Top 5 Most Popular Table Tennis Rubbers of All Time

No love for dem pimps? I'm sure 802 and Spectol squeeze in somewhere.

I just remembered, back in the day Nitakku Hammond was pretty much in line with Sriver and Mark V. Add speed glue and it was awesome.

Because of the number of years that sriver and mark v were introduced before newer rubbers, they sold more and were more popular.

I kind of feel like Dan's list makes sense. I think Mark V and Sriver stand out and were clear standards for decades.

Tenergy and H3 are the standouts from today. And, maybe there are other candidates, but I feel like MXP is as good a choice as any to take up the 5th spot. Today, it is one of the few rubbers that really does perform almost as well as Tenergy while being in that same class of rubbers. I am sure there are others. But I don't know any are as known, and as widely used as MXP and MXP really is quite a good rubber.

When looking at a balance of speed, spin and ability to control the ball with the rubber, I would say MXP compares quite favorably to any rubber out there including Tenergy. Although, I do still feel Tenergy would probably my favorite rubber if I didn't like the way Butterfly manipulates their prices. It still is better than almost everything in most ways excluding its price point.

tsubasa said:

Sriver, mark v , h3, tenergy, bryce.

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That would be my guess too.

But it ignores amateur players in China who exist in millions and who have not used any of these except maybe quite recently.

PF4-651, Sriver, Bryce, H3, Tenergy for me.
I guess it'd be entirely different list if the most popular meant the best selling.

UpSideDownCarl said:

I kind of feel like Dan's list makes sense. I think Mark V and Sriver stand out and were clear standards for decades.

Tenergy and H3 are the standouts from today. And, maybe there are other candidates, but I feel like MXP is as good a choice as any to take up the 5th spot. Today, it is one of the few rubbers that really does perform almost as well as Tenergy while being in that same class of rubbers. I am sure there are others. But I don't know any are as known, and as widely used as MXP and MXP really is quite a good rubber.

When looking at a balance of speed, spin and ability to control the ball with the rubber, I would say MXP compares quite favorably to any rubber out there including Tenergy. Although, I do still feel Tenergy would probably my favorite rubber if I didn't like the way Butterfly manipulates their prices. It still is better than almost everything in most ways excluding its price point.

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Bryce was king for that period after Mark V and Sriver but before the 2008 speed glue ban, which marked the beginning of Tenergy. A lot of the pros using Tenergy in 2010 were using glued Bryce in 2007.

Baal said:

Bryce was king for that period after Mark V and Sriver but before the 2008 speed glue ban, which marked the beginning of Tenergy. A lot of the pros using Tenergy in 2010 were using glued Bryce in 2007.

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Yeah. I agree that Bryce could be the rubber in the middle. I just understand Dan's choice and process even though, probably, more people used Bryce than use MXP. And Bryce glued was pretty great. But once Tenergy came along almost everyone who used Bryce with glue went right to Tenergy. And MXP is used by a lot of people in direct competition with Tenergy. So, I think Dan could have made different choices and they would have been fine top. I also think some of those inexpensive Chinese rubbers that way more people in China have used than anything else would be arguable choices.

But sometimes recency has a value. And MXP is one of the only rubbers people choose when they have a reason not to want to use Tenergy.

Before MXP so many players were sponsored pros were using Tenergy when their sponsors were not Butterfly. MXP is one of the first rubbers I saw where several top pros actually used it when they were not sponsored by Butterfly. So, I am good with Dan's choice even if I understand that there are many other choices that could be made for top 5 rubbers.

I figured "of all time" included the era from around 1992 to 2008. It made Sriver obsolete.

MX-P is certainly the most popular "alternative to Tenergy 05".

Baal said:

I figured "of all time" included the era from around 1992 to 2008. It made Sriver obsolete.

MX-P is certainly the most popular "alternative to Tenergy 05".

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Yep. I agree with your reasoning. I do think Bryce would have been a fine choice in the list as well. I could argue for either choice.

And I also see the point in the statement below.

Baal said:

But it ignores amateur players in China who exist in millions and who have not used any of these except maybe quite recently.

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So I am not sure this has to be a list where there are no alternative lists. This is just a list of the top 5 from Dan's perspective. Or, that is how I am thinking of it.

Including MX-P contravenes the spirit of Rule 88, even if it does not directly violate it.