Pickleball Takes the Gaming World by Storm
Well, we may not be able to play College Football 25 on PC, but never fear—an even more exciting sport, pickleball, has a new "official" videogame that's taking itself very seriously.
Now, picklers (yes, that’s what they prefer you call them) will tell you the sport is very serious. It’s the fastest growing sport in America, after all. LeBron James and Tom Brady bet big on it last year, and even the #2 ranked tennis player in the world, Novak Djokovic, worries that club tennis is becoming endangered by the popularity of the pickle. It’s even the official sport of my home state of Washington!
PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 released last week and it features everything you could imagine: career and quick play modes, a character generator with officially licensed paddles and apparel, mo-capped pickle pros, and whatever a Dink Battle is.
The Steam trailer calls it "the most realistic videogame the pickleball world has ever seen," and the PPA Tour (Professional Pickleball Association, for the uninitiated) is offering free demos at its tour stops this summer. The game seems to be positioning itself as the top shelf pickleball experience, going for realism and featuring top players like Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns for you to test your mettle against.
Unfortunately, initial impressions seem sour. With only two arenas, no online multiplayer, and a hefty price tag, PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 is not likely to replicate the sport’s incredible ascent. I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to try for something a little zanier, a little more fast paced to make up for the fact that pickleball, while fun to play, isn’t really the most incredible viewer experience.
It remains to be seen if playing pickleball on your PC is as thrilling as supplanting snooty tennis enthusiasts at your local park, but hey, at least you can play it on PC, unlike that other new sports game. PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 is available on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, and there’s a Switch version planned, too.
