While it’s the Global Pickleball Report’s mission to inform and entertain, today we’re leaning on “entertain” a bit more than usual. After all, pickleball has graduated in recent years from thing you do to thing you make art about.
While much of the Northern Hemisphere experiences frigid temperatures, maybe we need an excuse to sit back, relax, and stream something. In 2026, doing so actually helps pickleball grow more than you think.
→ This Week: Pickleball’s screen era | Vietnam’s chaos clinic | The grassroots boom before governance in Vietnam
Pickleball’s screen era
THE FILM INDUSTRY IS PUSHING PICKLE FURTHER THAN EVER
This summer, Apple TV+ will premiere Ben Stiller’s pickleball comedy The Dink on July 24, 2026. Lifetime already leaned in with A Pickleball Christmas over the holidays.
On the “always-on” side, The Wager packages celebrity matches for free streaming; Documentary+ is carrying The Power of Pickleball, and Pickleball Kingdom’s Paddle Battle reality competition debuted on YouTube in January.
In short: we have entered pickleball’s screen era, which holds more than just the promise of entertainment.
The sport’s appearance on screens doesn’t just mirror a boom. This manufactures “first exposure” at scale.
A storyline (or even a five-minute highlight) makes the sport feel instantly learnable and turns it into a shared, quotable reference point…or even a meme.
That’s a powerful accelerant for a game already expanding fast: SFIA reports pickleball grew 51.8% from 2022→2023 and 223.5% in three years, with 25–34-year-olds now the largest U.S. cohort.
The bigger signal is exportability. South Korea is already treating pickleball as entertainment, with a YouTube sports-variety format (Pickleball Challengers), and Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE has covered the sport in Spanish for mainstream audiences.
Next comes the real unlock: when non-U.S. writers use pickleball as a plot engine, not just a cameo. With global interest building (and outlets abroad tracking The Dink as pop culture), it’s hard to see Bollywood, Nollywood, or K-drama studios staying on the sidelines forever.
The Americans need to keep up!
What happens when some of the best players in Vietnam square up with some of the highest-ranked American pros? Pure chaos.
This clip between Federico Staksrud & Eric Oncins and Hung Anh & Lê Xuân Đức is full of absurdities like the classic, “blow the ball over the net” and a downright comical attempt at a Scorpion-erne.
Recovery That Keeps You in the Rotation
There’s a reason the #1 and #2 singles pros Hunter Johnson and Kate Fahey have Picklebalm in his bag. Designed specifically for pickleball players, Picklebalm is a targeted topical analgesic that helps calm sore joints and tired muscles after real mileage on court, not just a light hit-around.
It’s part of their routine on the PPA Tour, helping them bounce back between matches and tournaments so they can keep playing at full speed.
If recovery is the only thing holding you back from “one more game,” it might be time to upgrade your routine. Use code pbclinic10 at checkout.
Number You Should Know
84%
That’s the share of U.S. adults who say they use YouTube, which is exactly why pickleball’s YouTube “always-on” content (highlights, reality formats, creator-led series) is critical as the sport’s average player age continues to decrease. It’s how a sport becomes familiar long before someone ever steps on a court.
Source: Pew Research Center.
PICKLEBALL FINDS VIETNAM BEFORE INSTITUTIONS DO
Pickleball’s rise in Vietnam is happening without waiting for formal structure.
The sport is taking hold in cities like Ho Chi Minh City & Hanoi by slipping neatly into spaces that already work: badminton halls, school gyms, and community courts.
Vietnam’s deep badminton culture has turned out to be an accelerant. Players are already comfortable with small courts, fast exchanges, and shared facilities, making pickleball an easy transition rather than a radical shift.
Early growth has been driven by local organizers and expat communities, with clubs forming first and governance following later.
The Bulletin Board
Interesting tidbits from within the pickleball community:
❓ How would you answer this?
👏 THIS is the goal we should all have
👬 The Rossetti twins are back at it
NEXT WEEK…
Can you guess where we’re headed? Respond to this email with your guess. First one to get it right will receive something nice!
Here’s a hint:
Letter from the Editor
THE SCREEN TEST
This issue leans into something that’s easy to dismiss as fluff…until you realize it’s one of the most efficient growth engines a sport can have.
Pickleball doesn’t just need more courts, it needs more first exposures, and screens manufacture those at scale.
A movie, a cameo, a five-minute highlight reel—suddenly the rules of a game often described as “difficult to remember” for beginners become obvious; the higher level rally patterns make sense; and the sport becomes a shared reference people can joke about, quote, and send to friends.
What excites me most isn’t that the U.S. is making pickleball content now, it’s that the format is exportable. Once pickleball becomes a reliable plot device (not just a novelty scene), it’s only a matter of time before other massive storytelling machines take their swing: Bollywood, Nollywood, K-dramas, Latin American series.
If you spot pickleball showing up in non-English film, TV, or creator ecosystems, hit reply. I’m keeping a running list.
Do not hesitate to email Adam or connect with him on LinkedIn with questions, concerns, or story ideas!
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