The poker boom which followed after Chris Moneymakers World Series of Poker win in 2003, sent the online poker sites into meltdown and many new sites grew overnight on the back of it. But has the love affair ended?

Looking at the recent stats of reputable poker sites over the last six months, a considerable drop of nearly half their average customers bothered to play at some sites online. Many factors are involved of course, it is holiday season and the World Series and World Cup are all in full swing. But, the latest graphs are for a six month period, when things were not quite so hectic.

The only site that appears to be bucking the trend is PokerStars, whose figures seem to be holding steady and do not show any drop or growth. Quite how accurate the figures are, we can not be sure, as many players will be multi-tabling but a general picture of a drop in player numbers is apparent.

The first poker company I have looked at is one, which has been very much in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past few years. Absolute poker shows quite a dramatic decrease in average player numbers over the past six months, with a drop of over 1,000 players. Of course, many big players are away in Vegas, but it shows a trend which is mirrored across the several other major poker sites well before any major events had started.

Another site which has also seen a considerable down-turn is Cake poker, which is down almost half in player average numbers.
 

                                                                             
The shocking figures for Cake, who have averaged 1,000 players nearly down exactly half over the same six month period.

Not sure of the explanation for this and it is worrying times for all concerned.  Perhaps it has something to do with the new software, but one thing is for sure it needs to be addressed quickly.                                                           

But, by far and away the worse performance of any poker site in the last six months is Full Tilt. Remarkably Full Tilt lost nearly 5,000 players over the six month period, seemingly losing a lot of regular players to some new up and coming sites. This may also be due to the financial climate, which is still delicate in many countries around the world. Add the new restrictive law changes imposed by the UIGEA and court ruling in Norway into the mix. Making the funding and withdrawal procedure testing for many, it is sure to have hit the industry hard.

The two big players’ tables are below and it would seem, only PokerStars has fought the slump. PokerStars have predicted continuous 6% growth for this year, but it will be interesting to see the final figures.

The online poker sites are still reporting healthy profits and many more new sites are emerging every day. So, perhaps players are seeking newer sites for some easier games, where the play is not so solid. Or perhaps people have lost faith with online poker after all the security scandals.

Thanks to http://Pokerscout.com for the data tables.