It’s fucking wild. I started playing again in November. And I can’t tell you how many posts on social media “just getting back in after 20 years”. I think all of us who were kids/teenagers in y2k, are now adults with adult money. We all missed paintball dearly. Appreciate y’all keeping it alive 🤘🏻

I feel like more people would play paintball if it wasn’t so expensive

until you get the major sponsors back it will never be what it was.

It hurt me when he said the magazine was old and it was from 2005.

Seems like lots of 30+ year olds getting back into the game. A lot of us took a break between 2014 and 2020. I’m just getting back into it and I’ve been noticing a similar trend with others in my age group. I went and checked out a new field this past weekend and there was 4 or 5 other players just getting back into it.

Paintball will never die 🤟

Just got in again after 10 years off. I played a lot in high school. Gave it up for a long time due to costs and lack of money to play. I would argue those of us that had to give it up in our youth due to cost now have grown up and have good jobs with disposable income to afford the playing costs again. 90s baby here. 28 years old and just got back into it.

Being someone who used to play back 2005-2010 pretty regularly, things were wild back then. Guns were shooting 30BPS and it was nearly impossible to take much ground off the break. I think that with the NXL capped at 10.2 BPS it is making the game a lot more competitive for older guys like myself that are not as fast to adapt to the game played these days. You look and see half the pro teams average age is well into their 30’s. It used to be young guys like 18-25 years old. Now with the firing modes older people are able to play and stay competitive with the younger crowd as well. I see that as a plus for sure. On the flip side of things my favorite local field did close up shop and move on. But the lessons and memories from that field will never die. Other fields in the area have welcomed players from closed down fields. At the end of the day it is a huge paintball community that we need to all push the sport on social media and expose others to it.

I played religiously back in the early 2000s. Selling and trading up gear on pbnation, playing local fields in Massachusetts. My local field would have saturdays where they had a line of people waiting to get onto the field very regularly. Now I haven’t “gotten back in “ but I look forward to doing that soon.

Gotta cut down on the toxic players. Those guys give walk ons a bad experience and they never come back.

Started playing paintball back in the early 90`s. My very first paintball gun was I think Splat Master. It was green and made of some sort of polymer material. Then later I bought a Brass Eagle pistol. Used to play at various paintball fields in the SF Bay Area. One of my favorite fields was indoors call Combat Zone. Then used to play in tournaments in the LA area, call Sat Com Village? Loved playing games like Assassin, Ninja Warrior, capture the flag, rescuing POW in a makeshift POW Camp.

Scenario wars and Big games are way better than tournament ball. But I enjoy both, but big games are where it’s at.

There was over 200+ people last Saturday at my local field…

Played a lot in middle/high school and after 11 years I’m finally getting back into it with my coworkers! I used to dream about owning a PE gun when Miketechpb was running OG vids. Flash forward to 2023 and I’m fortunate to get a LV2. Nothing will still beat that ego11 promo vid though 😂

I've been playing since 08' and paintball is definitely not what it used to be. The walk on crowd alone is maybe half of what it used to be. Sad to see it dwindling.

In New Zealand it did hit its peak as you said in the early to mid 2000s...Having played since 84 I have seen the Peaks and the Troughs..Right now TBH it's taking a pounding and again all down to Cost,..But in saying that I Own/Operate a Pball in NZ and have for 28yrs...Public still play it's just catching that 1%er that wants to get into Pball..Magazines to me are where I feel we need more..Its tactile ..you can give it to your mates you can show Noobs without dragging out ya phone etc,..Guys walk in the Shed and would just grab the Magazine...I still play and will till I can't anymore..I drag new guys thru to Tourneys...I want them to enjoy that Buzz/Feeling you get that I have for decades..It never diminishes...Road trips are just the best...

Covid blew a massive hit to paintball, sponsors backed out, pro teams had a hard team practicing regularly, supply issues, travel, let's band together, and revive paintball!

I played paintball in the mid-late 90s and early 2000s and I was obsessed with it. I started watching some of these vids and honestly want to start playing again. I still have my shoebox Shocker and mid-90s Autococker. I’d probably have to get a new gun if I were to start playing again lol.

Like alot of people said, I too have gotten back into playing after a 12 year hiatus myself. I think some of it is that now that we are older, we may have better job stability and are making more money. Or at least have a more stable income.

