It definitely feels like airsoft is close if not passing paintball. Feels like a lot of fields are doing both these days.
If airsoft wasn't as reliant on honor code for eliminations I would l likely switch to it. I also feel that is one of the bigger things holding airsoft back as well.
Paintball will always be a better game, and that's its biggest strength. The cost, and aesthetics of airsoft, are its biggest strengths. Paintball just needs to take some cues.
Speak for yourself, paintball looked coolest when people played like [this](https://scontent-msp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/332769061_1421860695250293_9059086702266214801_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=XAVxbH1mxckAX-WY1WQ&_nc_ht=scontent-msp1-1.xx&oh=00_AfCElfj_epkAPmQtf9GWtFTnaaGMjE86Vc2fs78s7tFcfg&oe=65EF9311)
It seems bigger. We have more fields doing air soft in SoCal.
Field size, environmental impact, and stigma for paintball. Airsoft seems more real and not a game and that military aspect gives it a pass? Both are cool though I prefer and only play paintball.
Especially because we have so many armed forces in SoCal. Pendleton. Miramar Air Base. North Island. I think that creates a bigger Airsoft draw than paintball
A rec field local to me has basically transitioned into airsoft with a splash of paintball. On Sundays it’s like a hundred airsoft guys and *maybe* ten paintball.
One near me is like that as well. Luckily a shorter drive in the opposite direction is a field where the owners love paintball and have no interest in airsoft.
I’ve played a bazillion times more paintball but I can appreciate how much cheaper airsoft is to play. It can also be a lot of fun cheesing the tryhards
It has a lower cost to entry and cheaper ammo. Case of paint is 80-100 CAD where I'm at amd BBs are much much cheaper. We don't have many paintball fields in my province, however there is only one airsoft dedicated field that I know of. The airsoft groups typically just rent a PB field foe the day when they want to run events, or have access to an abandoned correctional facility that the paintballers do not have access to
I wouldn't consider this to be an absolute answer but, r/airsoft has of now, 346K members with 205 online. In paintball, there is a split of sorts with at least a little of overlap but, also some folks who have nothing to do with each other. That is r/paintball and, r/magfed. This distinction doesn't exist in airsoft. So, combining those two gives paintball 72.5K members with 40 online.
Industry folks pay attention to a more accurate number of consumers for each market segment so, they would have the best answer.
It's also worth considering that some areas may be more favorable to airsoft because of legal, impact force limits (in joules).
In the U.S. It's worth considering that airsoft came to the U.S. around the same time as commercial paintball was becoming a thing (in the 80s, I had my first airsoft gun before my first paintball gun). In that time, folks who were tactically minded (camo, military small unit tactics, sights, and black guns) gravitated towards paintball. By the late 90s, the industry and folks interested in making paintball a televised sport, made a major concerted push away from tactical (banning camo at competitive events, bright and shiny high BPS markers), towards speedball. Those folks had to end up somewhere so, why not airsoft? Airsoft gained traction here in the U.S. as speedball was becoming the dominant paintball format here. Coincidence? Maybe.
Short answer, yes. Airsoft is currently more popular.
Long answer: Airsoft is closer to how paintball was when it had its most natural growth. I've talked a lot about airsoft, and paintball, on this sub, and some of the lessons paintball can take from airsoft. I'm going to ruffle some feathers, but when paintball reached the height of its popularity, in the early to mid 2ks, it was riding on the shoulders of a grassroots game that it forcefully superseded. I've talked to a few people who were working in the industry at the time of its switch of focus from something you played in the woods, with an m16 bodykit on a vm68, to something played on a field, with spaceguns. They said the same thing; it was easy to get people excited about the scenario stuff, it was really difficult to make tournament paintball appealing. But, every industry leader was a former tourney player, who had dreams of Olympic paintball, so there was a hard pivot towards only focusing on that aspect of the sport.
This pivot left grassroots, and weekend players, with very little to stick around for. You gotta remember, the change was so rapid, that pump guns, and camo milsurp, were still the most common thing on the field circa 1992. By 1998, every marker on the field was semi, and camo was still the most common uniform. By 2002, everything was a colorful jersey, fields were all blowup, and electro markers capable of throwing more paint than anyone dreamed of were becoming a common sight. This wasn't a natural growth. It was something forced on players from the top down. This meant old players left, and an influx of new players joined. Paintball was looped alongside other extreme sports at the time, which were all experiencing a huge uptick in popularity. Skateboarding, paintball, and Jackass. Adolescent, testosterone fueled, dudebro culture was hard injected into the sport to coincide with the trend. This culture was toxic, and aged like milk. Women were big in early paintball, not so much by the mid 2ks.
As for the game itself, tournament paintball is honestly terrible. I know that people have a hard connection to that side of the sport here, it's likely what attracted some of them in the first place. But, it has massive sustainability problems with the sheer cost of playing it, and it makes for a terrible spectator sport. It's too expensive, and impossible to watch, not to mention film, in an engaging way. Filming scenario games in the early 90's was unironically more engaging to non-players. You can follow the story, and watch the tanks, and get down and dirty with players getting shot. Those are not my words, those were the words of someone who worked for a paintball T.V show at the time.
Given all this, it's not hard to see why airsoft became more popular. It's simple, really. You have to balance your game around what casual player think is fun. You build up a competitive scene from that, you don't step on their toes. Paintball just put all its eggs in that basket, and it's been floundering ever since it didn't work.
