Pickleball is conquering America, next stop: The world
The world’s largest pickleball franchise is going to Japan.
If your local park, gym, or sports club isn’t already awash with a constant din of the distinctive “pock” of a plastic pickleball ball, it probably will be soon. A tennis-badminton-ping-pong hybrid, the sport has seen a dizzying upsurge in the US over the past few years.
Last May, a report from the Trust for Public Land found that the number of outdoor public park pickleball courts had rocketed 650% over seven years to more than 3,000 across America’s most populated cities. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s latest participation report, there were 19.8 million pickleball players nationwide in 2024 — a 46% increase from the year before, and up 311% since 2021.
If we put all the pickleballers in one state (Dillaware?) it would be tied with New York state as America’s fourth most populous.
Racket up
Invented by three Washington dads back in 1965, pickleball at first grew organically across the country, being played in all 50 states by 1990.
However, since the pandemic, the smaller-scale racket game has boomed in popularity for its accessibility (owing to its iconic perforated ball), quick rallies, versatility, and lower physical exertion. Today, demand for pickleball facilities is at an all-time high in America, with public parks and recreation centers struggling to keep pace.
If we’re not already there, we might be approaching peak pickleball in the US. So, if you’re a startup that’s jumped on the bandwagon, how do you keep the growth going?
One option is to go global. Last Thursday, The Picklr — not a discarded Batman villain, but rather the world’s largest pickleball franchise — announced that it will open 20 new locations in Japan, on top of a further 30 in the US. The paddle game has also been sweeping Asian countries like India, China, and South Korea, with significant uptake in other Western nations like Canada and the UK.
The other is to stay local and just go bigger, though this has led to some controversy. In the past week, a legal battle has unfolded in a small New Jersey town after it was revealed that the mayor had planned to turn a church and its surrounding 11 acres of land into, among other things, 10 pickleball courts.
