World Poker Tour on Flickr via CC BY-ND 2.0 – no changes were made to the image
The third poker boom is here, more than 20 years after Chris Moneymaker sparked the first one. When the everyday accountant qualified for the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) after winning an online tournament—and ended up taking home the grand prize at the prestigious WSOP Main Event—he sparked immense interest in poker by showing that anyone with an internet connection can play and potentially win big.
Fittingly, the second boom came amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed poker enthusiasts to head online. Thanks to the resulting lockdown—combined with the remnants of 2003’s “Moneymaker effect”—digital software product reviewer Gitnux reveals that there’s been a 34% increase in new poker players worldwide since 2020. The Financial Times adds that, since peaking in 2006, the number of participants in the WSOP Main Event has risen annually since 2021.
Now, over half a decade later, anyone would expect those trends to ease up. However, they’ve only accelerated even further—and that can largely be attributed to the increasing popularity of poker live streams. That comes as no surprise: our feature Streaming Culture points out that, generally, live streams appeal to both casual viewers and more serious gamers, allowing streamers to influence both how gaming communities grow and even how developers design new titles.
Live streaming provides similar benefits in the poker space, leading it to ignite the new poker boom by:
Attracting new audiences
With more people spending time online, live streams make poker more accessible to today’s tech-savvy audiences. That’s especially true since live-streaming platforms are the perfect avenue for promoting that accessibility to more viewers. According to the latest statistics from analytics platform Stream Hatchet, live streaming viewership as a whole reached 32.5 billion hours in 2024—a 12% increase from 2023 and the first upward trend in viewership since 2021. Twitch alone contributed 61.1% of those watch hours.
That explains the pull of streamers like Elias “ZerosPoker” Gutierrez, who is PokerListings’ top poker streamer for 2025. Boasting more than 100,000 followers on Twitch as well as an average of over 4,500 viewers per stream, he frequently showcases his plays on the online poker site GGPoker to show how exciting the card game can get. Streamers like Gutierrez have significantly boosted GGPoker’s user base. It recently reported that thanks to increased traffic, its occupied cash game seats never dropped below 10,000, and the site gained over 1,000 new players between September and October 2024 alone. Live streams have even encouraged other streamers to focus on the card game and promote it to their followers, with Alexandra Botez—who has over a million subscribers on YouTube and Twitch—switching from streaming chess to poker content because she found the latter more accessible and exciting to play.
View this post on Instagram
Credit: @acrstormers on Instagram
Building strong communities
Live streams facilitate direct interactions between viewers and streamers, making them ideal for creating strong gaming communities. Experts from DMEXCO, Europe’s top digital marketing and tech event, add that community-building is even crucial for streaming success because viewers prefer to watch “authentic” streamers. That authenticity helps foster solidarity in streaming communities, and it’s yet another reason why live streaming helped ignite the latest poker boom. A quick look at the ACR Stormers shows just how deeply live streams can engage both streamers and viewers alike to bring them together.
Created by ACR Poker, which hosts multiple online and live tournaments and is endorsed by the legendary Chris Moneymaker, the Stormers share the games they play on the site and even hold insightful poker discussions and giveaways on their respective channels. With over 36,000 followers on ACR Poker’s main Twitch channel alone, the Stormers have built a wide-ranging community that shares their love of poker. Aside from creating a solid fan base for ACR Poker that’s helped establish it as the #1 US poker site, the Stormers further boost poker live stream content creation by continually welcoming both new and established streamers to the team. The most proficient ones are even promoted to the site’s elite ACR Team Online, which plays in major events like the OSS Super Series. That authentic growth experienced by the Stormers further encourages the popularity of poker in the team’s ever-growing community.
View this post on Instagram
Credit: @lexveldhuis on Instagram
Providing learning opportunities
Perhaps more crucially, live streams encourage poker enthusiasts to keep up the hobby for longer. That means they didn’t just ignite the current poker boom—they’re helping sustain its longevity, as well. This benefit can primarily be attributed to the fact that they’re a great resource for poker players looking to improve their performance. In fact, the study Second Session at the Virtual Poker Table reveals that today’s poker players are more skilled than their counterparts 10 years ago because there are now more learning tools available on the internet. Live streams are one of them, as viewers can use them to observe the strategies of more experienced players and use those to their advantage.
Some streamers go even further by actively providing poker advice on their channels. That includes PokerStars Pro Team Online member Lex Veldhuis. Arguably one of the biggest streamers in poker history, his audience exceeds 324,000 subscribers on Twitch alone. His live stream of the 2020 PokerStars SCOOP Main Event, where he finished in 15th place, even reached a peak viewership of 58,799, a record among poker streamers. Thanks to his sharing both beginner and advanced poker tips on his channels—and even promoting them as places to get advice—he’s now considered one of the biggest authorities in poker education. The demand for his tips grew so much that it prompted PokerStars to release a “Level Up With Lex” software feature, where Veldhuis provides personalized advice videos based on a player’s past performance. In paving the way to make playing poker—and getting better at it—more accessible, it’s clear how live streaming has both ignited the third poker boom and ensured it continues today.
Keep reading MetaNow Gaming for more features on the culture, technologies, and development innovations shaping the gaming industry.
Kirk C. Harrison, the visionary owner and talented copywriter behind MetaNow Gaming, is a driving force in the gaming community. With a passion for diversity in gaming, Kirk has cultivated MetaNow Gaming into a vibrant hub for diverse gaming content and community interaction. His insightful writing and dedication to inclusivity make MetaNow Gaming not just a platform for news and reviews, but a welcoming space where gamers connect and celebrate the richness of the gaming experience. Join Kirk at MetaNow Gaming for a unique blend of content and community that reflects the diverse tapestry of the gaming world.