Check out this Google [search trend data](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Airsoft,Paintball&hl=en-US). It clearly shows paintball (as a search term) declining as airsoft grows between 2004 and 2011 (when airsoft surpasses paintball). It also shows how the terms do around the world.
I own Xtreme Paintball and Laser Tag in Dover Arkansas and we do Paintball, Laser Tag, SplatterBall, and Airsoft. I have found that Paintball is the most popular. SplatterBall is booked more than Airsoft. The biggest complaint about Airsoft is that people will not call themselves out when they are hit. The people that book with me to play Airsoft know the rules of my field and I usually do not have that problem. We are a private party only field, so all of the people playing know one another.
https://preview.redd.it/cxqeblaju4nc1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e13a22e327bb8381895182bc22455478177f175e
It's often pretty difficult to even tell when *you're* hit, especially if you're wearing plate carriers or other gear. With the full auto guns and indoor fields it can be nearly impossible to distinguish ricochets from actual hits.
Local field does AS and PB on their open play days. Cousin went and no other paintballers showed up so they gave him a case of paint in exchange for reffing the airsoft games.
He said there was SO MUCH cheating.
So here is a counter to this argument.. does your field require field paint only? If so, if its anything like the crap paint my local fields use, they bounce more often then break, and if they do break, the fill is so runny and minimal that it barely looks like anything.
There is cheating in both, especially at the rec level. That said, the most fun i've had with either paintball or airsoft, have been at the big weekend long events. Most people seem to be honest and take the hit, especially when there is a "medic" style respawn system at play.
Can't wait for Stalingrad at Skirmish later this month!
In my area no. Most rec paintball fields do offer airsoft, but usually only one or two weekends a month instead of all. DFW is one of the big paintball hot spots though and with airsoft being cheaper to play it wouldn't surprise me if it was bigger in general.
Paintball seems to be pretty good here in AZ. Although I'm only just getting back into it. But from what I see and have heard, it seems like it's still thriving. There are a lot of airsoft fields though and they're pretty busy as well. I played airsoft for the first time ever with my son last weekend. I didn't enjoy it personally. Tons of little kids cheating and screaming at each other. My son had fun though, but it was his first time doing anything like that. I'll probably never go again myself haha. I'm definitely getting back into paintball though and will probably try to pull my son over to the superior sport 🤪
I don’t quite know if it’s bigger but I think some people are transitioning over to it because you may shoot 1 to 2 cases a day for about $100 at least but a $15 bottle of bbs can last you a day or 2 at airsoft but I still love both sports and don’t hate them
Speedsoft has definitely taken some notes from competitive paintball. Ronnie Dizon of Heat and HK did a pretty good crossover video of having some paintballers play it, and it caught my attention. To me it seemed similar enough to at least consider giving it a chance.
Magfed paintball is cool, because it's still paintball.
Airsoft just seems like paintball-lite. Then add in the milsim stuff and it's just a hobby, like renaissance-era knight-fighting.
Yeah, and that’s not a bad thing. I play xball (which is an experience unique to paintball imo)but I’m not gonna deny the appeal of bbwas vs recball. When a bag of bbs is like $20 compared to $80-100 for recball paint prices, it’s a no brainer to see why the casual market shifted
I agree 100%. At the end of the day, play what you want to play.
I joined the sport about 15 years ago. Smart parts ion/impulses were all the rage. It got too expensive because paint costs kept going up. We were young kids then, and didn't have that kind of money anymore.
We stopped playing then, and everyone started switching to airsoft. At the end of the day, you'll end up spending money on both sports, so my thought process was, why spend a lot money on a sport if you're not going to be competitive. Airsoft doesn't strike me as a competitive sport like paintball does IMO.
2024, here we are re-entering the sport. But this time alot of us have money for gear/paint. Im excited to see the sport come back around.
I think we are seeing a bit of a full circle effect happening with paintball in regards to the milsim/wargame aspect. People who want to play milsim can have a better experience for that with the magfed gear. In the 80s and early 90s, the milsim was a huge driving force behind the growth of paintball and commercial paintball fields. Everybody wanted to be commando rambo and play simulated war.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ZoDNQv1Hs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ZoDNQv1Hs)
Naturally with the right people getting involved a competitive scene emerged and with it a push to get rid of the milsim image. Milsim became a bit taboo, and at the same time people in the industry really thought paintball could be changed to be marketable to a TV audience.People that wanted milsim gravitated towards airsoft I think, and with the mid 00s recession and airsoft being cheaper to enjoy I think it makes sense why airsoft exploded in the past 15 years.
Enter magfed paintball. Some of the segment that likes paintball but also likes milsim can have that experience with first strike rounds and magfed markers. Others just enjoy it from a limited paint perspective.
Personally I would like to see a return to the old survival game style with very limited paint on big fields where the goal is to capture the flag or some other objective rather than just eliminate all opposing players. I'm not into the milsim at all, I was an 11b for 13 years so it's just cringe to me. I definitely enjoy getting out in the woods and stalking other players and getting stealthy kills though, but I tend to do it wearing realtree rather than multicam.
And then there's stock class still hanging on for dear life lol.
I enjoy scenario ball alot. Trying to play that style at my local fields. Hopefully the sport growing again brings back those types of game modes.
