It started in WA, but Seattle is not the U.S. pickleball capital

For decades, pickleball was a quirky local pastime, and not well known outside Western Washington. The game, which combines aspects of tennis, pingpong and badminton, was invented on Bainbridge Island in 1965.

Fast forward to today, pickleball is having its moment. The game has surged in popularity across the nation, and pickleball courts are popping up everywhere. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association has named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. And according to USA Pickleball, the national governing body for the sport, 4.8 million Americans now play the game, a 39% increase over the past two years.

Here’s another sign of pickleball’s growing status: For the first time, market-research giant Nielsen included a question about pickleball participation in its nationwide surveys.

When I came across this newly-released data, I wondered if the Seattle area would rank No. 1 for pickleball participation, seeing as the game originated nearby.

According to Nielsen, 8.2% of Seattle-area adults — a projected 367,000 people — played pickleball in the past 12 months. The surveys were conducted from February to August 2024, and nearly 1,900 people were surveyed in the Seattle market, which includes most of the Puget Sound region.

That did place Seattle near the top among the nation’s largest markets. But no, by this metric, we are not the pickleball capital. A handful of areas have eclipsed Seattle for participation in the sport.

Among the 20 largest market areas, two were nearly tied for the highest level of pickleball participation: Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Phoenix ranked No. 1, with 11.7% of adults having played the game in the past 12 months, a projected 545,000 people. And a quick Google search showed that indeed, both these areas have impressive pickleball infrastructure.

In fact, in the Phoenix area, the world’s largest indoor pickleball facility is under construction, and when completed, it will become the permanent headquarters of USA Pickleball. Phoenix already has a large number of pickleball courts, both public and private, including a 41-court facility called Picklemall.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, 11.6% adults had played pickleball in the past 12 months, a projected 788,000 people. Like Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth has a large number of facilities. One, the Oasis Pickleball Club, boasts 42 outdoor courts, eight covered courts, and four champion courts.

The Denver market area ranked third, with 11% of adults having played the game in the past 12 months, followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul at 9.7% and San Francisco at 9.6%. Seattle only ranked sixth.

Weather likely plays a role in certain areas surpassing Seattle when it comes to pickleball participation. Even though the number of indoor facilities is growing rapidly, many pickleball courts are outside, and our long, rainy winters put us a disadvantage compared to sunnier locales like Phoenix and Dallas. That said, Minneapolis, with its notoriously cold and snowy winters, ranked ahead of Seattle.

Pickleball was least popular in Detroit, where just 5.2% of adults had played in the past 12 months.

The Nielsen data shows a gender gap in the popularity of pickleball in the Seattle area. Around 10% of local men had played the game in the past 12 months, compared with 6.5% of women. Higher male participation rates in the sport were consistent across most of the other large metro areas.

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Pickleball is known as a relatively low-impact activity, and not quite as strenuous as many other sports. Because of this, it has a particular appeal to older people. But younger folks are increasingly taking up the game. In fact, the Nielsen data shows in the Seattle area, pickleball was most popular among those under 35, with around 10% participation. The median age for an adult player was 44.