Due to heavier ammunition, paintball guns need much more storage place, as well as greater shooting power. Therefore they have a very big magazine for balls at the top and a similar, but for gas, at the bottom. The gun then looks like a Star Wars weapon and is very incompact and weighty. On the other hand, airsoft guns are perfect imitations of real weapons. After the gun with bullet, an airsoft player needs many protective items. Most relevant are the goggles, which have to be very hard and strong. The ball flies with a speed of up to 150 meters in a second, which can be very harmful to human eyes. From a normal distance, the shot does not hurt as much as when the weapon is upgraded or the distance shorter. Then the pain increases rapidly and for close combats (e.g. in buildings) it is useful to protect also other parts of the body. Those are the knuckles, nails, ears and lips, which can hurt quite a lot. Many “soldiers” use hoods in a combination with masks for the whole face. The next part of the airsoft equipment is the - usually military – clothing. It can be adjusted to camouflage in woodland, desert, snow or “concrete jungle”. And there many other devices used when playing airsoft: walkie – talkies, night goggles, knives, pyrotechnics, … All these make it much more interesting, maybe because they are rarely used in paintball and therefore more “demanded”.
Airsoft is a sport that was created as a cheaper form of the paintball sport. However, it became at least as much popular as paintball, due to its many advantages mentioned before.