Pickleball is a racket sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a net, until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played indoors and outdoors. It was invented in 1965 as a children's backyard game in the United States, on Bainbridge Island in Washington state. In 2022, pickleball was named the official state sport of Washington.
Aspects of the sport resemble tennis and table tennis played on a doubles badminton court, but pickleball has specific scoring rules, paddles, balls and court lines. On each side of the net is a known as the non-volley zone (or kitchen); a player standing there may not strike the ball before it has bounced. The hard plastic pickleball produces less bounce than a tennis ball. The limited bounce, non-volley zones, and underhand stroke, with which all serves must be made, give the game a dynamic pace. Slow soft shots in the non-volley zone, called dinks, are used to limit the opponent's ability to attack, while balls that are returned too high might be struck with a powerful drive or overhead smash shot.
After its introduction in 1965, pickleball became a popular sport in the Pacific Northwest and gradually grew in popularity elsewhere. For four years in a row, 2021 through 2024, the sport was named the fastest-growing sport in the United States by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. By 2024, it was estimated there were 19.8 million participants in the United States, a 311% growth since 2021. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association's 2026 report, 24.3 million Americans played pickleball in 2025, a 171% increase over three years. Of those, 7.48 million were core players, defined as those who played eight or more times that year.
Two professional tours were established in the United States in 2019 and shortly thereafter two professional leagues were established. Pickleball is also growing in popularity outside the United States with two professional leagues and one professional tour operating in Australia, and others being developed in Asia. More than 90% of professional pickleball players have a background in tennis.
Etymology The game was created in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, at the summer home of Joel Pritchard, who later served in the United States Congress and as Washington's lieutenant governor. Pritchard and two of his friends, Barney McCallum and Bill Bell, are credited with devising the game and establishing the rules.
According to Joan Pritchard, Joel Pritchard's wife, "The name of the game became Pickle Ball after I said it reminded me of the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats." Similarly, the game of pickleball was created from leftover equipment from several sports; a badminton court, paddleball paddles, a wiffle ball and a net height like that of tennis.
Other sources state that the name "pickleball" was derived from the name of the Pritchards' family dog, Pickles. The Pritchards stated that the dog came along after the game had already been named, and it was the dog that was named for the game of pickleball. They said the confusion arose when a reporter interviewing the Pritchards in the early 1970s decided it would be easier for readers to relate to the dog rather than a pickle boat. Representatives of USA Pickleball claim that research on their part has confirmed that the dog Pickles was born after the game had already been named.
Jennifer Lucore and Beverly Youngren, authors of the book History of Pickleball: More than 50 Years of Fun!, say that they could not conclusively determine whether the game was named for the dog or the dog was named for the game. They did, however, discover a third possibility: Bill Bell claimed that he had named the game because he enjoyed hitting the ball in a way that would put his opponent in a pickle.
Shortly after inventing the game, some of its inventors and their friends brought pickleball to Hawaii, where the game became known as pukaball. Puka, meaning "hole" in Hawaiian, was at first used to refer to the ball, since pickleballs have numerous holes, and later used to refer to the game itself.
History Invention
When Pritchard and Bell returned from golf one Saturday afternoon in 1965, they found their families bored. They had attempted to set up badminton, but no one could find the shuttlecock. Pritchard and Bell challenged their kids to devise their own game. The adults and kids ended up at the badminton court and began experimenting with different balls and rackets, including table tennis paddles. The badminton net was eventually lowered to hip level to accommodate driving the ball.
Initially, a Wiffle ball was used, but later the Cosom Fun Ball was found to be more durable and provided a better playing experience. The table tennis paddles were quickly replaced with larger, more durable plywood paddles fabricated in a nearby shed. McCallum continued to experiment with various paddle designs in his father's Seattle basement workshop. One paddle, he called the "M2", or McCallum 2, became the paddle of choice for most early players of the game. Over the summer Pritchard, Bell and McCallum worked together to refine and document the rules.
Pickle Ball, Inc. In 1967, the first dedicated outdoor pickleball court was constructed at the residence of Pritchard's friend, Bob O'Brian. Soon after its creation, pickleball became popular with local neighbors and relatives of the inventors. In February 1968, Pritchard, along with McCallum's son David and two other friends, formed Pickle Ball, Inc. to promote and sell the sport. The company filed its first annual report in 1972, around the same time they trademarked the name Pickle-ball. The company manufactured wooden paddles and pickleball kits to satisfy the demand for the sport. Interest in pickleball continued to grow, and spread from the Pacific Northwest into warmer areas as "snowbirds" brought the sport south to Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Florida. In 2016, Pickle Ball, Inc. was purchased by PickleballCentral.com, which operates under the corporate name Olla, LLC.
