Study: 36.5 Million Americans Played Pickleball In 2022

The Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) released its 2023 APP Pickleball Participation Report* that showed 14 percent of adults in the U.S. (36.5 million people) played pickleball at least once in the 12 months from August 2021 to August 2022 and 8.5 million people played pickleball eight times or more in the same period.

The study found 45 percent of the 36.5 million total players said they plan to play pickleball more in the next six months than in the previous six-month period.

“The first of what will be our annual APP Participation Report clearly shows that Pickleball is not only America’s fastest-growing sport, it is growing much faster than anyone really thought. Now, pickleball has to be viewed as one of America’s favorite sports,” commented Tom Webb, chief marketing officer. APP. “In 2020, a pandemic year, previous reports stated that over four million people picked up a paddle to play pickleball, with that number reportedly growing to over five million in 2021. Those numbers appear to have been conservative, but what the APP’s report shows is that the popularity of pickleball has exploded. Pickleball courts continue to be built and installed nationwide, and people from coast to coast are trying the sport for the first time, and immediately falling in love with pickleball. The APP is honored to represent the millions of people coming into the sport at all levels from professional, elite athletes at the top of the game, who are rightly gaining in status and awareness as the incredible athletes they are, to the amateur players who are so integral to the growth of our organization and the sport overall, right through to the millions of recreational players who find so much enjoyment from a sport they can pick up easily, which has a low cost of entry, and which rewards its participants from the first time they play.”

*The 2023 APP Pickleball Participation Report was compiled by YouGov with the research team polling a sample group of nearly 2,500 nationally representative adults ages 18-plus across America.