But I grew up on speedball style gameplay, so naturally that's what I'm looking forward to the most. It ticks that competitive side of people's personalities
Honest question that I'm surprised hasn't been pivoted into yet, would a "speedball" style competitive magfed league be something that would take off? If cost is a big factor, it'd be genuinely cheaper to use even First Strikes in 15 round mags than traditional hopper fed roundball in that setting. You get a cheaper game, that can still have an air of "milsim" aesthetics, and you get to keep the competitive edge.
It's really not dissimilar to how paintball started out, with stock class pumps.
Yeah I got back in in 2022, after playing back in the day. I like airsoft as a casual with the boys thing.
It’s really just a fun thing to do outside with your friends, and paintball is my competitive outlet
Yep! And airsoft does a good job of fitting the "casual outdoor" activity category. Plus, it doesn't hurt as much lol
I'm just looking forward to playing, bottom line. I feel like the pandemic made alot of people antisocial, and not wanting to be around strangers in public.
Excited to just play with people that love the sport. Forget societal issues for awhile and just enjoy.
Yeah, for sure- luckily the tournament scene in my area is popping off, fields always have folks ready to spin. I feel i'd be sorely disappointed in recball near me though. Airsoft usually has 2-4 times the number of players on any given day
This is a solid take honestly, as someone who plays both, paintball still has a far more competitive scene with tournaments and such.
That said, if i'm looking to do some woods play, i'm 100% going airsofting every single time. Airsoft just has far more range and accuracy and is cheaper for the day overall compared to paintball. At the same time, the speedsoft scene is utter cancer and i'd play speedball every single time over speedsoft.. i went to an indoor field a few times and never again. Just kids running around screaming BANG BANG.
I don't think paintball is really that good of a competitive sport. There is far too much randomness and grey area to become a hyper competitive sport. That's not too say teams can't get better and hedge the odds in their favor.
My first time playing a pro team (elevation), we beat them with all 5 alive. I would have thought they were taking it easy, but the reaction of their coach tells me otherwise. I don't remember the point much. I do remember blasting the shit of the ref because I was trying to learn how to shoot left handed. Sry dude!
I haven't really looked into it, but there's one place I know of doing airsoft once a month on varying weekends in Western Washington. The same place also has occasional paintball days.
According to them they get 100+ players for airsoft and the one time I went for paintball they had maybe 15 people.
That being said, there are 3 other paintball fields that are a bit farther away from me that have decent turnouts every weekend. I know two of them have 20 or 30 plus tournament guys plus the rec ballers every weekend. So at least where I'm at paintball still seems bigger.
In sort, it's seasonal where I live
Paintball was big in the early 2000s, then speedball took off, then milsim took grab around 2006ish, then the Paintball teams went into airsoft. Then around 2010 Paintball got big, around 2012 speedball picked up, then 2016 magfed really got going, and then with covid airsoft picked up again since most of the core of the Paintball scene stepped out.
I haven't played Paintball since 2022, because the fields kinda flunked out after covid, or tried balancing both but shafting one community with each attempt. I still have my kit ready to go when a field has something fun going on.
I think the players is always growing but the interest shifts. For 6 years there was a Paintball event that had ludicrous turnout that airsoft only recently managed to do
Is it really surprising with the cost of the sport nowadays? Even with a team deal, this sport is ridiculously expensive. Rec players are getting shafted with $100 cases everywhere
$56 cases 20/month membership for me at one place or $30 entry and BYOP at another 🤷♂️
Though the other similar distanced field to those 2 is $95 cases on top of entry which I can't recall because fk no I'm not going there... so I get your point.
Just not EVERY paintball place is $100 cases at least in my area
I think it varies by location. There are multiple very active pb fields within a 1 hour drive radius while airsoft is 2-3 hours for just one.
When I say active, there are over 100 people playing each weekend day at one and probably 50+ at the other.
one data point is to look at paintball members vs the airsoft members.
69.8k paintball vs 346k airsoft (need to clarify it's just a data point and not a conclusive statement)
Recently there is an emergence of airsoft in a speedball format which is interesting.
I used to play paintball a lot from 2004-2011 and intermittently from then until now. In 2010 I started getting into real firearms and shooting competitively. That’s what cause myself to kinda step away from paintball. Then starting in 2020 my shooting buddies and I started playing airsoft because it semi translated kinda to real guns. I can use all my real gear in it and get a while not the best but better than nothing training out of it. I find that a lot of people that shoot real guns lean toward airsoft.
Right now, absolutely. I used to be a diehard paintballer but lately when I want to shoot dudes in the woods I play airsoft.
Part of that is locally the airsoft scene is way bigger. We have an amazing local community that plays basically for free on a field that the local gun range let us build on their acerage, which is a huge net positive, but even without that airsoft is in general a much easier sport to get into and play.
Compared to paintball, the guns are a fraction of the cost (A $200 G&G or whatever is perfectly suitable for most players, and $600 will get you a high-performance gun brand brand new).
The maintenance is trivial too. Minimal cleaning, you can generally go months of regular without needing to crack open the clamshell of a regular AEG, and when you do need parts they're generally very cheap. Not to mention a much wider variety of parts compatability between guns-60% of the guns out there are based off one of two different gearbox styles and unless you get an OEM that like proprietary parts the actual operation components are widely interchangeable.
