Times may be tough, and world economies taking strain, but online poker marches on, seems to be the theme for the August – September period as tracking site MarketPulse reports surging visitor numbers at several of the premium websites.
 
The already booming PokerStars has been especially brisk so far with August traffic figures as quoted by MarketPulse up a very respectable 34 percent and the site currently hosting an average 17 451 players over the course of an average day – placing PokerStars streets ahead of its nearest rival, Full Tilt Poker.
 
September 14 – a Sunday – proved to be the busiest day of the year so far for PokerStars as the average surged to 20 496 players, with peak periods 16h00 to 18h00. This peak seems a common industry experience, and an estimated 80 000 players can be found online playing poker in this time slot.
 
Full Tilt Poker remains Poker Stars's chief competition, and showed a 28 percent increase in traffic to an average 7 890. Gains at Titan Poker (up 2 percent to 5 025 players on average) and Party Poker (up 1 percent to 4 205) were positive but less spectacular, whilst Hollywood Poker showed gains of 11 percent to 6 495) and Mansion Poker surged 12 percent to 4 200. Paradise Poker also did well –  up 20 percent to 1 701 players, as did Doyles  Room which saw increases of 12 percent to 1 656, and Pacific Poker, which was up 7 percent to 1 010.
 
The MarketPulse traffic page has the full report, where interested parties can find a comprehensive breakdown by day, month and year including industry averages and traffic volume charts.