball magazines, all on the shelves of WHS. PGI, Paintball Adventures and Paintball Monthly.

When we talk about paintball, we need to understand what it is that the general population see it as. This is dressing in camo and playing in the woods. 1 Million people did this last year and so that is what paintball is, it's dressing in camo and playing in the woods.

The problem we have is that forums are full of people who play supair and so bang on about it constantly. There are no paintball mags on the shelves for one very good reason. The UK population simply arn't interested in supair.

So the stats as I understand them

Paintball (real paintball that is ) - 1,000,000 players
Walkon Paintball - 3000ish
Airsoft - 10,000 players
Supair - about 400ish. (and falling)

One day the penny will drop.

As I have said before, the introduction of Supair basically stopped the growth of paintball (own gear) in the UK. Supair might be the most fantastic game in the world to some people, but unfortunately these people are very much a minority but with a big voice.

Well what do you think, do you agree!..........


Russ

 

[sammurphy]

um... well it says that we bang on about sup'air, also comments on a sup'air magazine but then says its not popular and no magazines about it when they already said 3 of them, i dont really get this

 

[stevie t]

yes more people play in the woods but that is because of punters and what they think is paintball, yes that is a form of paintball.There are much more supair players than that at the masters so that is wrong and much more walkon players so that guy stats look about 8 years old

 

[Dark Warrior]

The move to SupAir killed woodland tournaments as all the teams moved straight into SupAir leaving very few playing Woodland tournaments. Instead of then getting more people into walkons and woodland tournies most of the sites went back to the mainstay of thier business - standard woods ballers.
Only now is that gap in the market being filled and as that scene re-establishs itself so SupAir will benefit. There will always be paintballers that will want something more than playing in the woods and now the gap between woodball and SupAir is being bridged.

Magazine wise SupAir a minority sport just like American Football, whose UK produced magazine is only on limited shelves in the UK and sells extremely well in the US. Strange co-incidence

 

[Jonny 03]

What a quality wee read, I'm waiting for a certain person to respond now, I'm interested to know what they have to say.

Oh yeah and for the record if its who I think it is who wrote this they have actively supported woodland and its regeneration in the last few years owning a site and shop themselves.

 

[jamtheman188]

"1 Million people did this last year and so that is what paintball is"
Oh well if a million people in the UK did this last year, who are not punters...then I will eat a shoe!

400 supair players in the UK! What is this from when supair was first invented! Even then it would have double that.

 

[mikey601]

Let me guess, the guy who wrote this owns a rec ball site and shop?

Lets be honest figures are way out and you for one person russ should know that, altho im sure you already do

 

[speedbird_666]

400 supair players in the UK! What is this from when supair was first invented! Even then it would have double that.

Yeh, I feel that figure is a little low, but the question is: Just how many SupAir players actually are there?

I mean, i've don't see much more than 150 players at a single UK event (CC is an exception obviously), and I think it's a little hard to come up with even a conservative estimate without a unified registration system to take the count from.

In response to 'real paintball is in the woods', well as far as I am concerned any game that involves shooting another person with a gelatin ball filled with paint for Sh!ts and giggles is Paintball, irrespective of location or the clothing that you wear. Woods, SupAir, both are 'real' paintball IMO.

 

[Polly]

13,497

there are 13,497, and you are suggesting that at least 13,097 are woods-ballers

 

[sammurphy]

they are round numbers aswell... like you are saying exactly that number do it except for the ..ish part, kinda a lame survey if you ask me, this is a media coverage story i bet, just to get shops more advertisement