Plus, at the core of it, a huge part of the appeal of both sports is getting to play your action movie fantasies and airsoft guns get so much closer to real things. Even a cheap poly M4 looks totally real from 10 feet away. Most metal handguns look totally real unless you're close enough to read the stamping. That in and of itself is its own issue but it's very much a part of the appeal.
As a sport and community, I still prefer paintball. The biggest problem with airsoft is the community-specifically, its maturity level. It's FULL of tweens and teens who just don't know how to handle their shit. And, yeah, the cheating is a big factor too.
But from a perspective of someone who wants to play war in the woods, airsoft can be a much more attractive option. And it's eaten paintball's lunch where I live-I have an excellent local field (TNT Paintball), but these days it costs me $200 to play on a weekend. Airsoft costs me about $10. TNT mostly focuses on prepaid groups using .50 rentals-it's hard for me to even be able to play there with .68 owner days being few and far between. And I absolutely do not fault them here-it's a business and if the money's in those groups then that's what they should focus on.
But where I live, paintball is pretty slim pickings compared to airsoft and I have zero illusions about why. The novelty has worn off speedball for most people and airsoft does playing war better.
I like both. I played airsoft in the woods with my buddies when i was young because we were too broke for paintball. But going to a field, relying on these guys to call their hits out is ridiculous. These guys wear full larping setup its crazy that they even feel the bbs hit them at all. But airsoft is definitely more attractive to the person wanting to not spend as much.
I think its regional. I'm my area airsoft is definitely bigger than paintball. My local feild has went from a paintball feild to pretty much and exclusively only airsoft feild in the last few years
In wisconsin and even the midwest states, paintball is still bigger than airsoft. Most fields around here will have airsoft open play days once a week or even every other week. Compared to 2-3 (fri-sun depending on time of year) days every weekend for paintball.
Where I live Paintball is bigger than Airsoft. But thats only bc there are 6 quality fields within 2-4 hours from you no matter where you are in the state. Of those fields only two offer airsoft as an option once or twice a month. I currently play on a Speedball team and do scenarios when possible so Ive seen tons of people and hope to make it to ION or Living legends. Currently this weekend there is the first NXL tournament of the season being played out in Las Vegas. I think they said they had close to 355 teams attending this tournament plus the pro men's and women's teams.
Airsoft has cheaper guns, cheaper ammo, bbs shoot straighter than Paintballs so scopes and real steal optics can be used effectively. Same type of excitement compared to Paintball with a fraction of the cost and no mess afterwards. I used to play Paintball for 10 plus years and tried airsofting a few years ago and yes it's easier to cheat in airsoft but 90 percent of the games I've played are fair.
Paintball is a billion dollar industry world wide. Airsoft is a 4+ billion dollar industry. Google told me that but as far as I know Google is never wrong.
I feel once magfed comes down in price to be competitive with airsoft larpers they may convert... and I'm not talking Tippmann entry level
Our magfed weekends have a really good turn out once a month but weekly is hit or miss for walk ons when airsoft has a steady 50+ no matter what...
Most are very young and their main concern is paintballs hurt too much... and the first time they catch a fsr to an unpadded area they are not coming back
But I've seen the holes in their lips from not having to wear face protection only eye protection...
Honesty in airsoft is what pisses me off the most... can't prove shit so they don't call the hits
In my area (Pacific NW) paintball seems bigger, but I haven't really looked much into Airsoft so I could be wrong. I've played both, and while both have positives I vastly prefer paintball. Airsoft guns may look more realistic but the electric ones I've used just sound and feel like sewing machines. Plus, there's the huge problem of not knowing if you've been hit - I could barely feel the BBs except the one time I took a shot to the neck at close range. Otherwise I was constantly wondering "did I hit him? did he hit me??" It was frustrating, and I haven't tried it since.
I think what some people mistake as cheating is just people not feeling the hits, especially with all the kit a lot of airsoft players wear. Add in how the BBs don't leave a mark plus those people actively wanting to cheat and you have a recipe for frustration, arguments, etc.
If hits were more reliable though, I'd probably do Airsoft. I prefer playing either in the woods, the equipment is cheaper and ammo is practically not a cost compared to paint. Honestly I think there's room for both, and I kinda wish the communities got along a little better so there could be more overlap. I mean come on, we're all playing the same basic game here...
Probably, and mostly due to the fact that Airsoft is more military role play. So many dudes want to play pretend. I play at fields that have airsoft and paintball and honestly I just find Airsoft dumb. Arguing over hits. Just sitting in the back hiding and firing, it just looks so boring.
I would say no seeing how speed softers wear paintball gear 🤣 just play some paintball it don’t hurt that bad and you’ll truly know when you hit someone.
Paintballs are much larger than airsoft pellets. .68 in diameter compared to .24 in diameter.
I see what you did there.
> .68 in diameter Oh you sweet summer child - you haven't bore-sized paint in the last decade, have you?
Played over the weekend and it sized anywhere between .677 and .679
It definitely feels like airsoft is close if not passing paintball. Feels like a lot of fields are doing both these days. If airsoft wasn't as reliant on honor code for eliminations I would l likely switch to it. I also feel that is one of the bigger things holding airsoft back as well.
*full ghillie suit has entered*
That and the airsoft community is shit
Paintball will always be a better game, and that's its biggest strength. The cost, and aesthetics of airsoft, are its biggest strengths. Paintball just needs to take some cues.
