Could NL10 be more difficult than NL25?

General knowledge, the higher the stakes the more difficult the game.

Would it be possible that NL25 was actually easier to beat than NL10?

My personal belief is that NL10 is the stake where players who really take poker seriously and start to work hard on their game go for learning curve. NL2 is still fishfest where mechanical play will suffice. NL5 is very similar to NL10 but the winrate drops significantly with a crappy rakeback. NL10 has a game that resembles pretty much microstakes poker. 3bets are heavy there. Blind defends, squeeze, etc. Yet it's still a little less stingy to the bankroll than NL 25 for learning curve if things don't go right.

But for recreationals who just want to play poker 10c bb is still too small. I think they start to feel it at 25cBB where 4x raise pre makes a dollar pot, instead of 40c. I think that NL25 attracts more recs than NL10, while NL10 actually has biggerd concentration of eager to learn players.

Dont get me wrong, you encounter fish at nl10 of course, but I think NL25 is softer.

I think it partly depends on the site. I play mostly on poker stars and there are far fewer weaker players at 5nl and 10nl than at 2nl. The standard of play on party poker seems worse at 5nl thsn stars at 2nl and when I played on 888 it was worse there too.

I don’t think that bigger stakes always means a harder game. I think a lot of people playing nl25 are way above what their bankroll allows. How good can a player be when he doesn’t even follow a somewhat reasonable bankroll management?
Also there are the Donks who will switch to a higher buy-in to recover losses....

It is definitely possible that you encountered weaker opponents on NL25 that NL10, but as a general rule, this shouldn't be the case. Going higher the regulars are better (they make fewer mistakes) and the fish still remain fish, on whatever limit they play.

By the way, what is the sample size you're making your assumption on?

I think the only way NL10 would be more difficult would be with some of the rake structures.