Are you thinking about playing paintball for the first time, but would first like to know how long a paintball game lasts? Maybe you’re worried you don’t have the endurance for longer games, or maybe you just want to play paintball in your backyard but aren’t sure how long to play for?
Fortunately for you, I’ve played hundreds of paintball matches over the years and have a pretty good idea of how long a paintball game is typically going to last.
The average game of paintball lasts around 15 minutes. There are some paintball games, such as speedball and capture the flag, that can be over in just a few minutes, and there are some specialty woodsball and rec ball games that can last up to 30+ minutes. Scenario paintball games can last anywhere from 16 – 36 hours, although there are typically breaks for players to sleep at night.
Continue reading below to find out how long an average day of paintball lasts, how long different scenario games last, and how long different types of paintball games lasts and how to play each one.
How Long is a Day of Paintball?
The average day of paintball starts at 9:00 AM in the morning and lasts till 5:00 PM in the afternoon. However, most players won’t show up right at 9:00 AM, so there’s no need to worry if you get to the paintball field early and there are not many people there. I’ve also found that a lot of players tend to leave a little early as well, making the prime time to play paintball between 10:30 AM and 3:30 PM.
Now, if you find yourself playing with die-hard tournament or woodsball/rec ball players, then it’s highly possible they’ll come early and stay till the field is closed. Whereas if you find yourself playing with beginners or (even worse) groups of first-time players, then there’s a good chance they will come late and/or leave early.
If you have your own group, however, then you can play paintball for as long as you and your group want to play. This is why many players join local paintball teams so they can be certain there will people to play with every time they go out to play.
How Long is a Scenario Paintball Game?
Scenario paintball games are designed to be the ultimate experience for woodball, rec ball, and magfed paintball players.
While the typical length of a scenario paintball game is 24 hours, there are scenario games that last 16 hours, 32 hours, 36 hours, and all types of hours in-between. The most common hours a scenario game is played is between 9:00 AM – 1:00 AM (single day), 9:00 AM – 1:00 AM (Saturday and Sunday), 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Friday), 9:00 AM – 1:00 AM (Saturday), and 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM (Sunday).
Read More: How Long Do Paintballs Last?
Of course, every paintball field is going to set its own rules and hours for their scenario games, so make sure to always check the exact hours that a scenario game will be played before you decide to go.
Paintball Games
There are the main game variations of paintball (Woodsball, Speedball, Rec Ball, Magfed, Stock Class, Scenario Paintball) and then there are the different types of paintball games within each game variation. Here are the most popular paintball games below.
Team Deathmatch (Elimination)
Team deathmatch – often called Elimination – is the most popular game type in paintball. This is because the only objective of Elimination is for all players to shoot at each other until everyone is eliminated. The team with any remaining players win.
Average game time: 10 minutes
Capture the Flag
There are two different ways to play capture the flag in paintball. You can either set up one flag in the middle and both teams fight to capture that flag, or you set up a flag at each team’s base, and in order to win your team has to possess both flags at your base.
Average game time: 10 minutes
Attack and Defend
The way to play Attack and Defend is to have one team defending their base and the other team coming to attack it. The winning team is the team with any remaining players.
Average game time: 15 minutes
Zombies
In order to play Zombies (also known as Juggernaught) you assign one player (preferably one with skill) the role of zombie and then tell all of the other players to go hide somewhere on the field. Once all of the non-zombie players have had a chance to find a spot and hide, the zombie (or Juggernaught) goes out and eliminates the players one by one.
After a non-zombie player is infected (eliminated) by the Zombie, they then have to go back to the main base and start over as a Zombie themselves. When a zombie is eliminated, they just have to go back to the base and start over once again as a zombie.
Average game time: 20 minutes
Plant the Bomb
Plant the Bomb is kind of like capture the flag, but instead of capturing a flag and bringing it to your base, you have to capture a bomb (or are given a bomb) and bring it to the enemy’s base.
There are three different ways to play Plant the Bomb, the first being to have one team with the bomb attack the other team while they defend their base. The second way to play PTB (Plant the Bomb) is for both teams to be given a bomb and have them both try to plant their own bomb at the enemy team’s base. The third and final way to play PTB is to set a bomb in the middle of the field and have each team try to grab it and plant it at the enemy’s base.
This is by far my favorite paintball game type as I love defending the base with my ghillie suit on and EMF100 equipped with First Strikes (a type of paintball with greater accuracy and range).
Average game time: 20 minutes