Tracking ACBL table counts as the world of bridge recovers from COVID updated since early 2021
Tracking ACBL table counts as the world of bridge recovers from COVID updated since early 2021 | |
Information on this page refers to ACBL in person and online club table counts;
if you are looking for ACBL tournament table data information, please click here.
 Weekly F2F Games  Average Tables per F2F Games 
% of all Club Tables that are F2F  Weekly F2F Tables |
 Weekly Change in F2F Tables, Y-O-Y  Weekly F2F Tables, 6-wk rolling avg 
Avg F2F Tables per Game  Active ACBL Membership |
 ACBL Annual Tables  Active ACBL Clubs 
BBO/VACB Tables, monthly  % of VACB tables to all BBO tables |
PLEASE NOTE:
VACB tables listed above are ACBL online club games only and do not include daily ACBL or hourly Speedball tournaments, etc.
ACBL F2F data displayed here is best available; *some ACBL clubs (set to "private") do not allow their games + table counts to be included in the raw data and therefore are not included here. In addition, weekly updates include all table data available, including when clubs submit table counts up to many weeks late.
The ACBL data week runs from each Monday to the following Sunday.
A huge dip in F2F games, tables, and participation the week of January 20, 2024, is due to the ACBL's Silver Linings Week on BBO. Tables generally have shrunk online over the past 52 weeks - but this most recent week found 13,353 BBO VACB tables (or more than 4 standard deviations above the 52-week mean). Silver Linings Weeks are quite the cash cow for the ACBL, so of course they've added a third Silver Linings Week in 2024. |
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Fewer and fewer ACBL clubs are holding online bridge games, and the result has been a change in the ACBL's guest policy for VACB games. As of this fall, there is no guest policy - anyone can play in any game. There are still limits to how many tables can be in such a game (currently 25), but for those that really want to play online, this policy will help. |
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Not because there are many more team tables online necessarily, but due more to the decline in overall VACB tables on BBO are we seeing an increase in the share of team tables online. While the pairs tables on BBO have been at near-bottom numbers for several weeks now, the team tables have remained pretty steady - and are seeing a bigger bite of the overall picture. |
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When it comes to reporting F2F games and tables, you can only rely on the data you're given. Unless that data is flawed - or is changed - time and time again - by the source of the data. Of course we're talking about the ACBL IT department. Initial ACBL reported games on the day they were played (to the right, red columns) were downgraded 24 hours later (blue columns) consistently. Then - they were magically corrected (green columns) to figures averaging 15.1% higher than the initial reported data. "Better late than never," apparently, but email requests over the past |
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...or rather, their week. With a gradual decline in weekly VACB table counts over the past year, April 2023's Silver Linings Week demonstrated there are still players excited about online play. The 11,599 tables held virtually over the seven-day period was more than nine standard deviations above the previous 52-week mean. The chart to the right shows just how out of whack Silver Linings Week was - and why you could understand why the ACBL might be scrambling to put another one on the schedule. |
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Anyone who has run a bridge club or plays in a regular bridge game knows that generally speaking, games that get smaller over time tend to keep getting smaller. Games that are growing continue to grow. So it's a good thing to see the average tables per F2F game keep on the right track. Prior to the introduction of COVID, F2F games were pretty consistently around 8.2 TPG on average. Hopefully, the current trend of games that are growing will keep on keepin' on. |
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While the overall ACBL membership could use a real boost of late, those players who are playing are really showing up. A look at open regional tournaments since the great reopening shows that while originally around 40% of the pre-COVID level of attendance was common - now F2F tournaments are seeing above 60% of pre-COVID levels. More on tournament attendance can be found here. |
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Can it be stopped? The 2023 Spring Management Report details that the rate of decline in active ACBL memberships has not slowed in the past few months. As the saying goes, "anything that can't go on forever, won't" - but if there's an answer to the problem of declining membership, it's going to have to be developed and implemented soon. |
