Poker Boom 2.0? WSOP Attendance Crushing Last Year's Turnout

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Jun 11, 2023 3 min read Last updated Jun 12, 2023

The 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was, by all measures, a rousing success in the series first year at Bally's (now Horseshoe) and Paris Las Vegas.

Through about one-fourth of the 2023 WSOP, attendance is even better than last year. A lot better. In fact, in 18 of the 20 similar events up to this point in the series, this summer has seen an uptick in turnout. And in quite a few of those tournaments, the attendance spike has been in the double-digit percentages.

Poker is Not Dead

As of June 11, there has been 20 bracelet events that were offered at the 2022 WSOP, starting with Event #1: $500 Casino Employees, a tournament open only to those who work in the casino industry.

Although only certain players are eligible to compete in the tournament, perhaps the 22% spike year-over-year was a sign of big things to come for the 2023 World Series of Poker.

There are a total of 95 bracelet events on the schedule this summer, so the party's just getting started. We can't make any guarantees about attendance going forward, but all signs point to not only a record-setting series, but also a record-setting Main Event, the most important tournament in poker every year.

Last year, the Main Event hit 8,663 entries, just 110 shy of the 2006 record. Entering the current series, many have anticipated the world championship event record will be broken, if not shattered. Those predictions don't seem silly at this point given current attendance.

Only two exact events thus far — oddly enough, both $5,000 buy-in tournaments — have seen a decline in turnout compared to 2022. Those tournaments were Event #6: $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha (down 28%) and Event #12: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout (down 3%).

Every other similar event — all 18 of them (excluding the heads-up event, which is capped at 64 players) — have seen an uptick in attendance, and nearly half of them are up more than 10%. The biggest spike in turnout thus far, percentage-wise, was Event #19: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout, up 51% year-over-year (752 to 1,137 players).

The high-stakes tournaments are also experiencing increased interest this summer. Take, for example, the $25,000 High Roller, which spiked from 251 entrants in 2022 to 301 in 2023 (20% boost).

The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious annual event in the game. As such, it's more or less the benchmark for how popular poker is worldwide in any given year. Based on attendance at the quarter pole of the 2023 WSOP, it appears that poker is as popular as it has ever been, and the Main Event is likely headed for an all-time record.

Not only has turnout been up in the same events year-over-year, the $300 buy-in Gladiators of Poker, currently on Day 2, had 23,088 entrants, making it the second largest live poker tournament in history. The largest one, you ask, was the 2019 Big 50, a $500 buy-in bracelet event that generated 28,371 entrants.

Comparing Similar Events from 2022 and 2023 WSOP

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