Pokerstars' Sunday Million Numbers Sagging Following Reduction to Buy-In

Published on March 18th, 2019 2:06 pm EST

Nearly two months ago, Pokerstars revealed that they would be cutting the buy-in for their weekly "Sunday Million" tournament to $109 from $215, while maintaining the same $1 million in guaranteed prize money.

Pokerstars claimed that the move was being done to allow more people to experience the thrill of playing in a tournament with a large guarantee, while skeptics thought that it was simply a sneaky move to increase the amount of rake that they generated from the event.

The move looked to be a very shrewd one, as the first "Sunday Million" with a reduced $109 buy-in generated a total of 15,550 entries. Pokerstars ended up generating a very large amount of rake from this event.

Over the past couple of months, however, the numbers for the "Sunday Million" have dropped off dramatically. Lance Bradley of Pocketfives.com has the numbers here:

The field size of the PokerStars Sunday Million has dropped every week since they lowered the buy-in to $109 from $215 on January 27.

Jan 27: 15,550
Feb 3: 13,228
Feb 10: 12,371
Feb 17: 11,732
Feb 24: 11,559
Mar 3: 11,525
Mar 10: 10,469
Mar 17: 10,360

— Lance Bradley (@Lance_Bradley) March 18, 2019

That is a pretty distressing drop for Pokerstars, as the "Sunday Million" is a long-running event that is the most popular weekly tournament in online poker.

If the Sunday Million drops under the 10,000 entry mark (and we seem to be trending in this direction), Pokerstars would have quite an embarrassment on their hands.

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Pokerstars recently revealed that they would be hosting the 13th anniversary of the Sunday Million on April 14th.

The tournament will have a guaranteed prize pool of $10 million, with $1 million being guaranteed to the winner.

The buy-in for this event will be elevated back to $215. The question is, with the recent weakness in the field size for the $109 Sunday Million, will Pokerstars leave the buy-in at $215 going forward?

One thing is for sure - Pokerstars will make the decision with their bottom line in mind.

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Filed Under: Online Poker Rooms