Report: Pickleball participation remains strong, but growth levels off from post-2020 spike

Alex Lantz

Director of Content

Last Edited

Aug 27 2025

Category

News

After seeing explosive growth each year from 2021-2024, the rise in pickleball participation has leveled off slightly, according to a new report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

The SFIA recently released its mid-year participation report, which shows that pickleball still remains the fastest growing sport in the U.S. with a 14.7% increase in participation this year. But that growth rate is notably down from prior years -- there were 19.8 million players in the U.S. in 2024, which represented an increase of 45.8% from the previous year and a 311% jump over the past three years.

Here are the number of players at the end of each year over the past 5 years:

2020: 4.20 million
2021: 4.82 million
2022: 8.95 million
2023: 13.58 million
2024: 19.81 million

The new data -- which was gathered from a sample of roughly 20,000 online interviews conducted nationwide -- indicates that there are now about 22.7 million players.

While the growth rate has slowed slightly from prior years, pickleball remains extremely popular, with more people playing the sport in the U.S. than soccer (14.1 million participants) and baseball (16.7 million participants).

"Pickleball remains the fastest-growing sport, though early indicators suggest its explosive growth may be slowing ... potentially signaling a new phase of stabilization for the sport," the report said. "This is only an early snapshot. Because many sports and activities are seasonal, there is still time for these numbers to shift."

A slight slowdown in growth might actually be a blessing in disguise for the sport, as it will allow supply of new courts to catch up with demand.

Despite an impressive 55% growth in dedicated pickleball facilities and a 23% increase in total courts year-over-year in 2024, the shortage of dedicated courts remains a concern, particularly in urban areas.

While New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago made significant strides by doubling their dedicated courts per 10,000 residents, these major markets still lag significantly, averaging 92% below the national court density average.

According to a SFIA report focused specifically on pickleball that was released late last year, the industry needs $855 million to fund 24,500 new courts over the next 5-7 years.

This investment is essential to prevent future bottlenecks in the sport’s growth, especially in regions where player demand far exceeds court availability.

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