Boredom, the mother of invention
Tracing its roots all the way back to 1965 when it was invented by a group of 3 dads who couldn’t find a shuttlecock to play badminton on a summer’s day, pickleball has had a slow-then-fast-then-really-fast rise in America. On that day in Washington nearly 60 years ago, the trio improvised with what they had: table tennis paddles, a plastic ball, and a badminton court — a combination that, once the net was lowered a few feet, proved an entertaining and accessible game to a variety of ages and abilities.
From those humble beginnings, it took the sport decades to really capture people’s interest, spreading organically across America, eventually being played in every state by 1990. But, cut to the present day, and pickleball has taken the US by storm: according to the Sport & Fitness Industry Association, 8.9 million players played the sport in 2022, up more than 80% on the prior year, making it the fastest growing sport in America.
Serving everyone
Arguably the main driver of pickleball’s popularity boom is its low-commitment versatility. Thanks to its perforated ball — which slows the game down — and smaller court, pickleball demands less raw athletic ability than many other sports, giving it a broad appeal, with many kids and seniors picking up the game.
In 2021, almost 73% of all record pickleball participants were ‘casual’ players who played fewer than 7x per year. In that same year, roughly 29% of pickleball players were aged 18-34 years old, while 21% were kids, ~20% were 35-54, and a whopping ~18% were 65+ — an astonishingly even demographic split for an increasingly mainstream sport. Out of those who play the most frequently, the older demographic was the dominant force, accounting for nearly one-third of that “core” player group.
