Airsoft vs Paintball-A detailed Comparison with Actual Facts

Quick Highlights of Airsoft

Quick Highlights of Paintball

 Airsoft:  Airsoft is a sport in which the participant eliminate a player with spherical plastic/ metallic pellets releases from the airsoft gun, airsoft gun is very similar to the original military guns.

First played in Japan in the 1970s

 Paintball:  Paintball is an action-packed sport in which the participant eliminates the opponent with a spherical ball/ capsule filled with water paint launch Via a paintball marker or Gun.

First played in New Hampshire in 1981

 Airsoft age requirement:  Age requirements vary from fields to fields and country to country as well, some fields allow only 12+ players in America, however, some fields allow 10+ players, definitely they have some low impact guns according to age groups.

If we consider it in general we can see the majority of the fields allow 10+ years old players.

 Paintball age requirements:  Again the age of paintballing also depends on the fields and country, some fields and countries allow players even below 10 years, of course, they will have separate field low impact equipment and proper safety measures.

If we conclude it in general the majority of fields allow 10+ years old players, at the professional level a player must 18+ old.

 Airsoft mask:  Airsoft masks are rougher, hardcore, and a bit scary, same like a soldier mask. Though you have varieties to select a professional one for you, still you will get a realistic feeling with scarry maks.

In airsoft you will have few choices because most of the players get their work done with ordinary goggles, they only need a mask when they have to play in a congested field where they can be shoot from very near.

 

 Paintball Mask:  paintball masks are more stylish with lots of modern features and ultra-durable in terms of built quality. Mask is mandatory in paintball, without mask most of the fields will not allow you to enter in the field. You have a vast variety to choose a paintball mask, different masks come with different styles, features, build quality, and comfort level, even you can get a paintball mask for glasses as well.

 Airsoft Guns:  Airsoft guns and real firearms guns are very similar even we can’t differentiate both guns from a certain distance but once we put in hands we can differentiate both easily.  Some of the airsoft guns have an orange cover at the tip to differentiate from actual firearm guns.

In airsoft, You have a large variety of guns with different features shapes and built qualities. Also, you can get airsoft guns powered with batteries, gas, springs, and electric power (AEGs). Airsoft guns have a magazine loaded with pellets to shoot the opponents. The magazine has the capability to hold 400-2500 pellets which is amazing means you don’t need to reload faster.

 Paintball Guns:  paintball guns are slim stylish and ultra-durable, we can easily differentiate paintball guns with airsoft guns just because of colors and hopper.

In paintball you will also have large varieties of guns but not more than airsoft, paintball guns are powered with CO2 tanks or compressed air and a large hopper in which we have to load some paintballs to shoot a particular object. The paintball marker is able to hold 50-200 paintballs in the hopper.

 Usability and comfortability of Airsoft:  Airsoft guns are very easy to operate because of lightweight, it will never distract your movements, even if you have carried thousands of pellets,

Reloading of airsoft is a bit difficult and time taken process there for its magazine capacity is tremendous.

 Usability and comfortability of paintball:  Paintball guns are a bit heavy and uncomfortable as compared to airsoft because paintball guns have a hopper which we have to put on our shoulder while targeting. Also, paintball Ammo are heavy as compared to pellets, if we carry lots of ammo in the field we may compromise our movements in the field.

Reloading of paintball is extremely easy just you have to throw the paintballs in the hopper that’s it, even most of the players reload their guns during the match. 

 Accuracy of Airsoft:  Airsoft guns have tremendous accuracy, though the size of pellets is very small, still, due to high fps, pellets will cross the air without turning away in the air.

Also, pellets are not visible in the air because of their small size and high fps, most of the players do not have superpowers to see the small pellets in the air.

 Accuracy of paintball:  Paintball has a bit less accuracy because of lower fps and higher diameter of Ammos. Also, due to the low fps and late size paintballs may swing in the air.

Moreover, they are somehow visible in the air.

 Cost of Airsoft gun:  Airsoft guns are way cheaper than paintball guns because the majority of airsoft guns are powered with ordinary spring, batteries, and sometimes gas.

Most of the players prefer guns with ordinary springs or batteries in order to reduce the ongoing cost. Gas-powered guns will cost you again and again.

 Cost of paintball gun:  paintball guns are expensive because they can only be operating with CO2 gas or compressed air, this is the ongoing cost, we have to refill again and again.

Another major reason for being costly is, you have to purchase a hopper and paintball tank (CO2 or compressed air tank), to store some gas for emergency use.

 Airsoft ammunition:  In Airsoft we shoot the spherical metallic/plastic pellets to the opponent with the airsoft guns.

• Ammos of airsoft is very easy to carry because they have negligible weight you can easily carry a lot of ammo with you during the field. Your movements will never be distracted.
• You can buy pellets at very cheap, even 5000 to 6000 pellets will cost you around $15

 Paintball ammunition:  In paintball we shoot our opponent with the spherical balls or capsules of water paint with paintball marker

• paintballs are somehow heavy we can’t move around the field with lots of ammo, still the paintball player is able to manage that hurdle.
• Secondly, paintballs are expensive as compared to the airsoft pallets, 2000 paintballs will cost you about $30 to $40. Though some fields offer special discounts still they are expensive.

