NSGA’s 2026 Sports Participation Report found alpine skiing, cheerleading, flag football, kayaking and Pilates saw the strongest participation gains among sports, fitness and outdoor activities in 2025. Golf, tennis and pickleball all saw solid gains, although pickleball moderated from its breakneck pace in recent years.

Overall, the survey of approximately 25,000 individuals ages 7 and older conducted by Ipsos found 49 – or 80.1 percent – of 61 tracked sports delivered increases in participation for 2025 compared to the previous year.

Among the highlights of the report:

  • Two of the top team sports with participation increases were flag football and cheerleading at nearly 14 percent. They were part of a 4 percent increase in total participation points (TPPs) for the segment and helped to offset small declines in touch football and softball.
  • The individual sports segment was up about 4 percent thanks to strong gains by tennis, golf and pickleball.
  • The indoor activities segment increased about 6 percent, bolstered by strong gains in table tennis of 10 percent.
  • The outdoor segment also showed an increase of 3.3 percent, led by hiking which reached a new total of 57.7 million participants.
  • Bicycle riding and in-line roller skating drove a wheel sports segment increase of 3 percent.
  • While the fitness segment was down slightly, Pilates received a boost in participation helped by almost 7,500 new Pilates/yoga studios registered in 2025.

Most sports and activities tracked showed modest low-single digit gains, but participation for several remained well above pre-pandemic levels.

Golf and Tennis Outpace Pickleball Participation Gains Within Individual Sports
Among individual sports, the highest year-over-year gain in 2025 was achieved in tennis, with participation in 2025 expanding 9.3 percent year-over-year to 16.4 million. Participation is up 34.4 percent from 12.2 million reached in the pre-pandemic 2019 year.

Golf participation grew 7.9 percent to 21.6 million year-over-year, with participation ahead 30.2 percent since 2019.

Participation growth in pickleball, which has led sports participation over last four years, dramatically slowed to 6.5 percent, totaling 16.4 participants. Pickleball participation gains were 55.6 percent in 2024, 54.7 percent in 2023 and 77.8 percent in 2023. Pickleball participation has grown nearly eight-fold were only since 2019.

Among the big-three individual sports, tennis had the most frequent participants, with 16.9 percent of tennis players playing over 30 times a year. Among golf participants, 15.3 percent were considered frequent participants, marked at over 40 times a year. Among pickleball players, 12.9 percent were considered frequent annually, playing more than 30 times a year.

Among other individual sports, gymnastics was a standout, with participating jumping 22.0 percent to 7.2 million. Receiving its traditional lift in a Winter Olympics year, ice/figure skating participation grew 9.1 percent to 9.6 million. Swimming and bowling participation remain below pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

Basketball, Cheerleading, Flag Footwear and Soccer Lead Team Sports Participation
Among team sports, cheerleading continues to increase in appeal, with participation expanding 12.8 percent 4.4 million, building on gains in recent years.

Flag football, boosted the NFL’s investment in the sport and its upcoming debut at the 2028 Olympics, increased participants to 7.6 million, up 13.4 percent year over year.

Among traditional school sports, soccer saw the strongest participation gains amid growing hype over the North American World Cup. Soccer participation expanded 5.1 percent year-over-year to 16.6 million and are up 17.7 percent from 14.1 million participants in 2022.

Basketball participants grew 6.9 percent to 25.5 million and is now back to slightly above 2019 levels after losing participants during the pandemic. Volleyball participants grew to 11.2 million from 10.8 million in 2024 and after peaking at 11.7 million in 2022.

On the downside, softball saw another decline in participation, reaching 7.5 million in 2025 and down from 10.1 million  in 2019. Baseball participation was flat at 10.6 million year-over-year but down from 12.2 million in 2019.

Tackle football participation showed some recovery, increasing to 6.8 million participants in 2025 from 6.6 million in 2024, but is still down from 7.3 million in 2019 and 7.9 million in 2016. Ice hockey, 3.8 million participants, has shown recovery in recent years while lacrosse, 2.8 million participants, added some players after running flat in recent years.

The study also ranked sports by time based at an organized level versus recreational participation. The sport featuring the highest proportion of organized play was softball, 63 percent; followed in the top-five by gymnastics, 57 percent; baseball and soccer, both 56 percent; and lacrosse, 56 percent. Organized participation represented 54 percent of time played in tackle football. Recreational play was highest among team sports in basketball, at 64 percent.

