The State of US Padel, 2026

Padel — the enclosed-court racquet sport that plays like tennis crossed with squash, always in doubles, with walls in play — has spent a decade becoming the sport everyone's uncle in Madrid already plays and everyone's gym buddy in Miami just discovered. Playtomic's Global Padel Report 2026 counts roughly 58,300 courts, nearly 20,000 clubs, and 19.4 million players worldwide, with close to 5,000 new clubs and 8,000 new courts added in 2025 alone — the numbers behind padel's standing claim to being the world's fastest-growing sport.

The same report projects 91,000 courts globally by 2028, and its 2026 edition singles out the United States as one of the sport's biggest long-term growth markets — a "Diamond in the Rough," in its taxonomy — after the country added roughly 250 clubs and 330 courts in 2025. The money agrees: the Pro Padel League closed a $15 million Series A in March 2026, bringing its total to $25 million raised in twelve months across ten franchises. Clubs themselves are evolving past courts-in-a-warehouse into what the industry calls "third spaces" — social clubs with coaching, cafes, recovery rooms, and leagues attached to the glass.

Here's the runway math that makes operators salivate: our directory counts 1,250 padel courts in the continental US— about 2% of the world's supply, in the country with the world's largest sports economy. 2025 was also the first year padel was large enough to be tracked by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, which counts roughly 1.07 million Americans who played, 238,000 of them eight or more times. The US Padel Association projects 10,000 courts and 10 million players by 2030; an industry report from Syracuse's Newhouse School and Padel 22 goes as far as 30,000 courts. Whether or not either projection lands, the direction is unambiguous — and the full report shows exactly where it's happening, state by state.