Pickleball is a paddle sport invented in 1965, and Google Shopping interest for the keyword pickleball sits at 44 of 100 for the week of September 12 2026. That reading is up 4.76% from 42 on September 5 and up 76.0% from 25 on August 15, per Trends MCP get_growth on google shopping pulled September 14 2026. The 261-week series opened at 2 on September 18 2021 and peaked at 100 on April 18 2026, with 98 on May 23, so 44 is 56% under that spring high and a climb off a July trough of 16. Same-week 2025 was 18. Amazon for the same keyword is 41.7 on August 31 and down 18.55% over 30 days, so this page charts shopping.
About pickleball
Pickleball is a racket sport invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, by Joel Pritchard, Barney McCallum, and Bill Bell, in which two or four players hit a perforated plastic ball over a 34-inch (0.86 m) net on a badminton-sized court with a 7-foot kitchen that bans volleys.
Washington named it the official state sport in 2022. USA Pickleball formed in 1984 and still publishes the official rulebook. The Sports and Fitness Industry Association, in a June 4 2026 release, said 24.3 million Americans played in 2025, up from 4.2 million in 2020, with core players at 7.5 million, up from 1.4 million. That report also put female participation at 42.9%, up from 38.6% in 2020, and said ages 13-24 posted the highest rates of any age segment. Wikipedia's pickleball page records the same 24.3 million 2025 count and notes the sport was SFIA's fastest-growing for 2021 through 2024. Hoka is the running-shoe shopping neighbor that sits next to paddle-sport gear in the same late-summer window.
What the time series shows
Google Shopping interest for pickleball is 44 for the week of September 12 2026, up 76 percent from 25 on August 15, with get_growth also printing a 7-day lift from 42 on September 5, on a 261-week series that peaked at 100 on April 18 2026.
Last eight weekly prints are 16, 16, 19, 25, 34, 34, 42, and 44. Closest 90-day point is 91 on June 13, so the 90-day change is -51.65%, because that window still includes the spring spike. Same-week 2025 was 18, 2024 was 4, and 2023 was 8. Spring 2026 hit 74 on April 4, 88 on April 11, 100 on April 18, then 98 on May 23, 60 on May 30, and 71 on June 6 before July printed 16. August rebuilt 19, 25, 34, 34, then 42 and 44. Week-over-week percent-change sample standard deviation on the last 52 weeks is 26.98%. The chart window starts September 14 2024. The Google Shopping trends page is the source behind every percentage on this page.
Why the page charts Google Shopping
Amazon is the native retail source for a product people buy, and it fails the mover bar on pickleball: get_growth prints 41.7 on August 31 2026, minus 18.55% over 30 days from 51.2 and minus 36.53% over 1 year from 65.7, with only 50 points and a collapsed 7-day window.
Google Search printed 71 on September 12, minus 4.05% over 7 days from 74, minus 4.05% over 30 days from 74, and plus 5.97% over 1 year from 67, so search is a household-name wiggle, not a breakout. Google Shopping is the 261-week series that still clears +25% over 30 days and +15% over 1 year. Same-day Google Shopping neighbors in the racket and running cluster rose with pickleball. selkirk printed 60, plus 130.77% over 30 days from 26. pickleball paddle printed 36, plus 89.47% from 19. wilson printed 50, plus 78.57% from 28. on running printed 10, plus 66.67% from 6. brooks printed 34, plus 54.55% from 22. hoka printed 43, plus 53.57% from 28. saucony printed 52, plus 44.44% from 36. get_top_trends on Google Trends by Category Shopping on September 14 2026 listed hoka at rank 15 and asics at rank 12, with labor-day hours still crowding the board. get_top_trends on Amazon Best Sellers by Category Sports Outdoors as of September 14 2026 opened with Owala bottles, drinkware rather than paddles. Garmin Fenix is the GPS-watch shopping page that shares the same outdoor-gear season.
The Trends MCP calls for this keyword
get_time_series with source google shopping and keyword pickleball is the call behind the chart, returning 261 weekly points from 2021-09-18 through 2026-09-12 stored as {date, value} with no smoothing, which is the only series this page is allowed to quote. get_growth on the same pair, windows 7D and 30D, is the headline math: 42 to 44 (+4.76%) and 25 to 44 (+76.0%). Mixing the Amazon 41.7 with the Google Shopping 44 would invent a story the APIs do not tell.
A copy-paste pair for Claude or Cursor:
get_time_series source="google shopping" keyword="pickleball"
get_growth source="google shopping" keyword="pickleball" percent_growth=["7D","30D","1Y"]
REST is the same body at https://api.trendsmcp.ai/api with Authorization: Bearer and mode set to get_time_series or get_growth.