Pickleball popularity exploded last year, with more than 36 million playing the sport

Terri Graham, the co-founder of the Minto US Open Pickleball Championships, the largest event in the sport since 2016, says enthusiasm is at an all-time high.

Player applications are up 30% over last year and they’ve seen a 25% uptick in sponsorships with their leading sponsors Minto and Margaritaville, which both signed multiyear extensions at a 30% increase.

“Last year we established a new record for attendance at a pickleball tournament with more than 35,000 spectators — 10,000 more than we estimated. And from the early demand for tickets, “The Biggest Pickleball Party in the World,” will be even bigger in 2023.” She says when tickets go on sale later this month, she expects they will sell out within 48 hours.

Life Time founder and CEO Bahram Akradi is a pickleball player himself and it led to him getting in on the craze early. The upscale fitness center, described as an athletic country club, has deployed the equivalent of half a billion dollars of assets into pickleball at 120 of its more than 160 locations to date.

Since 2022, Life Time has constructed indoor and outdoor pickleball courts at a rate of five new permanent courts each week. It now has 400 courts across their clubs, with the goal of exceeding 600-700 by the end of 2023. Members are offered lessons, social play and even competitive leagues and tournaments.

“Pickleball participation [at Life Time] in a given month has risen from about 16,000 people to like 160,000. So, it’s almost tenfold January to December,” Akradi tells CNBC.

Major League Pickleball and the Professional Pickleball Association took notice and they have partnered with Life Time to host multiple tournaments across the country this year.

Equipment makers are also benefiting. Selkirk Sport, one of the top paddle makers in the sport, has grown from a family-owned business in Idaho to selling gear across the country at big-box stores at major chains.

The company’s business with retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Costco and Walmart is growing at more than 100% year over year, Selkirk co-CEO Rob Barnes told CNBC.

Pickleball, a combination of tennis, badminton and ping pong, was first created in 1965 in Bainbridge Island, Washington, by three fathers looking to give their bored children a new activity by using a hodgepodge of other sports as inspiration.

The sport saw some success among boomers in more recent years. The Villages in Florida now features more than 220 pickleball courts.

Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, and the sport saw an unexpected boom. As the coronavirus prevented people from playing traditional team sports, people flocked to the paddle sport as a socially distant way to be outdoors and stay active.

Experts also pin the rapid popularity of the sport to a few other factors — the ease of play, the low cost of entry and sociability. Pickleball can be learned in a just a few lessons, and players can find tournaments at varying competitive level.

The cost of entry is also more affordable than sports like tennis or golf. You don’t need a fancy country club membership, and a good paddle can be found between $100 and $200.

Pickleball is also incredibly social and provides an outlet for many to make new friends of all ages. While boomers dominate the sport, younger players are increasingly taking to the court.

There is some concern that pickleball is growing too fast.

Sports Illustrated outlined many of the problems of the rapid rise in May of 2022, including too many leagues, battling billionaires and bad behavior. Since that article was published, the two competing leagues have merged, and other changes have been made.

There are still widespread noise complaints, leading some to even take legal action regarding the “pop, pop” sound that a pickleball ball makes when making contact with a paddle. The unique noise is driving many neighbors crazy and even dividing towns. But slowly these things are being worked out and attributed to normal growing pains.

Webb said he believes the sport is just getting started and is not a fad since people are returning to the sport and playing regularly after picking up a paddle for the first time.

He also pointed to the expanding coverage of the sport from major TV networks and the fact it is being considered as a possible event at a future Olympics.

“I think it’s inevitable that it will reach a certain number and growth trajectory will start to flatten out,” Webb said. “But who knows what that number could be. I don’t think we’ve gotten close to it yet.”