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...and it's spectacular. The latest ACBL bid(!) to help F2F clubs is the "N/18" program which increases masterpoint awards for regular club games (no overalls) depending on how many boards you are playing during the game. A note went out about this new program back in February 2023, and much like the rebate program for BBO games, it might seem extremely confusing. But the program allows regular club games (that don't cost a club as much as a charity game) to compete with charity games (that pay more masterpoints) held elsewhere. My chart to the right. |
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The combination of Christmas being on a weekend and a major winter storm shuttering some F2F clubs the second half of 2022's holiday week brought F2F attendance to a screeching halt the week of Dec 19-25, 2022. Plotting F2F tables each day against their respective 10-month daily average, Monday started out just fine with 99% of the average tables for Monday. However that figure went down sharply as the week progressed - to just 24% of Saturday tables on the day before Christmas - and 11% of Sunday tables Christmas Day. |
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December 10th's 9.13 tables per F2F game is record-setting, and not totally unexpected what with the holiday season (and holiday bridge parties) underway. But it's serious - more than six standard deviations above the previous 36 week Saturday mean. That is impressive! The chart to the right plots the previous 36 Saturday tables per F2F game - you can see what an outlier this past Saturday has been. Cheers, indeed. |
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...and with them, a seasonal bump in attendance. The week ending December 4th (2022) had some unremarkable table counts (and tables per game) for the period Monday through Thursday, but Friday, Saturday and Sunday - watch out. Those three days this week set post-COVID records for tables per game, and each showed a huge increase from last week's games. Friday and Saturday averaged more than an extra table per game, and Sunday averaged another TWO tables per game compared to last week. Cheers! |
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Having a look at the first 36-week period of F2F ACBL tables in play at the big reopening (starting February 1st, 2021) and the most recent 36-week period of tables in play (ending November 20th, 2022) there really isn't a lot of difference as to when players like to play. Monday is still the dominant day of the week, followed by Wednesday; the weekends are still barely attended in comparision. If there's a "big winner" in the most recent 36-week period, it's Tuesday play. Previously, Tuesday and Friday were practically tied (17.3% and 17.1% of all weekly tables, respectively). . .but this most recent 36-week period shows Tuesday vaulting to 18.2% with Friday dropping to 16.4%. These mostly similar numbers come with 240% of the tables in this most recent period (557,780 vs 231,568 at reopening). |
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Although there will be some serious swings in table counts through the rest of the calendar year (see: Thanksgiving Week, Christmas Week, etc.), the trend of the past six weeks has been more and more bridge players attending F2F games. Not just in total tables, but the average tables per F2F game hit a (post-COVID) record high ending the week of 11/20/22 - and the average tables per F2F game has been on the increase for the past seven weeks, just as the leaves fell and the chilly temperatures moved in. If our very limited post-COVID history is any guide, the 2nd week of December will be the apex of this chart's data. Stay tuned. |
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It took until November 14th (2022) to happen, but reported F2F tables on this Monday topped 4,000 for the first time in the post-COVID era. There have been several weeks this fall in the mid-3,800 table range to start the week, and Mondays continue to be the day of the week with the highest table count during the week - but this is the first time in-person tables for Mondays blew past the 3,900s and topped 4K (by almost 200 tables!). It's only the first day of the week - but this start to the week with such incredible participation will surely lead to another weekly record for tables ending November 20th. |
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Buoyed by a Royal STAC in a few districts, the week ending October 23 (2022) finally hit 17,000+ F2F tables. There have been a few weeks during 2022 above 16,000 weekly in-person tables, and even just three days into the week it looked like October 23's numbers would be record-setting (passing the previous weekly high of 16,466). A few late reports (and undoubtedly some private club tables that aren't reported to ACBL LIVE) helped push this week in question to |
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With the usual caveats that there are other online outlets for computer bridge play, and that VACB tables don't include ACBL's daily online games (only those in the virtual clubs!), the weekly trend for VACB tables continues to decline in pretty much every metric. Here's a look at the weekly percentage of online tables compared to those one year ago. While this past March we had ~45% of the online tables in March 2021, the past four weeks have seen a percentage falling into the upper 20s. Colder weather hold hopes for a rebound - we'll know in two months or so. |