I know a few guys in the industry(obviously I'm not going to give any specifics) who said that gun sales and general market cap are still a fraction of what they were even when compared to the early 2010's. That being said, they all said it feels like things are back on the up-and-up. I'm personally just getting back into it (2nd month after 7 years out) but I also know a lot of the old D2/D3 guys that I played with are coming back as well. In this new local series that started this year(NGXL), these guys that picked me up were the only team with anyone who was getting back into paintball at the first event. At the 2nd event we just had on Sunday, every D4 team had at least 2 guys who I recognized who had to said they were wanting to play again. I'm not trying to say anything definitive, just adding to the convo.

You raise some good points but here’s a counterpoint, the non tournament player has very little options. Maybe tournament pb is better than before. But fields are closing and those glory day fields are now most gone or dilapidated.

Paintball will never be what it was in its prime. Around 2003 to 2006 it was the the hottest thing everyone was talking about, on ESPN, the economy was doing good still before the 2008 collapse, everything was just perfect. That being said, i think paintball is the most popular it's been in a very long time. I constantly see people coming back to the sport after years of not playing, myself including so it's a good time to be a paintball player.

i used to play as a kid and just recently got a mini gs and new gear to play once a month hopefully. would love to play more but i work a lot. i believe paintball will never die, paintball just needs a mogul

I just got into it my self can’t get enough of it!!

It’s pretty dead where I live. All our paintball stores have closed shop and there only a couple fields operating. 😢

Like it or not but ramping hurt paintball's popularity. Having fast fingers was a skill that was half the fun! Paintball needs to seriously start promoting Mech only tournaments to grow.

For someone who is just getting back into paintball it seems like it is back on the rise. Will defiantly be picking up some new gear through lone wolf paintball.

I just recently got into and have finally found something to drain my bank account. I was originally going to get into airsoft but I think I made the right decision.

I miss the paintball mags. I used to get Action Pursuit Games and Paintball Mag every month.

Just got back into paintball after a break since probably 2012 now in my 30s i have money to spend on it now, like others have mentioned. Everyone i play with is also the same age, and also getting back into it. Paintball is reviving

Dying, until you get youth involved. The glory days came from teens getting into the sport with adult money.

In some ways better in someways not so much. When I see some player in a tournament complaining about getting 3 hits, it makes me chuckle a lil.

I came back to paintball recently. Issue is fields. Not that many or too toxic on a few. Most fields only walkons one day of the week in nj. The ones who do more then one have toxic players who come every other day. Second is markers. Sure they have cheap markers but there is this split that happens between woodsball and tournament where you have to choose one or the other and its very costly to choose. I do wish i could have a marker like the hk sabr that cheap but i could build into something else like tippmans could. I know people hate them but i kinda like how my tippman a5 could be mag fed then switch to a hopper fed... expensive to do but hey i can atleast have the option to do it. Lastly painball is limited. You get what you get and it doesnt change from there. Its like halo to be honest. Its simple easy but modes domt change and 10 years later people want some change but hate every change that does happen. Paintball is the same. You cant make it new just give player more freedom and options. Im actually about to turn 30 and i dragging two teens to go paintball next week because they think its like fortnight... that sad. Ps i know a few people who are making 3d printed mods to place over older marker parts to make new interesting markers better suited to the sport. I think their is something there people should try.

"Players Insurance". Man I've played long enough to see Bunker Insurance become a thing

I feel like there are 3 main brands of guns now when in the early 2000s there were far more....dye, planet eclipse, angel, protomatrix, autococker, auto mag, smartparts, bob long.....etc. Basically if buying new today you are buying a lux, a dye, or an ego, or shocker.

Many people quit or didn’t get past their first time because the fields sponsoring kids with free markers and balls would all gang up on everyone else and it would be a frustrating experience. Then they’d be confused why nobody played

It will never be what it was. it's completely different.

