Pickleball statistics - the numbers behind America's fastest-growing sport

Pickleball is continuing its incredible rise after being named the fastest-growing sport in the United States for the fourth consecutive year. We've been doing our best to facilitate its growth by helping players find courts, coaches, games, and other players.

We continually track the sport's progress so that we can react to challenges facing pickleball as it becomes more popular, such as court supply. In November last year, we released a joint report with the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA)—the "State of Pickleball: Participation & Infrastructure Report".

We've compiled the top pickleball statistics from the report here, along with research from the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP), and USA Pickleball (USA Pickleball). Read on to see the state of pickleball in 2025.

Let's take a look at the figures for the end of last year:

These stats clearly show that pickleball is not slowing down. It's here to stay as one of the country's biggest sports. The future looks bright but there are still many challenges ahead.

2024 saw huge growth in pickleball infrastructure, with dedicated facilities growing 55% year-on-year. However, as I said in our report with the SFIA, there's still a big shortage in facilities nationwide. An estimated $855 million investment is needed in court construction over the next 5-7 years.

Despite these setbacks, pickleball is still on the rise. Tom Cove, president and CEO of the SFIA, said:

According to the latest statistics from the APP, almost 50 million adults played pickleball in the US in 2023—an astonishing 19% of the adult population. This was an increase of 35% from 2022 when the number was 36.5 million.

This report places pickleball as one of the biggest sports in America, measured by participation, trailing only running & cycling.

The SFIA/Pickleheads report shows different numbers, with a total of 13.6 million players in 2023—a 51.8% increase from the 2022 numbers.

Overall, there's been an average increase of 223.5% participation over the last three years, according to our research. We're presenting both the SFIA and APP findings for you to evaluate in making your own conclusion.

Here's a chart showing the increase in players over the last few years according to the SFIA:

Here's that same growth data in a table:

Men made up 59.1% of total pickleball players in 2023, while women made up 40.9%.

Pickleball is a cross-generational sport nowadays, and that shows in the stats. In 2023, players aged 25-34 comprised the largest age bracket, accounting for 16.7% of total participants.

Players aged over 65 were the second largest age bracket, making up 15.4% of total participants, while players aged 18-24 were third at 13.3%. An additional one million kids (under the age of 18) joined the sport in 2023 alone.

According to the APP, the average player age is just under 35. This number has been steadily dropping each year. Back in 2021, the average age was 38.

For the fifth year running, every region in the US saw an increase in pickleball participation. The region with the highest total number of players was the South Atlantic (Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia) with 2.8 million players.

The Pacific, East North Central, and Middle Atlantic regions were close behind. The region with the slowest growth in participation was New England.

The number of places to play pickleball grew by more than 50% in 2024, now reaching over 16,210 at the start of 2025.

Many of these facilities have multiple courts, and there are now over 70,641 pickleball courts in the US (and counting). This number includes dedicated courts and other places to play, such as tennis courts with temporary pickleball lines.

There are now more places to play pickleball in Florida than anywhere else in the US, with 1,228 known locations, narrowly beating the previous leader California (1,223). Texas has 941 locations, while New York has 702.

Houston has overtaken the rest as the city with the most pickleball facilities, with 70 known locations. New York has 59, Austin has 52, and Seattle has 50.

Outside the US, Toronto leads the way with 65 locations. Ottawa and Singapore both have 53.

The table below shows the top 10 cities ranked by the number of places to play pickleball. It's no surprise to see Seattle so high on the list since pickleball was invented on Bainbridge Island in 1965, near the Emerald City.

Recently, Texas has emerged as a pickleball hotspot, now with two cities in the top six. The Austin Pickle Ranch is one of the largest facilities in the country.

Pickleball is big business in 2025, and some of the best pickleball paddles now retail for well over $250. The latest figures from October 2024 show a projected global market growth from $1.5 billion in 2023 to $4.4 billion by 2033, for an 11.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Pickleball tournaments are increasing in number all the time. In 2024, USA Pickleball alone held 142 tournaments. Meanwhile, PPA held 26 tournaments, APP held 20, and Major League Pickleball (MLP) held 11. That's more than a 300% increase since the previous year!

Below are the current pickleball player rankings as reported by the PPA Tour, as of February 2025.

Interest in pickleball has increased 550% over the past 5 years as measured by Google Trends:

By state, Utah is showing the most interest in pickleball currently. Arizona has the second highest interest in pickleball, followed by Hawaii in third.

That's it for my list of pickleball statistics. I'll keep updating this page as more data comes in.

Now we'd like to hear from you. Do you think pickleball can maintain its title as America's fastest-growing sport for another year? Will it spread worldwide as it has in the US? Will we see pickleball in the Olympics anytime soon?

I updated the article with new statistics for 2024 and the start of 2025.