Comparative State/Regional Stats

General
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I had a conversation earlier today with some non-pinball people about the relative size of various pinball scenes, number of players, interest, etc. I wanted to compare 2018 numbers from various states (total number of unique players, events, etc.) and realized it’s complicated, because some large events really skew state totals. I’m curious to know how pinball interest, particularly competitive pinball interest, compares region-to-region. We all know about Portland’s high number of games on location, Washington’s copious events, huge events like Pinburgh in Pennsylvania, etc.

Anyhow, in searching through here I found this really fascinating discussion on similar topics from 2016 IFPA State ranking and was particularly interested in the maps included. Has anyone created any kind of similar map recently? Cool charts? Something else?

I did see this link of various categorized states via a post on the aforementioned thread and it’s giving me some intriguing data to toy with in my head:

https://www.ifpapinball.com/stats/?stat_id=9

Anyone else ever have any reflections on how different parts of the country and world compare pinball-interest-wise?

I’m suuuuuper exhausted, so if this question wasn’t clear, my apologies.

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What is also interesting is how certain regions have different primary strategies for the same game. Its been a long day (week) but i recall some comparisons on a podcast if I remember correctly. Sorry i cant reference it but maybe someone can.

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Really? That is fascinating. If I don’t end up hearing that on a podcast myself, I’ll be eager to hear if you remember it later. Very cool.

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Same with games. The amount of times I’ve heard @raydaypinball talk about Tron in Northwest tournament play gave me the revelation that explains why Tim Tournay (a transplant from the PNW to Pittsburgh) loves that game so much compared to the locals - and plays it well!

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