Pickleball's popularity has exploded in recent years

PIckleball is the fastest-growing participation sport in America

The outdoor game experienced a surge in popularity during the 2020 pandemic because it could be set up in driveways, be played by all ages, and allowed for safe social interactions. That social aspect has helped pickleball’s popularity continue to rise post-pandemic. A March 2023 APP report showed 48.3 million American adults played the sport in the last 12 months.

The pickleball market is expected to hit $4.4B by 2033

In 2023, the global pickleball market was $1.5B. By 2023, it's expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 11.3%.

Pickleball's ubiquity has led to a culture clash with tennis

Since the late 1800s, tennis has been the world’s premier racquet sport. But in the late 2010s, rapid growth and investment in Pickleball changed that dynamic. This Cult Tennis video explores the newly created tension between tennis and Pickleball players, both on and off the courts.

Pickleball players and tennis players are running into problems over court space

Pickleball has become one of the fastest-growing sports in North America, especially for older adults. It's also led to tension with tennis players, whose courts are now being overtaken by pickleball players, with some municipalities adding pickleball lines to tennis courts.

Pickleball's popularity has created a power struggle

The sport's sudden rise has led to a tumultuous landscape with battles over governance, court space, and player rights. This Sports Illustrated deep dive examines the competing billionaires vying for control, the conflicts over court usage and noise disputes, and how a second proposed Hall of Fame is dividing the sport.

PIckleball's popularity with seniors is partially due to its health benefits

Pickleball has always been a game for all ages, but it has been particularly popular among seniors, in part because of its many health benefits, including enhancing hand-eye coordination and burning more calories than walking.

Pickleball injuries were responsible for $350M in medical costs in 2023

Unsurprisingly, picklers over 50 account for 90% of the injuries, with the most common being sprains, strains, and fractures. Experts say a substantial pregame warm-up can prevent most injuries.

Pickleball combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis

In this video, That Pickleball Guy walks you through the serve and two-bounce rules, what is “the kitchen,” and teaches five ways to win a rally.

Pickleball was originally intended for children

Bell and Pritchard only created the game to occupy their children's attention on vacation. As they continued playing the game, they began developing rules as-needed.

Carmel, California, is looking into banning pickleball

Pickleball is the fastest-rising sport in the US, but it's not without its controversies. Chief among them is noise, which Carmel, California, a wealthy enclave on the state's central coast, seeks to remedy with a ban on the sport. It would be the first in the state.

Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington

Bill Bell and then-Washington State congressman Joel Pritchard created the game as a way to entertain their bored children. They grabbed items they had on hand, using ping pong paddles to hit a wiffle ball over a hip-height badminton net.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

One Connecticut prison is using pickleball for rehabilitation

The Pickleball for Incarcerated Communities League started in 2023 at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Hartford, Connecticut, but has already expanded to other facilities across the state. Inmates say it's been transformative. The program has plans to expand to other states.

Pickleballs' loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels

That's about the same level as a hammer striking a nail. Luckily, it's not quite as loud for a player on the receiving side of the net, at about 80 decibels, though that's still quite loud—it's equivalent to heavy traffic.

The origin of the sport's name is disputed

How pickleball got its name has been a point of contention for decades. The McCallums claim the family dog, Pickles, used to snatch the balls as they played and named it for him. Joan Pritchard, though, says Pickles didn’t join the family until after the game was invented.

A Texas billionaire created the first team-focused pickleball league

Steve Kuhn is on a mission to make pickleball the next big global sport, starting with Major League Pickleball, his team-focused pickleball league. He's turned his property, named Dreamland, into an expansive center for the sport.

Chess is played by an estimated 600 million people worldwide

Chess remains one of the most popular games in history, with roughly 600 million players across the globe. The game thrives casually in homes, schools, and parks, while also sustaining robust online communities and professional tournaments.

TikTok boasts nearly 1.8B monthly users

The app has surged in popularity recently, with usage surging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those users have generated high revenues, too, with over $23B in 2024.

The National Parks System is a popular attraction in the US

More than 16 billion people have visited the US National Park System since 1904. Curious about how something like World War II affected park visitation? This table of annual recreational visits spans the early 20th century through 2023, demonstrating the slow-but-steady rise in visitors over the decades.

Ultrarunning has grown exponentially in the 21st century

Ultrarunning, generally defined as races 50k and longer, has exploded in the past few decades. In 2000, there were 89 official races; in 2023, there were nearly 760. That's a 753% increase.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Ice cream trucks are surging in popularity

Modern companies like HipPOPs and Big Gay Ice Cream are driving a resurgence of ice cream trucks, with an annual growth of approximately 9%. Experts say the market will keep growing through at least 2030.

At its peak in 2001, the Toyota Prius made up 77% of the US hybrid vehicle market

Celebrities and early adopters popularized the model, making it a cultural symbol for eco-conscious driving and fuel efficiency. The rise of fully electric vehicles, like Tesla's Model 3, caused the Prius to lose the spotlight.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Dolly Parton is far more popular in the US than the world's politicians

An April 2026 survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts and YouGov found that 70% of the 1,000 Americans polled had a positive impression of the country icon. The next closest figure was former US President Barack Obama (50% favorable) and Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine (35% favorable).

American beer, by the numbers

This statistics-focused resource breaks down the shape of the beer industry in the US, outlining the amount of beer produced by American breweries, the state cranking out the most beer, and the states with the most breweries per capita.

Pizza became more popular in Italy after it took off in the US

Pizza was invented in Naples, though it wasn't particularly popular outside the region. As it grew more popular elsewhere—and as more American and European tourists visiting Italy began asking for it—restaurants across Italy adopted the cuisine. It's something anthropologist Agehananda Bharati calls "the pizza effect."

Couples therapy has seen a massive boom in recent years

70% of therapists offer couples counseling. Experts predict continuous growth in the field. With so many marriages ending in divorce, more couples are recognizing the potential for therapy to get them back on track. And parents are starting to see the impacts of divorce on their children and their own mental health.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.