Tennis participation continues to surge

In addition to the significant overall participation growth, tennis showed strong performance across many key metrics in 2025*:

• People are playing more often: “Core players,” defined as individuals who played 10 or more times throughout the year, increased by 1.5 million to 14.5 million in 2025. This means that as overall participation has grown, so has the number of people that are regularly playing tennis, with more than half of all players (53 percent) considered “core players.” This increase also helped drive the more than 616 million play occasions in 2025. 

• Women were significant drivers of growth: In 2025 1.1 million more women took to the court than in 2024, representing a 10-percent increase from 2024.

• Participation among people of color experienced significant gains: The number of Black/African Americans playing tennis increased by more than 450,000 (14 percent), Hispanic/Latino players were up more than 550,000 (12 percent) and Asian/Pacific Islander players grew by more than 260,000 (10 percent). All three of these groups represent greater percentage growth than the overall increase.

• More first time players entered the sport: Tennis recorded an uptick in new players entering the sport, with 4.9 million picking up a racquet for the first time – up 9 percent year over year. 

• Player retention rates are up: Players also remained in the sport at a higher rate than in 2024, with 20.7 million players staying in the sport, up 10 percent (1.8 million additional players retained) in 2025. In addition, 1.7 million players returned to tennis after having been away from the sport for more than one year.

• Unprecedented intent to play:  More than 25 million respondents that currently do not play tennis are very interested in playing the sport. This represents a strong subset of individuals that could shift to a playing population.

*The participation numbers reported are the result of analysis done by the National Golf Foundation (NGF), which analyzes and validates data from two national studies - the Physical Activity Council (PAC) Study on Sports and Physical Activity and the PLAY Study (formerly known as the Participation and Engagement Study). These two studies each annually survey 18,000 participants aged 6 and up, resulting in a significant sample size of 36,000. Both the PAC and PLAY studies utilize the same questions and methodologies, to ensure the same measurements are captured.

The complete 2026 U.S. Tennis Participation Report can be found here.