About

Paintball is a sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with paint filled, breakable, gelatin paintballs usually shot from a carbon dioxide or compressed air powered "paintball marker".

Paintball draws a wide array of people, and the Sporting Goods Manufacturer's Association estimates that over 10 million people play the game in the United States annually, with 1.9 million playing at least 15 times a year. Insurance statistics show that paintball is one of the safest sports, with fewer injuries per exposure than sports like soccer, football, and baseball.

Games can be also played either indoors or outdoors and take various forms, of which some of the most popular are woodsball, scenario, X-Ball and speedball. Rules for playing paintball vary widely, with most designed to ensure that participants enjoy the sport in a safe environment. The sport requires a significant amount of equipment.

A game of paintball usually involves two opposing teams seeking to eliminate all of the other team's players or to complete some other objective, such as retrieving a flag, eliminating a specific player, or other paintball variations. Depending on the style of paintball played, a paintball game can last from seconds to days, although typical woodsball games are five to thirty minutes long.