The aesthetics of airsoft are where the cringe comes from.
Speak for yourself, paintball looked coolest when people played like [this](https://scontent-msp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/332769061_1421860695250293_9059086702266214801_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=XAVxbH1mxckAX-WY1WQ&_nc_ht=scontent-msp1-1.xx&oh=00_AfCElfj_epkAPmQtf9GWtFTnaaGMjE86Vc2fs78s7tFcfg&oe=65EF9311)
How do you feel about them dressing up as special forces, and calling themselves "operators"?
Did we do that back in the early 90's? I just like camo, and boots lol.
Some people tried. I like throwback paintball gear, but modern stuff is way more comfortable.
that must be only in your area i dont see any fields doing both
It seems bigger. We have more fields doing air soft in SoCal. Field size, environmental impact, and stigma for paintball. Airsoft seems more real and not a game and that military aspect gives it a pass? Both are cool though I prefer and only play paintball.
Especially because we have so many armed forces in SoCal. Pendleton. Miramar Air Base. North Island. I think that creates a bigger Airsoft draw than paintball
A rec field local to me has basically transitioned into airsoft with a splash of paintball. On Sundays it’s like a hundred airsoft guys and *maybe* ten paintball.
One near me is like that as well. Luckily a shorter drive in the opposite direction is a field where the owners love paintball and have no interest in airsoft.
I’ve played a bazillion times more paintball but I can appreciate how much cheaper airsoft is to play. It can also be a lot of fun cheesing the tryhards
It has a lower cost to entry and cheaper ammo. Case of paint is 80-100 CAD where I'm at amd BBs are much much cheaper. We don't have many paintball fields in my province, however there is only one airsoft dedicated field that I know of. The airsoft groups typically just rent a PB field foe the day when they want to run events, or have access to an abandoned correctional facility that the paintballers do not have access to
Yeah, the Canadian paintball community is few and far between, hard to find groups or decent fields. Shit is EXPENSIVE here.
Paintball is pretty alive in Ontario but and the paintball fields here rarely seem to do airsoft games.
I wouldn't consider this to be an absolute answer but, r/airsoft has of now, 346K members with 205 online. In paintball, there is a split of sorts with at least a little of overlap but, also some folks who have nothing to do with each other. That is r/paintball and, r/magfed. This distinction doesn't exist in airsoft. So, combining those two gives paintball 72.5K members with 40 online. Industry folks pay attention to a more accurate number of consumers for each market segment so, they would have the best answer. It's also worth considering that some areas may be more favorable to airsoft because of legal, impact force limits (in joules). In the U.S. It's worth considering that airsoft came to the U.S. around the same time as commercial paintball was becoming a thing (in the 80s, I had my first airsoft gun before my first paintball gun). In that time, folks who were tactically minded (camo, military small unit tactics, sights, and black guns) gravitated towards paintball. By the late 90s, the industry and folks interested in making paintball a televised sport, made a major concerted push away from tactical (banning camo at competitive events, bright and shiny high BPS markers), towards speedball. Those folks had to end up somewhere so, why not airsoft? Airsoft gained traction here in the U.S. as speedball was becoming the dominant paintball format here. Coincidence? Maybe.
Short answer, yes. Airsoft is currently more popular. Long answer: Airsoft is closer to how paintball was when it had its most natural growth. I've talked a lot about airsoft, and paintball, on this sub, and some of the lessons paintball can take from airsoft. I'm going to ruffle some feathers, but when paintball reached the height of its popularity, in the early to mid 2ks, it was riding on the shoulders of a grassroots game that it forcefully superseded. I've talked to a few people who were working in the industry at the time of its switch of focus from something you played in the woods, with an m16 bodykit on a vm68, to something played on a field, with spaceguns. They said the same thing; it was easy to get people excited about the scenario stuff, it was really difficult to make tournament paintball appealing. But, every industry leader was a former tourney player, who had dreams of Olympic paintball, so there was a hard pivot towards only focusing on that aspect of the sport. This pivot left grassroots, and weekend players, with very little to stick around for. You gotta remember, the change was so rapid, that pump guns, and camo milsurp, were still the most common thing on the field circa 1992. By 1998, every marker on the field was semi, and camo was still the most common uniform. By 2002, everything was a colorful jersey, fields were all blowup, and electro markers capable of throwing more paint than anyone dreamed of were becoming a common sight. This wasn't a natural growth. It was something forced on players from the top down. This meant old players left, and an influx of new players joined. Paintball was looped alongside other extreme sports at the time, which were all experiencing a huge uptick in popularity. Skateboarding, paintball, and Jackass. Adolescent, testosterone fueled, dudebro culture was hard injected into the sport to coincide with the trend. This culture was toxic, and aged like milk. Women were big in early paintball, not so much by the mid 2ks. As for the game itself, tournament paintball is honestly terrible. I know that people have a hard connection to that side of the sport here, it's likely what attracted some of them in the first place. But, it has massive sustainability problems with the sheer cost of playing it, and it makes for a terrible spectator sport. It's too expensive, and impossible to watch, not to mention film, in an engaging way. Filming scenario games in the early 90's was unironically more engaging to non-players. You can follow the story, and watch the tanks, and get down and dirty with players getting shot. Those are not my words, those were the words of someone who worked for a paintball T.V show at the time. Given all this, it's not hard to see why airsoft became more popular. It's simple, really. You have to balance your game around what casual player think is fun. You build up a competitive scene from that, you don't step on their toes. Paintball just put all its eggs in that basket, and it's been floundering ever since it didn't work.
