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A record 3,500 pro and amateur players played 6,928 matches over the course of the event
PHOENIX – USA Pickleball, the National Governing Body for the sport of pickleball in the U.S., today shared record-breaking figures from the 2023 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships powered by Invited and the PPA Tour.
A total of over 50,000 attendees descended upon Brookhaven Country Club between November 5 - 12 to take part in the biggest event in the history of the sport. Saturday, November 11 marked the peak day for attendance, with Farmers Branch, Texas welcoming over 9,500 fans – surpassing last year’s peak attendance at the 2022 Nationals by 4,000.
The courts saw no shortage of pickleball all week. Nearly 3,500 pro and amateur players played a total of 6,928 matches over the course of the tournament. Players from 49 states and Washington D.C. competed in approximately 3,000 more matches relative to the 2022 edition of Nationals. Additionally, on-site retail at Pickleball Central set a new record for total sales across all National Championships. The 2023 event was 3.5x more successful for Pickleball Central than any previous iteration of Nationals.
“These staggering figures surrounding the success of Nationals are truly a testament to the continued growth of our sport and community,” said Mike Nealy, USA Pickleball Chief Executive Officer. “We’re grateful to all of our partners for helping make an event of this scale possible and taking our National Championships to new heights across the board. We look forward to building upon this momentum in the coming years.”
Tuesday’s Deep Eddy Vodka Celebrity Pickleball Showdown welcomed roughly 3,000 spectators keen on watching Dallas sports legends Dirk Nowitzki, Scottie Scheffler, Jason Kidd, Marty Turco and John Isner battle it out on the court with Tony Romo in the broadcast booth. Those who weren’t able to make it to Brookhaven tuned in on ESPN, with 390,000 viewers during the hour-long broadcast of the Showdown event. Collectively, over 2.6 million TV viewers tuned in during the tournament to catch 20+ hours of coverage on ESPN, Tennis Channel and PickleballTV.
This year’s Nationals also successfully broke a Guinness World Record, with 264 participants setting a new record for “Most Participants in a Pickleball Exhibition Match,” playing for twelve straight hours on Sunday, November 5. Pickleball’s largest-ever tournament ran from November 5-12 at Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch, an inner-ring suburb of Dallas.
About USA Pickleball
USA Pickleball is the National Governing Body (NGB) for the sport of pickleball in the United States. Its mission is to promote the development and growth of the sport while sanctioning events and providing annual members with premier tournaments, educational opportunities, player rankings, official rules and other exclusive benefits. USA Pickleball is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation that is governed and operated by a Board of Directors and a national office staff, who provide the guidance and infrastructure for the continued expansion of the sport.