Alpine Skiing, Canoeing and Hiking See Healthy Participation Gains Within Outdoor
Among outdoor sports, hiking was a big winner, with participation in 2025 increasing 5.1 percent year-over-year to 57.7 million. Hiking participation is up 20.0 percent from 48.1 million in 2019.

Camping (vacation/overnight), showed some recovery, increasing participants to 40.1 million in 2025 from 39.2 million in 2024. Backpack/wilderness camping participation slipped to 11.0 million from 11.5 million in 2024. Both camping categories have lost participants versus 2019.

Fishing (Fresh Water), with 31.8 participants, and Fishing (Salt Water), with 11 million participants, have continued see growth in recent years.

Water sports are seeing healthy participation gains across several activities. Kayaking participation increased 9.5 percent to 13.8 million in 2025 and is up from 10.7 million in 2019. Canoeing participation declined slightly to 7.1 million after reaching as high as 8 million in 2022.

Big gains in recent years in water sports were scored by scuba diving, with participants increasing to 3.6 million from 2.2 million in 2019; surfing, 3.8 million participants against 2.3 million in 2019; and water skiing, 4.4 participants last year versus 3.9 million in 2019.

Among snow sports, alpine skiing participation was up 16.9 percent to 8.3 million year-over-year and is up 38.3 percent since 2019. Cross country skiing (3.6 million participants) is up 56.5 percent from 2019, and snowboarding (5.4 million participants) is ahead 35.0 percent over the last two years, including growth over the last year.

Wheel sports likewise held on to many newbies trying outdoor sports during the early stages of the pandemic. Bicycle riding, the most popular activity with 41.3 million participants, was up slightly in 2025 after declining the prior two years. Bicycle riding was only 37.8 million participants in 2019.

Off-road mountain biking (7.0 million participants) was up slightly last year and is ahead 25 percent since 2019. Also showing recovery in recent years is in-line roller skating, with 6.4 million participants, after declining as low as 4.2 million in 2021. Skateboarding participation showed another modest gain in participation, with 7.3 million participants and is up from 5.5 million in 2019.

Several Fitness Activities Lose Ground in Participation
Among fitness activities, Pilates stood out, increasing participants by 17.5 percent to 9.4 million participants and up from 5.9 million in 2019. However, many activities are losing participants.

Yoga participation grew to 27.8 million from 28.6 million the prior year and is down from 31.8 million in 2019.

Work out at club (34 million participants) was up for the second straight but has not recovered from 2019, when gym participants reached 39.6 million. Exercise with equipment (48.0 million participants) has seen similar declines. Weightlifting (38.1 million participants) has been running flat in recent years.

Despite strong trends around race participation, running/jogging participation overall fell to 38.5 million from 40.4 million in 2024 and 46.0 million in 2019. Exercise walking (96.9 million participants) was down year over year and has lost 9 percent of participants since 2019. Gains were seen in some smaller participation activities including cross-training, dance-oriented fitness, high intensity interval training, and in-home app/video workout.

Boxing participation has bounced back in recent years, reaching 6.6 million last year from 3.7 million in 2019. Martial arts participation (7.0 million participants) and wrestling (4.3 million) were both up slightly.

Among indoor sports, dart throwing participation has grown to 12.3 million from 9.1 million in 2019; table tennis, to 14.2 million in 2025 from 9.9 million in 2019; and billiards/pool participation, to 23.1 million from 20.7 million in 2019. All three activities saw more players last year.

Hunting with Firearms Loses More Participants
Within shooting sports, hunting with firearms participation continued to lose participants, dropping to 11.9 million in 2025 from 13.2 million in 2024 and 17.2 million in 2019.

Hunting with bow & arrow (6.2 million participants) was up slightly year over year and is slightly ahead of pre-pandemic levels. Target live ammo shooting (23.5 million participants) and airgun target shooting (6.8 million participants) have both seen steady gains in recent years. Paintball (6.9 million participants) has also recovered smartly in recent years. Target archery (7.5 million participants) increased participants for the third year in a row but remains below the 7.9 million tallied in 2019.

Image courtesy National Football League