Paintball was first practiced as a ‘survival’ game twenty years ago, but has quickly turned into a true sport, with specific rules, marshaling and legal structures. Today, modern paintball still retains these two faces: It is both an entertainment and a sport. Huge paintball parks have grown all over the US (and beyond) and welcome thousands of weekend players looking for fun and new sensations.

But at the same time, more and more people experience paintball as an extreme sport, participating in local or international events, in US or in Europe. Inflatable concept fields came in to permanently alter the sport in 1996. This was a revolution for this young sport. The game took a more tactical aspect and players started to develop real team strategies. Besides, the game became more visual and attractive for the media. In 2001, paintball as an industry weighed an estimated 700 million dollars, with six billion paintballs sold each year. Manufacturers and distributors spend millions in research and development to bring the latest equipment to thousands of players in all corners of the world practicing what had become a global sport.

In 2002, American Sports Data reported about 7 million people practicing paintball in the United States, ranking paintball as the fourth strongest extreme sport industry, before snowboarding.

This year, the new X Ball tournaments will be featured on national US TV network ESPN and the final event of one of two US-based leagues will take place at Disney World. Furthermore, tournaments have attracted personalities like Maurice Gibb, William Shatner, Howard Stern, Everlast or B Real.

In the paintball sphere, entertainment and sport remain closely linked. Thousands of people spend entire weekends in big theme parks springing up all over the US, but still keep an eye on the sport aspect of paintball, notably thanks to the specialized press and TV coverage.