Bengaluru: Somewhere in India, it is 7 pm, and a pickleball court is full.This is the most accurate statement about the sport in India right now, derived from Playo’s own data of bookings on the platform, which underlies the report, The Great Indian Dink.
Here is the true story of how, when, and why pickleball took off in India.It was a gradual rise that crept up steadily city by city, court by court, until one day authorities and entrepreneurs realized that it had acquired the sheen of permanence. During January–August 2026, Indian pickleball players have booked 14 million pickleball games on Playo, compared to 11 lakh games during the same period in 2025 and 1.8 lakh games in 2024, with five months still to go in 2026. Measured in these terms, Indian pickleball players have grown by 133% year over year (YoY) during this period, and by a whopping 1,378% compared to 2024.
The money earned from these games has exceeded ₹52.53 crore in 2026, compared to ₹45.72 crore in 2025, with 120% growth compared to the same period in 2025, and more than 1,500% compared to 2024. Three years ago, pickleball was barely even a blip on India’s sporting radar, but now, thanks to Playo’s booking and discovery platform, the sport has become one of the fastest-growing categories on the platform.
“The evidence is in the bookings. Every game, every court, every booking on our platform gives us a direct view of how pickleball is growing in India. This is the reality we see, booking by booking. ” said Gauravjeet Singh, Founder and CEO, Playo.“India fell in love with pickleball, and we saw it happen. Now we have one job: make it easier to play, easier to discover, and give this sport everything it needs to grow. . ”
The people behind the paddles
Every booking has a person behind it, and the report has even more interesting insights about the actual human players. There are 1.56 lakh unique players who have booked pickleball matches on Playo, compared to 33.4 lakh individuals who have expressed interest in pickleball on the platform. This is a crucial insight, because the next step for the pickleball industry in India is to bring more of these interested individuals into the fold of actual players. With that said, the players who are already on board are very enthusiastic, with 5.8–8.1 sessions per player per month on average, or roughly a game every 3–5 days. Apart from direct bookings, Playo’s find-a-game tool has facilitated 45,000 matches among recreational players in 2026 alone, up from 26,000 in 2025 and 2,400 in 2024.
From metros to mud roads
The most surprising revelation in the entire report may well be the locations where pickleball is taking off in India. Outside of the obvious big cities, this is truly a nationwide phenomenon, with the number of cities where pickleball is available on Playo growing from 18 in 2024, to 52 in 2025, and 66 as of August 2026. Cities like Kanpur (11,168 games) and Bhubaneswar (10,012 games) lead the charge for emerging markets, with Tirupati and Ranchi not far behind.
A sport that has grown up
While the overall increase in courts and players is an easy way to measure the sport’s popularity, beneath the surface is a much more interesting story. With the addition of new pickleball courts, attention is now turning to the business side of the sport. Top quartile courts have a revenue-per-court of ₹ 1 lakh per month, compared to just ₹ 4,000 for their bottom-quartile counterparts, for a 29x difference. Meanwhile, 7 pm sees the most demand, with 5x the traffic compared to noon, making it the busiest hour for any racket sport, and a tighter peak than the global padel market, according to Playtomic data and Strategy&’s Global Padel Report 2026.