Pickleball is not the most televised sport, but it is gaining popularity. With that said, where is Pickleball played the most?

Unlike other sports, Pickleball is fairly young - it was born only 55 years ago. This game is an amalgamation of tennis, table tennis, and badminton. However, it is a low-impact variant of these racquet sports. This game is easy to learn and can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Pickleball is mostly played in Seattle, Washington, and in different areas of Nebraska. In terms of pickleball courts, these states stand head and shoulders above the rest. However, pickleball is gaining traction, and more courts are popping up both in the USA and worldwide.

Because of its surge in popularity, it is easy to spot a bunch of people playing Pickleball at a community center, a local school, or a senior living center. A Pickleball court is smaller than a tennis court. The ball stays in play longer, which equates to a good bit of workout. Interestingly, it doesn’t exhaust players too much, which makes it a great sport for seniors.

We wouldn’t call ourselves professionals, but we’ve played our fair share of pickleball, and we’d love to see more people pick up the sport. With that said, here, we’re going to talk about where pickleball is played the most and places where it’s starting to gain traction.

History of the Game

This sport was born in 1965 at Bainbridge Island, right outside Seattle. During the summer holidays, three people named Bill Bell, Barney McCallum, and Joel Pritchard were trying to entertain their children. They were hitting a wiffle ball with ping pong racquets. They started off with the net at badminton height, but they scaled it down to 36 inches above the ground.

They played throughout the weekend and ended up developing rules for the new sport. Two years later, they formed the first-ever Pickleball court in history. In 1972, they put together a body to protect the sport, and in 1976, Pickleball was officially recognized as a sport with the publication of an article, “America’s New Racquet Sport.”

The first Pickleball tournament was held in 1976. It continued to grow, and by the year 1990, Pickleball was being played throughout the 50 states in the US.

Pickleball’s Popularity

According to a 2012 study by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, there were 2.815 million active Pickleball players in the US at that time. This number was 12.3% higher than in 2011. It shows how quickly this game has grown in popularity. Between 2015 and 2018, the number of Pickleball players grew by 29.1%.

By the year 2019, the number of Pickleball players had grown to 3.3 million. Of these 3.3 million players, 2 million were casual players who participated in the sport 1-7 times a year. On the flip side, the remaining 1.3 million were core players.

The core players participated more than 8 times a year. By the end of 2019, there were 30,238 Pickleball courts in the US, and an average of 100 new locations were being added  every month.

Where Is It Most Popular?

As we have discussed above, Pickleball is the fast-growing sport in North America. Washington DC and Seattle are the two places that have an edge over other places in the US in terms of Pickleball popularity.

Other parts of the country with a big number of Pickleball courts include Virginia with 43 courts, Honolulu and Hawaii with 41, St. Paul and Minnesota with 38, while Plano, Omaha, Texas, and Chesapeake have 31. Seattle has the highest number of courts per capita, i.e., 1.4 courts per 100,000 people.

As of 2019, there were more than 7900 places designated as official Pickleball venues by the USA Pickleball Association. This number includes at least one location in all 50 states. You can find Pickleball courts at schools, parks, senior residence communities, and recreational centers.

Here is a region-wise breakdown of the 1.3 million core players that we discussed a few paragraphs ago.

• Mountain: 164000
• Pacific: 260000
• South Atlantic Region: 276000
• East North Central: 268000

The players from these four regions make up more than 70% of the core players in the US.

Where Else Do They Play Pickleball?

Contrary to popular belief, Pickleball isn’t just gaining popularity in the States. People outside the US are embracing this sport with open arms.

The International Federation of Pickleball, or IFP is the global governing body of the game. IFP is a non-profit organization that works day and night to expose the rest of the world to this amazing sport. The next big target for the IFP is to have this game recognized by the International Olympic Committee for it to become an Olympic sport.

If you visit the IFP website, you will be amazed to discover that 26 countries are members of the IFP. These countries have institutionalized the sport, and they have independent teams that frequently compete with one another.

At the moment, Pickleball has 89 ambassadors from all over the world. They, too, are part of the IFP, and are working tirelessly to enhance the popularity of this game and make it hit new heights. In order to qualify for the Olympics, there are a few requirements the IFP has to fulfill.

To make it to the Olympics, the sport should be played by men in 75 countries across all continents. For females, this sport needs to be played in 40 countries across three continents.

Reasons for Popularity

The main reason why Pickleball is popular is that it is easy to start. Furthermore, its gear is not expensive at all. All you need is some racquets and a bunch of balls. Moreover, you can easily access a pickleball court if you reside in the US or Canada. If you don’t have a court, you can make your own court with some tape and a portable net.

Besides being an easy sport, its low-impact nature is what contributes to its popularity. It is very easy for kids to pick up the game’s rules at an early age. Apart from being physically rewarding, this sport also teaches the players hand-eye coordination, which is helpful in all other sports. For the elderly, it is a low-impact form of exercise which keeps them fit and in shape, without any additional exhaustion.

Furthermore, this game can be played by people of all ages, and interestingly, you don’t have to be super skilled to be good at it. Families can enjoy this game in their garden or their driveway. School students can also indulge in a couple of games of pickleball during their PE sessions.

Because it is a relatively slower sport, it doesn’t lead to any serious injuries. The USA Pickleball Association has been working hard to spread awareness about the game. They have and still are working toward developing more locations where people can come and indulge in this sport.

Some high school and community grant programs provide reimbursement for purchasing pickleball equipment to be used in a school PE class or at a designated pickleball location.

The IFP has one major goal at the moment: to enter the Olympics and have this game recognized as an Olympic sport. However, they will have to work even harder to maximize awareness of this game. To be really honest, at the moment, this game is pretty much confined to the USA and Canada.

The IFP needs to penetrate into remote locations across Europe and Asia. Not only will it increase awareness, but it will provide the IFP with diverse talent. Luckily, we are living in the age of social media, where you can’t avoid the inflow of information. While we can hope this game will spread far and wide, we cannot factor out the reality that there is still a long way to go.