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It's tough to admit, but of course there is. Over the course of 2022, each holiday or family get together takes a bite into F2F tables, and here's the proof. The only pop in tables during the week in 2022 has come during the Tuesday and Wednesday of the 3rd week in June - which would be the Alzheimer's Ass'n Longest Day games. Otherwise, you'll note each day's depressed table count as bridge players compliment their play and social interaction at the bridge club with the other things that round out their lives. |
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Total BBO tables for the month fell below 200K for the first time in June 2022; a dip during summer isn't unexpected, and 192K tables is still a pretty good number. However the percentage of those monthly BBO tables that were played in ACBL virtual clubs declined again in June as well, now down to 23.5% of all BBO tables for the month. |
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COVID-19's impact on ACBL membership was rough; for the 10 months from June 2020 to April 2021, ACBL members left bridge at the rate of averaging 1,290 players a month. Since that time, however, while the dropoff in membership has continued - it is at a sharply lower rate (for the 13 months from May 2021 to June 2022, it's averaged 690 players/month). While that is a significant slowdown, the dropoff has been quite steady - and shows no sign of flattening yet. |
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The summer of 2021 and its onset of the Delta variant of COVID-19 drove players back out of the clubs for several months; a steady decline in F2F tables through the summer bottomed out on Labor Day, but it wasn't until November 1st that table counts got back to pre-Delta variant levels. This summer, COVID-19 is more contagious than ever, and almost every ACBL tournament has become a super-spreader event. The difference with COVID-19 now is that it's not as serious an illness - and consequently players don't appear to mind the risk of infection. Certainly not as much. Weekly F2F table counts right now show a steady increase in year-over-year comparisons; not because there's an actual increase in week-to-week F2F tables right now (they've been steady at around 15,000 since May) but because there isn't a drop off as seen last year with COVID. |
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It's probably no surprise that Florida (with six clubs) and Arizona (with five clubs) are the leaders in F2F tables in play during the last month. April's "top 20" clubs around the US did come with a couple of surprises, with Omaha NE showing up at #20, but Indianapolis IN at #5 and St. Louis MO at #8 pretty impressive. A few in SoCal and a couple in NY round out the top 20 this month. |
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Depending on the 30-day period you're looking at, with some 30-day periods having more Monday and Wednesday games than others, the 30-day F2F table counts at any given club can vary widely. But just looking at the 30 days in April, to the right are the monthly table counts at the top 20 F2F clubs in the US. 690 tables were recorded at The Villages FL, with just a few tables each week separating clubs #8 to #20. The Naples Bridge Center FL also doing a brisk business with 585 tables in April. |
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April 2022 has ushered in some stellar numbers for F2F bridge play, as the omicron variant has finally been overcome (for lack of a better term). Not that COVID isn't still making the rounds, it is (five ACBL directors at Reno's NABC ended up catching it, along with roughly two dozen players). . .but attendance at local clubs has rebounded now so that it's the highest since clubs reopened back in January of 2021. There's little doubt that there will be another COVID variant down the road - maybe more than one - but at least it's great to see that bridge players are resilient. Given time, they do return to the table. |
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The third week of February 2022 saw the largest table counts for F2F games since the holidays (and omicron variant) hammered local clubs. Even with the highest table counts in 14 weeks, they're still quite a ways off from the post-COVID high table marks held in early November. Keep in mind that some local F2F clubs have still not yet re-opened following the latest COVID variant and its transmissability. . .but weekdays are now at 80% to 87% of the max table counts. Weekends are not faring quite so well, at 68% for Saturday and 61% for Sunday. |
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Ahh, wintertime. Combined F2F and VACB tables topped 30,000 for the week ending 2/13/22 for the first time in a non-online bonus MP event since March 2021. Remember that back in March 2021, over 90% of overall tables were online. Even with some clubs slow to open from the omicron variant of COVID-19, that number is now closer to 55%. Apparently a lot less tennis and golf going on in February, but that's good news for table counts (and bridge in general). |