It’s just too expensive. I’ve recently got back into it (30’s) but I now have a full blown career and disposable income now so I can purchase everything and anything I wanted from when I was a kid. I purchased multiple guns and I loan them out for free to people that want to come play. I share my paint and buy cheap tanks from action village to use as loaners. This is the only way to get the youth to play. Let them get the cheap thrills and see what the sport can be. Rentals deter people imo. It’s more fun with proper equipment. I think the shop app has helped a lot. Being able to pay in installments interest free. Even resellers accept it.

unfortunately until the costs come down the sport will continue to struggle. New high end markers are 2x the price now compared to when the sport was in the it’s prime. Fields across the Midwest are charging up to $100 or more for a case of paint with no membership or team discounts… now more than ever people are low on available funds. I can’t wait to start seeing better turnouts at our fields!

Paintball will never die🤘🏼🤘🏼

i would totally read magazines if they published them still

i got back into paintball in the beginning of 2021. i make video games for a living and i also play a lot of video games. well, i wanted a new video card and had almost 2 grand saved up for one but wasn't going to pay a scalper for one. i also wasn't going to go and sit in line for 12 hours to try and get one on delivery day. so i just kept hoarding money instead. then my wife says, "hey, you used to play paintball when we got together in the 90s, you should do that again." i hadn't played since about 2001 and now i'm fully back in. i even started my little side hustle mostly based around paintball, but you guys already knew that, hehe. i do make drone parts too though! the drone in my profile pic is my own custom creation.

The greatest thing to happen to paintball in the last decade is Lone Wolf filming semi pro games Give them time and there games will be better to watch than GoSports They just have to get down their drone filming and our sport is going to come back

I played a LOT of airsoft between 2014-2018, It's been so long since I've played. I was 12-16 when I played lol. I have a decent airsoft gun collection that has sat dormant for quite a few years, it seems that the local scene for airsoft is still doing okay and that's good to see. Some of my work buddies play paintball so I wanted to give it a shot, but it seems that there are zero shops where I'm located to get paintball markers or gear, where as there is like 7 local airsoft shops. Covid put the only paintball shop out and it looks like they haven't bothered to come here back sadly. It's weird wanting to come try out paintball and having some extra money to possibly pick up a decent marker but no shop to take my money! lol

Google trends for paintball searches are down and continue to go down

Unfortunately there aren’t any stores our fields here in Tulsa Oklahoma!

6:58 facts yo!

Mag fed paintball is going up flying,

I really want to see more modern poppet and auto cockers come back

Many airsofters are trying it now now and vice versa. The last 3 years sorta wiped out inventory and limited production, so there is a demand.

Paintball is dead where I live in Canada the last gen to play is over 30 the teams don’t play anymore I basically stopped going in 2018 and haven’t played since after 11 years of constant playing every weekend I just stopped once I had kids

The scene is just not what it used to be. I can only speak for the Kansas city metro area, but, we watched our fields and pro shops close down, minus one. Just don't know if it can ever be what it was.

I gotta push back on the more companies than ever in paintball. Marker wise i'm sure paintball has shrunk and become much more of a monopoly to the tournament scene. Pros are either shooting PE, Dye, Luxe, shocker, and dynasty has F1. So many of these companies are under a larger umbrella. GOG has shocker and luxe. GI owns tippmann, empire and many others. Macdev is only shot by european pro teams now. New companies are all smal neiche markets like nova and inception where they are appealing to nostalgia or fun. The tournament scene is locked down by the major companies

I had no clue Bud Orr still played

I made a comment in a MacDev group about how y'all don't ever mention MacDev much, understandably since you don't carry them and as far as I know that is likely a long story itself as to why, in comparison to other marker brands especially PE markers and not as much content for non-PE stuff hurts others... but literally same day I made that comment you mention them in this video 😅 Do agree paintball is in a good place. As a person in early 30s coming back after over a decade if not 15 years things feel much more accessible now due in part to "grown up" salaries and the internet being what it is.

Huntington Beach 2005 10,000 at a tournament I was there

when I was in middle school we used to have our parents drop us off at janky little rec field and go play with tipman 98s for a few hours. Really the gear/paint/fees were just too much for kids with zero money. later in highschool airsoft became mainstream and it was way cheaper and more attainable to a kid with a part-time afterschool job. Airsoft really soured me hard since all the local fields and indoor parks were filled with 30YO overweight manchildren that would run around in their blackhawk gear screeching about either "your gas gun shoots too hard!" or CONSTANTLY accusing you of cheating because you figured out which bunker they camped in. paintball never seemed to attract those types but airsoft certainly did, thats why we all quit. Now me and a lot of people my age in that generation are pushing 30 and we have the disposable income so we're all rushing to paintball in WAVES. I can't say what it will look like in 5 or 10 years, but there is a lot of interest brewing up from the 2000s kids too young to really play the sport (but having really watched it) and then coming to realize the only attainable alternative (airsoft ) was/is hot garbage. That thing I wanted airsoft to be but wasn't but paintball is and with income its really not that expensive to hit the field a couple of weekends a month.