Tournaments
A 1976 tournament held at the Southcenter Athletic Club in Tukwila, Washington, is credited with being the first formal pickleball tournament. It was billed as "The World's First Pickleball Championship" by Joel Pritchard and received a mention in the July 1976 edition of Tennis magazine.
The United States Amateur Pickleball Association (U.S.A.P.A.), now known as USA Pickleball or USAP, was formed in 1984. In the same year they published the first official rulebook for the sport, and held their first organized tournament, the National Doubles Championships, in Tacoma, Washington.
In 2001, pickleball was included as a demonstration sport in the Arizona Senior Olympics (ASO) with 100 participants. The pickleball tournament was held at the Happy Trails RV Resort in Surprise, Arizona, and within five years included 275 participants. The inclusion of pickleball in the ASO was seen as a significant contributor to the growth of tournaments in the United States. In 2008 the sport was included in the United States Senior Olympics.
USA Pickleball held its first regular USA Pickleball National Championships in Buckeye, Arizona, November 2009. It has continued to hold the National Championships each year in various locations, except in 2020, when the games were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic was credited with driving more people to the sport as people looked for outdoor activities.
The U.S. Open Pickleball Championships was first held in 2016, and has been played each year since at the East Naples Community Park in Naples, Florida, which has 64 permanent courts. The tournament is open to amateur, professional and international players. The 2024 event, which ran from April 13 to the 20th, had over 3,250 competitors, and over 50,000 spectators.
Professional tournaments began in 2019 when two professional tours were formed independently. The Association of Pickleball Professionals (now the Association of Pickleball Players) was established and sanctioned by USA Pickleball. The Pickleball Professionals Association was also established, but did not seek sanctioning by the USAP.
The world's first dedicated pickleball stadium was established at The Fort pickleball center, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by Brad Tuckman and Rich Campillo. The facility, located in the Snyder Park, includes 43 pickleball courts, a event center, a restaurant, and several other sporting and entertainment venues. It is also the permanent home and training facility for the Association of Pickleball Players.
Hall of Fame
The Pickleball Hall of Fame was established by Seymore Rifkind in 2017. In September 2021 USA Pickleball established its own hall of fame named the USA Pickleball Hall of Fame and Museum. After significant pushback from the pickleball community, USA Pickleball reached an agreement to unify the two Hall of Fame organizations in April 2023.
Official recognition State Senator John Lovick proposed a bill making pickleball the official sport of Washington state in 2021, and it was named the official state sport of Washington in 2022 by the Washington State Legislature. On March 28, 2022, the legislation was signed by Governor Jay Inslee on the original Pritchard family court where the sport was invented.
Collegiate pickleball Competitive college pickleball began in the United States in 2022 when DUPR, known for their pickleball player rating software, held their first DUPR Collegiate National Championship. That was followed by the formation of the National Collegiate Pickleball Association by Noah Suemnick in 2023. Also in 2023 the Association of Pickleball Players (APP) announced it would also begin holding the APP U.S. Collegiate Championships.
In 2025 DUPR, in collaboration with the United Pickleball Association, rebranded the DUPR Collegiate National Championship as the Collegiate Pickleball Tour and National Championships. A Collegiate World Championship, where collegiate players from all countries will be invited to participate, will also be held.
Media Pickleballtv (PBTV), an ad-supported pickleball streaming channel, was launched in November 2023. It is co-owned by the Tennis Channel and the United Pickleball Association, the parent company of the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball. Pickleballtv is available through the Tennis Channel's app/website and pickleballtv.com's dedicated website, as well as several other streaming platforms such as Plex TV, FuboTV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku.
Growth United States
The 2023 report by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), released in February 2024, states that pickleball grew 223.5% over three years in the United States. The report also states that 13.6 million people played pickleball in 2023. In May 2024, CNBC noted, citing a report from the Trust for Public Land, the number of outdoor pickleball courts in major cities went up 650% in the last seven years, with more than 3,000 courts across 100 of the most populated cities in the US.
The 2022 SFIA report, released in 2023, estimated that approximately 900 million dollars of court infrastructure investment is needed to keep up with the fast growth of the sport. To illustrate the need for this infrastructure, the SFIA has reported that the Middle Atlantic region (includes NY, NJ, and PA) had the lowest court coverage with 1 dedicated court for 1000 participants. Pickleball participation grew in every region in the United States according to the report by the SFIA. The South Atlantic region (includes DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, and VA) had the most pickleball players with 1.9 million players. The Pacific region was second with 1.5 million players and the East North Central region came in third with 1.4 million players.