State of the Game · Media Guide

The figures behind the headline.

A compact briefing for journalists, researchers, facilities and industry readers using The State of Pickleball in the U.S. 2026.

Start with the distinction: participation, core participation, court supply, locations and membership are separate measures. They should not be added together or used as substitutes for one another.

Three findings worth citing

Finding	What it means	Source
24.3M annual U.S. participants	Annual participation, not a measure of frequency or membership.	SFIA, 2025
7.5M core participants	Players participating at least eight times in the year.	SFIA, 2025
82,613 known courts	A dated Pickleheads database count cited by USA Pickleball; not a complete national census.	USA Pickleball, 2025

Suggested citation

Pickleball Cosmos Editorial. The State of Pickleball in the U.S. 2026. Pickleball Cosmos, updated August 16, 2026. https://www.pickleballcosmos.com/data/state-of-pickleball-us-2026/

Use the source that matches the claim

For participant counts and demographic measures, cite SFIA. For USA Pickleball membership and the court/location totals it reports, cite USA Pickleball. For rates, growth percentages and comparisons calculated from those inputs, identify them as Pickleball Cosmos calculations. The full report explains the definitions and limitations.

Downloads and assets

Download the report data (CSV) →
Download: 24.3M participation card →
Download: 7.5M core-player card →
Download: 82,613 known-courts card →

Questions or corrections

For source questions, citations, corrections or interview requests, contact pickleball.hero7@gmail.com. See the corrections policy and dataset use terms.