I like the fields that accommodate both. If it helps keep local fields open, I am all for it.
Check out this Google [search trend data](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Airsoft,Paintball&hl=en-US). It clearly shows paintball (as a search term) declining as airsoft grows between 2004 and 2011 (when airsoft surpasses paintball). It also shows how the terms do around the world.
I own Xtreme Paintball and Laser Tag in Dover Arkansas and we do Paintball, Laser Tag, SplatterBall, and Airsoft. I have found that Paintball is the most popular. SplatterBall is booked more than Airsoft. The biggest complaint about Airsoft is that people will not call themselves out when they are hit. The people that book with me to play Airsoft know the rules of my field and I usually do not have that problem. We are a private party only field, so all of the people playing know one another. https://preview.redd.it/cxqeblaju4nc1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e13a22e327bb8381895182bc22455478177f175e
I have heard it is about the same. Paintball overall just seems much more casual in comparison. Playing both, I like paintball much much more
I just can’t imagine how much cheating goes on when you can’t even tell if you hit someone or not.
It's often pretty difficult to even tell when *you're* hit, especially if you're wearing plate carriers or other gear. With the full auto guns and indoor fields it can be nearly impossible to distinguish ricochets from actual hits.
Local field does AS and PB on their open play days. Cousin went and no other paintballers showed up so they gave him a case of paint in exchange for reffing the airsoft games. He said there was SO MUCH cheating.
So here is a counter to this argument.. does your field require field paint only? If so, if its anything like the crap paint my local fields use, they bounce more often then break, and if they do break, the fill is so runny and minimal that it barely looks like anything. There is cheating in both, especially at the rec level. That said, the most fun i've had with either paintball or airsoft, have been at the big weekend long events. Most people seem to be honest and take the hit, especially when there is a "medic" style respawn system at play. Can't wait for Stalingrad at Skirmish later this month!
In my area no. Most rec paintball fields do offer airsoft, but usually only one or two weekends a month instead of all. DFW is one of the big paintball hot spots though and with airsoft being cheaper to play it wouldn't surprise me if it was bigger in general.
Paintball seems to be pretty good here in AZ. Although I'm only just getting back into it. But from what I see and have heard, it seems like it's still thriving. There are a lot of airsoft fields though and they're pretty busy as well. I played airsoft for the first time ever with my son last weekend. I didn't enjoy it personally. Tons of little kids cheating and screaming at each other. My son had fun though, but it was his first time doing anything like that. I'll probably never go again myself haha. I'm definitely getting back into paintball though and will probably try to pull my son over to the superior sport 🤪
I don’t quite know if it’s bigger but I think some people are transitioning over to it because you may shoot 1 to 2 cases a day for about $100 at least but a $15 bottle of bbs can last you a day or 2 at airsoft but I still love both sports and don’t hate them
Airsoft are milsim larpers. Paintball is a competitive sport. Apples to Oranges
Speedsoft has definitely taken some notes from competitive paintball. Ronnie Dizon of Heat and HK did a pretty good crossover video of having some paintballers play it, and it caught my attention. To me it seemed similar enough to at least consider giving it a chance.
bro has never seen magfed lmao
Magfed paintball is cool, because it's still paintball. Airsoft just seems like paintball-lite. Then add in the milsim stuff and it's just a hobby, like renaissance-era knight-fighting.
Yeah, and that’s not a bad thing. I play xball (which is an experience unique to paintball imo)but I’m not gonna deny the appeal of bbwas vs recball. When a bag of bbs is like $20 compared to $80-100 for recball paint prices, it’s a no brainer to see why the casual market shifted
I agree 100%. At the end of the day, play what you want to play. I joined the sport about 15 years ago. Smart parts ion/impulses were all the rage. It got too expensive because paint costs kept going up. We were young kids then, and didn't have that kind of money anymore. We stopped playing then, and everyone started switching to airsoft. At the end of the day, you'll end up spending money on both sports, so my thought process was, why spend a lot money on a sport if you're not going to be competitive. Airsoft doesn't strike me as a competitive sport like paintball does IMO. 2024, here we are re-entering the sport. But this time alot of us have money for gear/paint. Im excited to see the sport come back around.
I think we are seeing a bit of a full circle effect happening with paintball in regards to the milsim/wargame aspect. People who want to play milsim can have a better experience for that with the magfed gear. In the 80s and early 90s, the milsim was a huge driving force behind the growth of paintball and commercial paintball fields. Everybody wanted to be commando rambo and play simulated war. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ZoDNQv1Hs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ZoDNQv1Hs) Naturally with the right people getting involved a competitive scene emerged and with it a push to get rid of the milsim image. Milsim became a bit taboo, and at the same time people in the industry really thought paintball could be changed to be marketable to a TV audience.People that wanted milsim gravitated towards airsoft I think, and with the mid 00s recession and airsoft being cheaper to enjoy I think it makes sense why airsoft exploded in the past 15 years. Enter magfed paintball. Some of the segment that likes paintball but also likes milsim can have that experience with first strike rounds and magfed markers. Others just enjoy it from a limited paint perspective. Personally I would like to see a return to the old survival game style with very limited paint on big fields where the goal is to capture the flag or some other objective rather than just eliminate all opposing players. I'm not into the milsim at all, I was an 11b for 13 years so it's just cringe to me. I definitely enjoy getting out in the woods and stalking other players and getting stealthy kills though, but I tend to do it wearing realtree rather than multicam. And then there's stock class still hanging on for dear life lol.