Paintball is dying and pretty much dead as a mass recreation sport. Airsoft killed in as far as recreation Speedball also turned off a lot of the recreational players, it's a whole culture and style that a lot to players didn't care about. Just admit it. I love paintball, I still have all my gear, but I have no illusions about where it is today.

I think if they made the pro scene cooler to watch it would do a lot better. People getting tired of seeing boring pro tournaments with boring maps that only have little Pilar’s as cover. If they used actual maps like ones found at Hollywood sports for example it would bring in a lot of younger audiences as well.

Throughout my 20 yrs of pro paintball. This is something people always say. Paintball is dying, such bullshit. Often times the individual stating this is dying. Magazines are irrelevant in an internet age. TV deals, Again the internet has impacted “TV” as multi methods of broadcasting are available. What does TV mean anymore? Cable TV is dying. Not paintball

bigger and smaller? the local tournament scene is bigger than previously, however the national side is much smaller. nxl is kinda the only circus in town now, whereas back in the mid 00's you had psp, nppl and nxl. of course there is more content nowadays, given technology/social media, which is the case with basically anything when you compare from now to then. pbnation used to be huge, its basically a graveyard now. sponsorships used to mean something. its kind of a joke nowadays, especially in the pro/semi pro divisions. it was almost unheard of for players on those teams to have to pay for basically anything when I started playing, stark contrast to today where you are lucky to have anything covered if you play pro. long gone are the days of a pro team getting a sponsor like intel. so yeah, grown in someways, shrunk in others.

I think it doesn’t incline or decline. It doesn’t blow up as it should. The most “famous player” Oliver Lang is not known outside his home 😂

I feel like companies had more money in the early 2000s

No Action Pursuit Games? FAIL!

When will the 100k giveaway happen

Seriously back in the 2005 was big not now

My only criticism is China is copying the paintball masks and offering them as airsoft/paintball masks. Airsoft is much bigger still. I don’t know if any Chinese paintball guns but tons of airsoft. That being said I don’t think paintball is dead.

The price of gear has to come down drastically in order for Paintball to have a chance at growing more. Think of the thousands of dollars spent to get quality gear. Average Joe can’t do it.

Paintball won’t ever grow, it’s fun to play but BORING to watch. Too much stuff going on for the cameras to catch it. Literally everyone is spraying paint non stop, how you expect the audience to see what’s going on ?

Paintball will not grow unless paint prices go way down

Per ID for the year

will never pass the glory days so long as we are stuck at 10 bps

Paintball is turning into more events (birthdays, bachelor, etc) games rather than every weekend. The price point is worse than ever. With gel blasters (GB) and their price point they have, the backyard type of play. It's going to hurt PB more than ever. Being able to play GB at organized fields for $30-$40 all inclusive and unlimited ammo. That's just going to make PB regularly out of the question. I've been into pb since 1987. I sold 90% of our gear and purchased 20 GB blasters for our family and friends. We play regularly, all day for less than $5 @ including unlimited ammo on our acreage. No, it's not the same as PB, but we still have the camaraderie, game play, and overall fun from back in the day! The rechargeable batteries last for almost a full day as well! $25 @ battery and that makes hpa look incomprehensible! Taking us from playing PB monthly to maybe once every 2 years with 98s/response triggers and our 1st gen rotors. PB is going to go through some hard times in the near future!

FWOT Paintballing is the best ! Haters will hate HK Army 4 Life Let's Gooooo !

GoSports is to blame!!!! Censorship over 90% of pro paintball games is insanity How is this sport ever going to grow if nobody knows about it Paintball use to be on espn never forget what these content hoarders have done

it's dead af

That magazine is from Mark, 2005?....wow

I think airsoft is cheaper in the long run. But paintball is still fun

Almost dead right for me teoyv1854311