"How many people play padel" and "is padel bigger than pickleball" are two of the most frequently searched padel stats questions - and the numbers behind them tell a genuinely striking growth story.
The Global Picture
There are now more than 35 million padel players worldwide. Global search interest in the sport grew over 1,000% between 2004 and 2025, with almost all of that growth packed into just the last five years, and interest was up roughly 49% in the most recent 12 months alone. That's not gradual, steady-state growth - it's a hockey-stick curve, and it's still climbing.
Spain: The Undisputed Capital
Spain remains the heart of the sport, with more than 6 million players and over 17,300 padel courts - by far the deepest infrastructure of any country. Google Trends data consistently confirms Spain shows the highest search interest in padel of any country.
The Surprise Runner-Up: Sweden
Sweden is the second-highest country for padel search interest, and it's backed by real infrastructure: 4,220 courts, the fourth-most of any country behind Spain, Italy, and Argentina, and more than 600,000 players as of FIP's early-2024 data - making padel more popular in Sweden than in the UK.
Britain's Rapid Rise
Few markets illustrate padel's growth curve better than the UK. Back in 2019, Britain had just 15,000 players and fewer than 70 courts. By 2026, over 400,000 Brits had played padel in 2024 alone - more than triple the 129,000 who played in 2023 - with 1,000+ courts across 325 venues nationwide as of mid-2025, up from 763 courts at the end of 2024. The Lawn Tennis Association has poured more than £6 million into padel infrastructure, including a £4.5 million commitment to build 80 new courts at existing tennis venues.
New Markets Are Breaking Through
Growth isn't limited to Europe's usual suspects. Six countries entered the global search interest top 20 for the first time in the most recent report, including Indonesia - the first Southeast Asian market to reach that tier - alongside emerging, tourism-linked interest in markets like Cyprus. Even small markets like Estonia are now registering meaningful search interest, raising real questions about whether neighboring Baltic countries follow the same path.
What about padel in Lithuania?
Padel arrived in Lithuania in the summer of 2013, when the first courts were built at the Š. Marčiulionis Dubingiai tennis and padel club, and the Lithuanian Padel Federation was founded that December, later joining the International Padel Federation. Growth since then has been striking: Lithuania is now regarded as the fastest-growing padel nation in Central and Eastern Europe, with about 30 clubs (12 affiliated with the national federation) and more than 110 courts spread mainly across Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipėda, alongside roughly 1,150 professionally licensed players and tens of thousands of amateurs. The country's top players now compete on the international CUPRA FIP Tour, and Kaunas has hosted multiple FIP tournaments, including a men's and women's FIP Promotion and a men's FIP Rise. That trajectory has made Lithuania a bit of a bellwether for the wider Baltic region, where neighboring markets are only just starting to show similar signs of interest.
Equipment Demand Is Following Participation
It's not just court-time driving the search boom - gear searches are rising in step. Monthly search demand for "padel rackets" has climbed by roughly 61% year over year, a clear signal that new players are converting into equipment buyers, not just casual triers.
The Bottom Line
Padel's growth is genuinely global, not just a Spanish or European phenomenon anymore - new markets from Southeast Asia to the Baltics are showing up in the data for the first time, even as the sport's traditional strongholds keep expanding their own infrastructure. If the last five years are any indication, "how big is padel now" is a question whose answer keeps needing to be updated.