 Airsoft Accessories:  In airsoft, you will get masks/goggles, magazines, batteries, protective vests, military-type clothes, etc. Moreover, you will have some special accessories like smoke grenades, pellets grenades, sniper scopes, heavy machine guns, etc.

 Paintball Accessories:  Paintball has lots of accessories like hopper, mask, Pods, harnesses, special vests, etc. Also, paintball allows you to use some special accessories like paint grenades rockets, tanks, and smoke grenades.

 Airsoft clothing:  In airsoft, we have similar clothes like the military; even we can’t distinguish between them, literally you have a getup of the military as you can see in the image as well.

 Paintball clothing:  Paintball clothes solely depends on the type of game, in speedball players prefer more vibrant, stylish, and colorful cloths. However, in woodsball they choose darker clothes because they are less visible in the woods, somehow they resemble military-type clothes as well.

 Airsoft:  As airsoft is a paint-free clean game, its cleaning process is very easy.

 Paintball:  In paintball, we have to use paints, its cleaning process is somehow time taken then airsoft.

 Airsoft:  In airsoft, you will found fewer events and tournaments as compared to paintball, still you can find a few very good large scale (350+ players) tournaments with a good price as a reward.

 Paintball:  In paintball, there are hundreds of tournaments because the trends of paintball tournaments are very old, many fields have their own schedule of tournaments. Moreover, paintball tournaments occurred on a very large scale even 500 players can participate in a single tournament.

 Airsoft:  In airsoft, you will have to pay less as compared to paintball, $30 is the average per day cost of airsoft field, however, if you have carried your Ammos with you it will be lower then 30 buck i think.

All most all Airsoft fields allow you to bring your own pellets, in paintball some fields can’t allow you because of some safety reasons.

 Paintball:  Cost of paintball field is expensive as compared to the airsoft, $40-$50 is an average per day cost without paintballs. Also, if the field doesn’t allow you to bring your own paintball you will have to purchase from the fields in order to play.

According to our experience pack of 500 paintballs will cost you about $12 to $50 depending on the field.

 Airsoft:  Airsoft is getting popular day by day because of cheaper cost and real military feelings, currently the majority of newbie’s start their journeys in airsoft.

Another major reason for the popularity of airsoft is its equipment is very similar to the real equipment, Even you can’t distinguish, from a certain distance.

 Paintball:  Paintball is slightly less popular as compared to the airsoft, still there are some paintball die-hards like me but fact is the fact.

Airsoft is dominating paintball because of cost and realism, still, these both are totally different you have to explore both.

 Airsoft:  Airsoft is a more realistic game you will have the same environment like the military camp has. Moreover, you have similar tasks like the soldier you have to protect your village and your family, players are very serious about that.

 Paintball:  Paintball is a more sport supportive game, you will have a colorful paintball markers and paintballs to hit your opponents, many players prefer paintball because of enjoyment and fun.

 Airsoft Rules:  There are lots of rules in airsoft but we have to count some general rules like if a player got a hit it will be eliminated, it will  not be allowed to get out of the boundaries during the match.

400 fps is the standard velocity of pellets every player should not have a gun more than 400fps.

There is more chancing of cheating in airsoft as compared to paintball because the pellets are very small and there will be no visible marker on the player to identify whether a player got shot or not.

 Paintball Rules:  Similarly like airsoft, there are several rules of paintball as well but we have to cover some general rules if a player got a hit it should be eliminated and walk to the dead zone where all eliminate players will be treated further.

No one has a permit to go away from the boundary line, every player should be within certain boundaries. ALso,No one has a permit to climb on the trees as well because of some safety reasons.

There are very fewer chances of cheating in paintball because paintballs make a clear mark on the object, referees can identify it within some seconds. If you are not sure that you got a hit you will have the liberty to get surety from your teammates or referees, till that game will be paused.

 Airsoft player roles:  As we have discussed that airsoft is a serious game every player must have a  role according to the nature of the game. Each player has to follow their role strictly; we can see different additional roles than paintball.

Superman only has the task to eliminate opponents from far away. autocannons machines are operated by a heavy gun specialist, shoot guns are used to break the door, grenades and knives are used to eliminate the close opponents. Even sometimes they have a proper medical team in longer games, now you can observe the reality if a player injured the medical team rushes to get the first AID.

 Paintball player Paintball: :   The roles of paintball players are simple, each player assigns a role according to the experience, like frontman, mid player, floater, back player, and inserts.

 Airsoft pain:  Airsoft guns loaded with small lightweight pallets (0.3 to 0.28) gm available in different varieties like you can get plastic or metallic pellets as per choice.

Though the FPS of airsoft is far more than paintball guns, still the size of ammo matters, if we compare both for the same distance paintball hurts more than airsoft, just because of its large size. Even some players didn’t felt like they got a shoot just because of the long-distance and proper thick clothes.

 Paintball Pain:   paintball guns are loaded with large paintballs, paintballs are approximately 17 times heavy as compared to airsoft pellets, definitely, if we shoot a paintball and pellets from the same range on a particular object, paintball will hurt more, just because of higher size and weight.

Though paintball guns have lower FPS as compared to airsoft, Still paintball hurts more.