PPA Tour reports record spring growth, TV ratings and ticket revenue surge

Ticket revenue jumped 58% year over year, and that is the number local players should watch first. When a tour can sell more seats while also growing its TV audience and social reach, it usually means more sponsor money, more events and more pressure to build the sport around real demand.

The PPA Tour’s spring slate ran through 10 domestic tournaments from January to May and finished with the Toys ‘R’ Us PPA Finals in San Clemente, California, at Life Time Rancho San Clemente. Along the way, the tour said it produced two of the most-watched pro pickleball matches of all time, a sign that the sport is moving well past the novelty phase and into the kind of scale that can support bigger calendars and deeper infrastructure.

On CBS, the Jan. 18 PPA Carvana Masters averaged 791,000 viewers, while the May 2 Atlanta event drew 570,000. Those are not just good pickleball numbers, they are the kind of ratings that tell broadcasters the audience is broadening beyond the hard-core base. PBTV coverage added another layer, generating 473 million minutes viewed, up 23 percent from a year earlier.

The tour’s digital footprint kept climbing too. The PPA reported 37 percent growth in new followers, plus gains of 72 percent in impressions and 124 percent in engagement on social media. For amateurs, that matters because the pro game drives the visibility that helps clubs, tournaments and gear brands justify spending more on the sport. More attention at the top tends to filter down to more sanctioned play, more cameras, and more reasons for cities and facilities to invest.

The spring update also came against a bigger money backdrop. Apollo Sports Capital led a $225 million structured investment in Pickleball Inc., which became the new parent company of the Carvana PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball. CNBC reported that the fresh funding lifted total investment in Pickleball Inc. to $315 million. That kind of backing does not stay in boardrooms for long; it shows up as more production, a wider schedule and a heavier push to make pickleball look and feel like a permanent part of mainstream sports.

The numbers back up the ambition. SFIA said pickleball reached more than 24 million U.S. participants in 2025 and ranked as the fourth-most played sport in the country. USA Pickleball said Pickleheads added more than 2,300 places to play in 2025, bringing the national total to 18,258 locations. The PPA is already leaning into that growth with 2026 and 2027 stops in Canada and Italy, including Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Portoroz and Brescia. For amateurs, the message is simple: the sport is not just growing, it is building the scaffold around itself.