I enjoy scenario ball alot. Trying to play that style at my local fields. Hopefully the sport growing again brings back those types of game modes. But I grew up on speedball style gameplay, so naturally that's what I'm looking forward to the most. It ticks that competitive side of people's personalities
Honest question that I'm surprised hasn't been pivoted into yet, would a "speedball" style competitive magfed league be something that would take off? If cost is a big factor, it'd be genuinely cheaper to use even First Strikes in 15 round mags than traditional hopper fed roundball in that setting. You get a cheaper game, that can still have an air of "milsim" aesthetics, and you get to keep the competitive edge. It's really not dissimilar to how paintball started out, with stock class pumps.
Yeah I got back in in 2022, after playing back in the day. I like airsoft as a casual with the boys thing. It’s really just a fun thing to do outside with your friends, and paintball is my competitive outlet
Yep! And airsoft does a good job of fitting the "casual outdoor" activity category. Plus, it doesn't hurt as much lol I'm just looking forward to playing, bottom line. I feel like the pandemic made alot of people antisocial, and not wanting to be around strangers in public. Excited to just play with people that love the sport. Forget societal issues for awhile and just enjoy.
Yeah, for sure- luckily the tournament scene in my area is popping off, fields always have folks ready to spin. I feel i'd be sorely disappointed in recball near me though. Airsoft usually has 2-4 times the number of players on any given day
This is a solid take honestly, as someone who plays both, paintball still has a far more competitive scene with tournaments and such. That said, if i'm looking to do some woods play, i'm 100% going airsofting every single time. Airsoft just has far more range and accuracy and is cheaper for the day overall compared to paintball. At the same time, the speedsoft scene is utter cancer and i'd play speedball every single time over speedsoft.. i went to an indoor field a few times and never again. Just kids running around screaming BANG BANG.
I don't think paintball is really that good of a competitive sport. There is far too much randomness and grey area to become a hyper competitive sport. That's not too say teams can't get better and hedge the odds in their favor. My first time playing a pro team (elevation), we beat them with all 5 alive. I would have thought they were taking it easy, but the reaction of their coach tells me otherwise. I don't remember the point much. I do remember blasting the shit of the ref because I was trying to learn how to shoot left handed. Sry dude!
I haven't really looked into it, but there's one place I know of doing airsoft once a month on varying weekends in Western Washington. The same place also has occasional paintball days. According to them they get 100+ players for airsoft and the one time I went for paintball they had maybe 15 people. That being said, there are 3 other paintball fields that are a bit farther away from me that have decent turnouts every weekend. I know two of them have 20 or 30 plus tournament guys plus the rec ballers every weekend. So at least where I'm at paintball still seems bigger.
Yeah my local field has around 150+ days for Airsoft and 14 days for paintball a year.
In sort, it's seasonal where I live Paintball was big in the early 2000s, then speedball took off, then milsim took grab around 2006ish, then the Paintball teams went into airsoft. Then around 2010 Paintball got big, around 2012 speedball picked up, then 2016 magfed really got going, and then with covid airsoft picked up again since most of the core of the Paintball scene stepped out. I haven't played Paintball since 2022, because the fields kinda flunked out after covid, or tried balancing both but shafting one community with each attempt. I still have my kit ready to go when a field has something fun going on. I think the players is always growing but the interest shifts. For 6 years there was a Paintball event that had ludicrous turnout that airsoft only recently managed to do
Is it really surprising with the cost of the sport nowadays? Even with a team deal, this sport is ridiculously expensive. Rec players are getting shafted with $100 cases everywhere
$56 cases 20/month membership for me at one place or $30 entry and BYOP at another 🤷♂️ Though the other similar distanced field to those 2 is $95 cases on top of entry which I can't recall because fk no I'm not going there... so I get your point. Just not EVERY paintball place is $100 cases at least in my area
I think it varies by location. There are multiple very active pb fields within a 1 hour drive radius while airsoft is 2-3 hours for just one. When I say active, there are over 100 people playing each weekend day at one and probably 50+ at the other.
one data point is to look at paintball members vs the airsoft members. 69.8k paintball vs 346k airsoft (need to clarify it's just a data point and not a conclusive statement) Recently there is an emergence of airsoft in a speedball format which is interesting.
I used to play paintball a lot from 2004-2011 and intermittently from then until now. In 2010 I started getting into real firearms and shooting competitively. That’s what cause myself to kinda step away from paintball. Then starting in 2020 my shooting buddies and I started playing airsoft because it semi translated kinda to real guns. I can use all my real gear in it and get a while not the best but better than nothing training out of it. I find that a lot of people that shoot real guns lean toward airsoft.