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Over the past nine months, lots of VACB games stopped operating due to everyone getting back to F2F and smaller tables per game making it more difficult to keep them going. The phase-out (and ultimate elimination) of the VACB masterpoint multiplier also may have had something to do with the lowering turnout through the end of 2021. But the combination of clubs closing due to the omicron variant, no real increase in available VACB games, and this week's 2x silver point games online has led to an online tables per game metric not seen since before F2F clubs reopened twelve months ago. It's not likely to stay at these stratospheric levels, but right now online play is benefitting from the latest COVID mess. |
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As many ACBL clubs have shuttered (albeit temporarily) during this omicron business, the gains online for virtual clubs are skyrocketing. Both VACB games and tables are now approaching levels that have not been seen since May 2021. The ACBL is taking advantage of this by it's 2X Silver Linings week this week (1/18). . .and it's a real jump-start to the online bridge business that had pretty much collapsed once clubs had reopened for in-person play. |
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Following the overtaking of F2F tables in November 2021, and then an all-around lull during the holidays, online ACBL action has really perked up since the latest COVID variant is making a mess of in-person bridge. What was a clear downward trend for months has really reversed itself during the month of January, as more players are staying out of the club (for now) and playing online. Games, tables, even tables per game online are all up big this month, and the ACBL has added more online tournament events (including another online regional in March). |
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It took eight or nine months from reopening and was complicated by the Delta variant, but as of November 14th 2021 it is official. More F2F tables were in play the week ending November 14th than were in play at virtual clubs. The unadjusted numbers (which don't include late F2F table reporting and will only drive the F2F number higher) show a race tighter than any political result on election night - with F2F tables edging out VACB tables for the week by 2 out of almost 29,000. |
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Looking at the past ten weeks, overall ACBL tables in play have been on the increase; if you discard the Silver Linings week double-point bump in the VACB tables, you'll see that the increase in F2F tables has been enough to more than overcome the decline in VACB tables play Clubs continue to open and weekly games continue to be added, and post-COVID record F2F table counts are still rising (now well past the point of the Delta variant business). Note that these table counts do not include any F2F tournaments, which have also opened up over the past ten weeks, but who's counting? (Ok, someone is, and that count is 4,566.) |
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F2F table counts that were on the rise this year hit the skids in late July as the Delta variant messed things up for bridge. Six weeks later, the bottom was hit, and between masking protocols and the realization that there's always going to be a variant around, players finally started coming back to the bridge table. Most days for the week ending 10/24/21 table counts across the country have returned to that level of the week ending 7/18/21 - here's each day of this past week compared to the pre-Delta peak week of 7/18. 99% for the week as a whole! | 
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If you've ever run a bridge club, and were wondering if you should have a game on Labor Day, you've no doubt gotten many responses from players that "every day is a holiday for me!" and of course you should have a game. Despite that, not everyone does hold a game on holiday Mondays, and the four depressed days (for turnout) that are pretty obvious on Mondays just happen to be the four Monday holidays this year (Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and as it happens this year the 4th of July). With Mondays being the most-attended day of the week, the entire holiday week each time tends to be dragged down as well. Thanksgiving isn't on a Monday this year, is it? |
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Looking at the first eight months of post-COVID F2F play, it's probably no surprise that Monday is the most popular day of the week to be attending an in-person bridge game (at almost 24% of all F2F tables during the week). Wednesday is next; Sundays are least likely to be sanctioned or attended. This mirrors the pre-COVID experience although weekends had been slightly better represented before the big shutdown. |
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