Seoul parks swap jokgu for pickleball as demand surges

Pickleball is pushing jokgu aside in Seoul’s public parks, where the newer racket sport is no longer a novelty but a visible replacement for a long-established Korean pastime. The shift is showing up in daily recreation habits, with amateurs across age groups choosing pickleball for the same reasons again and again: it is easier to start, cheaper to play and less demanding on the body than tennis.

The clearest sign came at Gwangnaru Hangang Park, where Seoul opened a 14-court pickleball complex on April 16, 2026. The venue is one of the city’s largest dedicated pickleball facilities, and Seoul Metropolitan Government said reservations are handled on a first-come, first-served basis through its public service reservation website. Park Jin-young said the city will keep expanding sports infrastructure as part of a push to give residents more healthy leisure options along the Han River.

The numbers underline how quickly the sport has moved from fringe status to mainstream attention. Google Trends data cited by The Korea Herald showed Korean search interest in pickleball-related terms rising in 2024 and then surging sharply toward the end of 2025. In practice, that momentum is being driven by younger office workers, foreign residents and former tennis players who are filling courts that once were largely associated with jokgu.

Cho Min-jung, a former Korea Tennis Association board member, has seen the change firsthand. She converted an indoor tennis facility into a pickleball venue called Pickle Box and said pickleball’s appeal comes from its lower physical, financial and time commitments. For new players, the game offers a quicker path to rallies and a lower barrier to entry than tennis, making it easier to pick up during a lunch break or after work.

The scale of the sport’s base in Korea is still modest, but it is growing fast. The Korea Pickleball Association says pickleball was first introduced in Korea in 2018, and by 2025 it listed 2,009 club members, 88 coaches, 66 referees, 18 city- and district-level associations, and 45 official clubs and hobby groups nationwide. That growth is now pressing against jokgu’s older hold on park culture.

Jokgu still carries a deeper local history. The Korea Jokgu Association describes it as a Korean national ball game that became widely popular in the 1990s, especially after a 1992 Han River national tournament. But in Seoul’s parks, pickleball is now taking more court time, and the swap is changing what casual recreation looks like in public view.