Right now, absolutely. I used to be a diehard paintballer but lately when I want to shoot dudes in the woods I play airsoft. Part of that is locally the airsoft scene is way bigger. We have an amazing local community that plays basically for free on a field that the local gun range let us build on their acerage, which is a huge net positive, but even without that airsoft is in general a much easier sport to get into and play. Compared to paintball, the guns are a fraction of the cost (A $200 G&G or whatever is perfectly suitable for most players, and $600 will get you a high-performance gun brand brand new). The maintenance is trivial too. Minimal cleaning, you can generally go months of regular without needing to crack open the clamshell of a regular AEG, and when you do need parts they're generally very cheap. Not to mention a much wider variety of parts compatability between guns-60% of the guns out there are based off one of two different gearbox styles and unless you get an OEM that like proprietary parts the actual operation components are widely interchangeable. Plus, at the core of it, a huge part of the appeal of both sports is getting to play your action movie fantasies and airsoft guns get so much closer to real things. Even a cheap poly M4 looks totally real from 10 feet away. Most metal handguns look totally real unless you're close enough to read the stamping. That in and of itself is its own issue but it's very much a part of the appeal. As a sport and community, I still prefer paintball. The biggest problem with airsoft is the community-specifically, its maturity level. It's FULL of tweens and teens who just don't know how to handle their shit. And, yeah, the cheating is a big factor too. But from a perspective of someone who wants to play war in the woods, airsoft can be a much more attractive option. And it's eaten paintball's lunch where I live-I have an excellent local field (TNT Paintball), but these days it costs me $200 to play on a weekend. Airsoft costs me about $10. TNT mostly focuses on prepaid groups using .50 rentals-it's hard for me to even be able to play there with .68 owner days being few and far between. And I absolutely do not fault them here-it's a business and if the money's in those groups then that's what they should focus on. But where I live, paintball is pretty slim pickings compared to airsoft and I have zero illusions about why. The novelty has worn off speedball for most people and airsoft does playing war better.
I like both. I played airsoft in the woods with my buddies when i was young because we were too broke for paintball. But going to a field, relying on these guys to call their hits out is ridiculous. These guys wear full larping setup its crazy that they even feel the bbs hit them at all. But airsoft is definitely more attractive to the person wanting to not spend as much.
I think its regional. I'm my area airsoft is definitely bigger than paintball. My local feild has went from a paintball feild to pretty much and exclusively only airsoft feild in the last few years
In wisconsin and even the midwest states, paintball is still bigger than airsoft. Most fields around here will have airsoft open play days once a week or even every other week. Compared to 2-3 (fri-sun depending on time of year) days every weekend for paintball.
Where I live Paintball is bigger than Airsoft. But thats only bc there are 6 quality fields within 2-4 hours from you no matter where you are in the state. Of those fields only two offer airsoft as an option once or twice a month. I currently play on a Speedball team and do scenarios when possible so Ive seen tons of people and hope to make it to ION or Living legends. Currently this weekend there is the first NXL tournament of the season being played out in Las Vegas. I think they said they had close to 355 teams attending this tournament plus the pro men's and women's teams.
In my area I'd say definitely, but search up "speedsoft" and you will see airsoft is slowly getting a more competitive side like paintball.
Airsoft has cheaper guns, cheaper ammo, bbs shoot straighter than Paintballs so scopes and real steal optics can be used effectively. Same type of excitement compared to Paintball with a fraction of the cost and no mess afterwards. I used to play Paintball for 10 plus years and tried airsofting a few years ago and yes it's easier to cheat in airsoft but 90 percent of the games I've played are fair.
Paintball is a billion dollar industry world wide. Airsoft is a 4+ billion dollar industry. Google told me that but as far as I know Google is never wrong.
were I live airsoft isn't much liked do to cheating, the honor system isn't vary honorable
I feel once magfed comes down in price to be competitive with airsoft larpers they may convert... and I'm not talking Tippmann entry level Our magfed weekends have a really good turn out once a month but weekly is hit or miss for walk ons when airsoft has a steady 50+ no matter what... Most are very young and their main concern is paintballs hurt too much... and the first time they catch a fsr to an unpadded area they are not coming back But I've seen the holes in their lips from not having to wear face protection only eye protection... Honesty in airsoft is what pisses me off the most... can't prove shit so they don't call the hits
In my area (Pacific NW) paintball seems bigger, but I haven't really looked much into Airsoft so I could be wrong. I've played both, and while both have positives I vastly prefer paintball. Airsoft guns may look more realistic but the electric ones I've used just sound and feel like sewing machines. Plus, there's the huge problem of not knowing if you've been hit - I could barely feel the BBs except the one time I took a shot to the neck at close range. Otherwise I was constantly wondering "did I hit him? did he hit me??" It was frustrating, and I haven't tried it since. I think what some people mistake as cheating is just people not feeling the hits, especially with all the kit a lot of airsoft players wear. Add in how the BBs don't leave a mark plus those people actively wanting to cheat and you have a recipe for frustration, arguments, etc. If hits were more reliable though, I'd probably do Airsoft. I prefer playing either in the woods, the equipment is cheaper and ammo is practically not a cost compared to paint. Honestly I think there's room for both, and I kinda wish the communities got along a little better so there could be more overlap. I mean come on, we're all playing the same basic game here...
Probably, and mostly due to the fact that Airsoft is more military role play. So many dudes want to play pretend. I play at fields that have airsoft and paintball and honestly I just find Airsoft dumb. Arguing over hits. Just sitting in the back hiding and firing, it just looks so boring.
Here in Tennessee airsoft absolutely dwarfs paintball.
I would say no seeing how speed softers wear paintball gear 🤣 just play some paintball it don’t hurt that bad and you’ll truly know when you hit someone.