The US stays the undisputed house of pickleball, and the numbers depart little room for argument. The most recent 2026 Topline Participation Report from the Sports activities & Health Trade Affiliation places the entire at 24.3 million American gamers in 2025, a 22.8 % leap from the 12 months earlier than and a staggering 171.8 % improve over simply three years.
The SFIA didn’t mince phrases about what which means, calling pickleball the dominant multi-year progress chief throughout each sport it tracks. Inside that determine sits a significant break up too: informal gamers, these selecting up a paddle between one and 7 instances a 12 months, reached 16.8 million, whereas core gamers logging eight or extra periods yearly climbed to 7.48 million—proof that America’s increase isn’t simply curiosity, however real dedication.
Past American shores, although, the expansion story seems to be moderately completely different. New knowledge from DUPR, monitoring participation throughout the previous 12 months, reveals a set of nations rising at charges America merely can’t match anymore—not as a result of the US is slowing down, however as a result of these markets are ranging from a a lot smaller base and rocketing upward. Right here’s the total high ten, counted down from tenth to first.
10. Vietnam — 110%
Vietnam sits on the backside of this specific record solely as a result of its base was already huge to start with. Separate analysis from UPA Asia and YouGov discovered that 88 % of Vietnamese individuals are conscious of pickleball, with 37 % enjoying often—figures that translate to greater than 16 million frequent gamers within the nation alone. Even a “gradual” 12 months of progress right here nonetheless provides severe numbers to the game’s international tally.
9. Malaysia — 120%
Malaysia has quietly grow to be certainly one of pickleball’s most essential markets exterior North America, rating third globally in complete DUPR customers behind solely the USA and Canada—greater than any nation exterior North America can declare. Kuala Lumpur itself ranks second amongst cities worldwide by DUPR customers, trailing solely pickleball-mad Austin, Texas. Excessive-profile competitions just like the Leapmotor APP Asia Penang Open 2026 and the upcoming Leapmotor Kuala Lumpur Cup 2026 are testomony to the game’s meteoric rise on this rising Southeast Asian nation.
8. Singapore — 153%
Singapore’s progress displays a broader sample throughout Southeast Asia’s wealthier, extra urbanised markets, the place court docket entry and disposable earnings have mixed to show pickleball into a real social fixture moderately than a passing pattern. The lately held Leapmotor Singapore Open 2026 proves the pickleball increase within the Lion Metropolis is really taking place.
7. South Korea — 159%
South Korea has been one of many standout tales on DUPR’s platform extra broadly, having beforehand ranked as the only fastest-growing nation for brand new DUPR customers over a latest 12-month stretch. It’s a run that’s clearly continued into this 12 months’s figures. This rise is little question being aided by the burgeoning court docket tradition within the nation that’s seeing courts sprout throughout cities, like these in Seoul Forests.
6. Thailand — 170%
Thailand’s rise sits alongside India’s as one of many clearest examples of pickleball taking maintain in a rustic with a big, lively inhabitants and an present tradition constructed round racquet sports activities. Testaments to this rising pickleball panorama are the completely different high-level tournaments the nation has hosted over the previous couple of years, together with the Siam Pickleball Event 2025 introduced by Skechers and the WPC Asia Pickleball Open Powered by Wine Connection, each in 2025.
5. Japan — 170%
Japan’s progress comes at an organisationally vital second for the game there—the nation’s two main governing our bodies merged right into a single entity, Pickleball Japan, in April 2026, giving the nation’s fast rise a extra unified construction to develop from. The constructions are coming in droves for positive, and they’re discovering houses not solely in open areas however even in resort, procuring centres, and different comparable institutions. And, simply final month, Japan opened its largest pickleball centre in Shizuoka.
4. India — 182%
India’s trajectory could be essentially the most dramatic on this record in pure infrastructure phrases. The nation went from having nearly no pickleball infrastructure in 2016 to internet hosting a World Championship by 2024, compressing what would sometimes be many years of growth into lower than a decade.
3. China — 183%
China’s progress is being actively engineered from the highest down, with government-backed health initiatives reportedly focusing on 100 million pickleball gamers nationwide by 2030—a goal that, if hit, would dwarf each different market on this record mixed. Curiously, China has discovered an ally of kinds within the US, as the 2 nations are persevering with an inspiring model of pickleball diplomacy. The most recent of this partnership is occurring for the time being: college students from Iowa embarking on an eight-day tour of China to play pleasant pickleball matches in opposition to Chinese language counterparts in Beijing, the coastal metropolis of Qingdao, and Hebi in central Henan Province
2. Indonesia — 405%
Indonesia’s leap into the 400s marks a transparent break from the remainder of the pack, reflecting the identical sample enjoying out throughout a lot of Asia: an enormous, younger, urbanising inhabitants discovering a sport that requires comparatively little area or tools to get began.
1. Philippines — 1,213%
Nothing else on this record comes remotely near the Philippines’ progress price. A 1,213 % improve in DUPR customers over 12 months displays a real explosion moderately than regular progress—one seen within the nation’s personal fast build-out {of professional} infrastructure, from new franchise leagues to purpose-built venues, all racing to maintain tempo with a participant base that’s grown quicker than nearly wherever else on Earth.
The Greater Image
Taken collectively, the record confirms what a 2025 UPA Asia and YouGov examine already prompt: roughly 812 million folks throughout Asia have performed pickleball not less than as soon as, with round 282 million enjoying month-to-month—numbers that dwarf the game’s American base even because the US stays, for now, the only nation with essentially the most devoted gamers. Whether or not that hole holds via the remainder of the last decade could rely totally on how lengthy nations just like the Philippines, Indonesia, and China can maintain progress charges the USA achieved solely as soon as, throughout pickleball’s authentic pandemic-era increase.
