After decades as a niche, obscure game you might play for a week in gym class, pickleball is on the rise. NPR dubbed the mashup of badminton, ping pong, tennis, and Wiffle balls “America’s fastest-growing sport,” with 4.8 million people playing annually and much of the surge coming in the last five years. Brands like Skechers are even signing pro pickleballers to ambassador deals.
CivicScience recently launched a survey to track just how much growth is still in store for the budding sports phenomenon, and there’s still plenty of potential. Twelve percent of Americans familiar with pickleball have played it and like it — and almost twice that figure haven’t played it yet but plan to. Although the short-term growth prospects look promising, three-in-five Amercians familiar with pickleball aren’t interested at all.
Although USA Pickleball claims the oldest age bracket is playing the most frequently, young players are overwhelmingly outpacing the Gen Pop. More than one-in-five Americans familiar with pickleball between 18 and 34 have played and like the sport — and more than one-quarter of Gen Zers familiar with it plan to give it a try. Every age bracket doesn’t stray too far from the Gen Pop’s figures for intent to play in the future, which should also bode well for word-of-mouth growth across generations.
Pickleball is currently the biggest hit in cities, with the most intent to play in cities among those familiar with pickleball. Suburban Americans are a bit more averse to pickleball on the whole than rural Americans, but both exhibit strong intent to try.
Pickleball performs especially well with Target and Walmart shoppers alike. One-quarter of Americans familiar with the sport who also love shopping at Target is pickleball fans, with Walmart lovers clocking in just below one quarter. As the game continues to grow, it may become an increasingly natural pairing for these major retailers to stock up on pickleball gear.
As a relatively obscure game, pickleball performs slightly better among Americans who consider sports to be at least somewhat important (with nearly one-third of Americans who consider sports “important” and are familiar with pickleball planning to try it). But its appeal already transcends sports fans: more than 20% of non-fans familiar with pickleball have either played or plan to play in the future.
If pickleball continues to grow at its current rate, the number of Americans who’ve played the sport could double again within the next decade. It’s going to depend on young players sustaining their interest levels — with a not-insignificant portion of sports skeptics — to keep the trend moving.