A few years ago, you’d be forgiven for never having heard of pickleball, but what was once a niche game is now the fastest-growing sport in America. With 48.3 million players across the country and a market worth an estimated $1.5 billion, it’s having a meteoric rise in popularity – but where is the pickleball capital of the USA?
We looked at each of the 50 states and ranked them on a Pickleball Obsession Index. Their rating is based on the number of venues for playing pickleball, the state’s Google search volume for pickleball-related terms, and the Google Trends ranking for interest in pickleball by state.
Most Popular States for Pickleball
Curious to see if your area made the list? Here are the five most obsessed US states when it comes to pickleball:
1. Vermont
According to our findings, Vermont is the U.S. state that’s most obsessed with pickleball. Its indexed score of 7.20 puts it 0.85 points ahead of the runner-up in a closely contested race for the top.
It’s home to 10.9 pickleball venues per 100k residents – the highest rate of courts in any state – and it ranks as the 10th most interested state in the sport on Google Trends (with a score of 49/100). It also boasts a huge number of people searching on Google for pickleball-related terms, with 15,359 annual searches per 100k people. With such a strong following, it takes a comfortable lead on our rankings.
2. Utah
Utah ranks as the second most obsessed state with pickleball, scoring a perfect 100/100 rating on Google Trends, suggesting it’s the state with the biggest upswing in interest as of 2025.
It also ranks as the state with the highest search volume for pickleball by population – there were 737,000 searches for related terms last year, equaling 21,061 searches per 100k people. While it’s outranked by other states on its number of venues (4.5/100k residents), it earns an overall index score of 6.35 and a second-place spot on our rankings.
3. Hawaii
With 18,828 searches for pickleball per 100k residents and 89 venues for the sport across the islands, Hawaii earns a bronze medal position in our top 5 most pickleball-obsessed states. Google Trends assigns it an interest score of 69, combined with other stats for an overall index score of 5.90.
4. Maine
Just missing out on a podium finish, Maine is the fourth-most pickleball-obsessed state in America. While it has a Google Trends interest rating of just 43, it scores strongly in other categories.
With 122 courts across the state (8.7 per 100k people) and 166,000 annual searches for pickleball (11,821 per 100k people), it finishes with a strong index score of 4.85 in total.
5. Minnesota
Minnesota has the most pickleball courts of any state in our top 5 (251), but its high population means it has the lowest rate per person at the top of our rankings (4.3 courts per 100k people).
With a Google Trends rating of 63/100 and 19,111 annual searches per 100k residents, it earns an index score of 4.78 to round out the top 5. States that just missed out on a space at the top of the rankings include Arizona (index score of 4.66), Colorado (4.47), and Idaho (4.14).
Least Popular States for Pickleball
While pickleball is a huge trend across the country, not every state has been so fast to adopt it. Here are five areas that are the least interested in America’s hottest sporting trend, according to our data:
1. Louisiana
Pickleball enthusiasts living in Louisiana may be hard-pressed to find a place to play. Unfortunately, the Bayou State has the second-lowest rate of pickleball courts per 100k residents in the country, with only 2.2.
With 9,699 annual searches per 100k people and a Google Trends interest ranking of 29, its rankings combine for the lowest index score in our rankings with 0.33.
2. Mississippi
Just across the state line, Mississippi finishes as the second most unaffected state by pickleball’s popularity. Its Google Trends rating of 26 is the lowest of any state in the country, and its search volume per 100k residents is the third-lowest (9,199).
With just 79 venues for playing around the state, it scores a total of 0.38 on our index.
3. Oklahoma
Taking the third lowest spot in our rankings, Oklahoma is home to just 2.6 pickleball courts per 100k people, and Google Trends lists its interest in the sport as 33/100 – the joint-eighth lowest in the country.
Most importantly, Oklahoma has the lowest number of people searching on Google for pickleball out of any US state. In fact, there are only 9,025 online searches in the area for pickleball per 100k residents every year. Combined with other low scores, it totals 0.47 on our index of pickleball obsession.
4. West Virginia
Google Trends ranks WV as the second least interested US state in pickleball, scoring just 27 on their rankings. It also scores the second lowest on search volume according to our data, with 9,031 pickleball queries per 100k residents every year – that’s less than 10 searches ahead of Oklahoma in last place!
While it has the most pickleball courts per 100k people of any of our top 5 least obsessed states (with 3.2), it still receives an overall score of just 0.64, ranking it the fourth lowest on our index.
5. Kentucky
Kentucky ties up the five least interested states in pickleball with an indexed score of 1.07. Thanks to a low Google Trends rating of 34 and just 2.8 courts per 100k people, it scores among the lowest states in America for pickleball interest.
Other states that were similarly uninterested in pickleball include Arkansas (index score of 1.08), Alabama (1.10), and New Mexico (1.22). It seems like states in the South may not have been as swept up in the pickleball trend as the rest of the country.
Conclusion
Ranking as America’s fastest-growing sport for the fourth year in a row and only gaining more and more popularity, it looks like pickleball is here to stay. With more places to play than ever before and thousands of Americans considering taking up the hobby, there’s never been a better time to get involved!
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Methodology
To find out which states are the most obsessed with pickleball, we created a Pickleball Obsession Index based on three factors that reflect both the accessibility of the sport and the level of interest among the public. Each metric was assigned a weight to indicate its significance in measuring pickleball enthusiasm.
Metrics & Weighting
- No. of Places to Play Pickleball (Per 100k People) – 5/10
- Accessibility is key to participation. The more courts and venues available, the easier it is for people to get involved in pickleball, indicating a strong infrastructure for the sport (Places2Play).
- Pickleball Yearly Search Volume (Per 100k People) – 4/10
- The number of Google searches for a sample of 667 keywords related to pickleball online provides insight into public interest and curiosity (Keywordtool.io).
- Pickleball Interest by State – 3/10
- Google Trends data illustrates how popular pickleball is in each state. This metric helps us understand the cultural vibe surrounding the sport beyond just the availability of courts and online searches.
Scoring & Ranking
We assigned each state a score out of 10 for each metric and then applied the weights as outlined above. By combining these weighted scores, we created the final Pickleball Obsession Index, ranking the states from most to least obsessed with the sport.
