Through the figures given by Google Trends, Padel Magazine compares searches for keywords “paddle"And"tennis” in the different padel countries. Developments that are supposed to reflect the state of padel in the world.
First of all, understand that the graphs you are going to see give us the evolution of interest in searching for these two keywords on Google, which give us popularity trends. These graphics alone are not enough to understand the situation of a sport in a country. That being said, we are trying, with the information we have, to analyze the evolution of this research, in countries where padel already enjoys a good popularity rating.
Finally, we do not use these two keywords to oppose padel to tennis, but to assess the notoriety of padel compared to a popular sport worldwide like tennis! En red tennis, a blue padel.
Sweden: a boom, a real one!
We often come back to the Swedish figures, because it is the country that sets the benchmark in terms of growth in 2020.
In November 2019, padel overtook tennis, and today it is quite far ahead, with around 70% of requests in favour !
Google searches demonstrate the dynamic and the phenomenon visible throughout Sweden, with the creation of gigantic padel clubs, and the presence of ambassadors of choice such as Thomas Johansson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, or Jonas Björkman.
The other Scandinavian countries like Sweden in a few years?
We don't talk much about the Finland, but yet since 2019, research on padel has experienced a real boom, from there to overtaking tennis a few months ago. Today the two sports are neck and neck and the dynamic seems very interesting for padel. From there to experiencing an explosion like its Swedish neighbor?
In Norway and Denmark, if the two sports are less popular than among its Swedish and Finnish neighbors, padel has really come close to tennis in recent months!
Padel in France is stagnating
Spain: more players but fewer fans for padel
Spain is still the country of padel. Despite the tennis fervor released in particular by national stars like Rafael Nadal, padel has remained close to tennis since 2017, with passages where he has even managed to pass in front for two years.
Padel, second most practiced sport in Spain behind football, follows a fairly linear curve, while tennis benefits from large research peaks, which correspond to professional competitions such as Roland Garros for example.
We understand that Padel is truly a “leisure” sport in Spain, which mainly affects a population that likes to practice it without necessarily following professional competitions., when tennis has more fans!
Portugal, on the Spanish footprints?
In the other country of the Iberian Peninsula, padel has recently become increasingly important. In 2020, padel even surpassed tennis in terms of searches for the first time.
The policy of padel at school established in Portugal should contribute greatly to the development of this sport, and create the professional padel talents of tomorrow.
A new boom in Argentina?
As we know, Argentina is a great padel country, the origin of many innovations that allow padel to be widely practiced today. Padel clearly developed there in the 90s, before losing popularity, particularly because it was considered too violent for the joints.
We were told a second wave of development in 2020, with a new boom, but we don't see it too much in the numbers. The sale of padel equipment was nevertheless 10 times higher to that of tennis in 2020, which seems to reflect a similar trend to that of Spain: many padel players but more tennis fans.
Paraguay on the upward curve
It is not often talked about, but Paraguay seems to be at the beginning of a good padel dynamic. It must be said that the country hosting the first two APT tournaments Padel Tour 2021, will have champions to identify with!
La PadelItalian mania?
Slowly but surely over the past year, padel has been catching up with tennis. In recent months, padel has accounted for 1/XNUMX of the requests compared to tennis, which is a very good figure in this tennis nation.
Despite the creation of many sites, and a phenomenon called the “PadelMania" by Italian journalists, including with football players completely fond of padel, the figures do not show a boom in research as may be the case in the Scandinavian countries ...
Belgium is historic
Belgium continues its development of padel with a sharp increase in the number of courts these last months.
Padel even overtook tennis in terms of searches for the first time in late 2020.
Global analysis
The Tennis federations who have padel, despite their firepower on paper, do not demonstrate for the moment that this is an asset for padel. It is where there are big clubs that we see strong developments.
L'Argentina and Paraguay show their willingness to see more padel and we understand that the APT Padel Tour organizes many tournaments there! To meet this demand from aficionados, FIP has also decided to offer a tournament circuit on the American continent!
The Scandinavian countries seem to bet on large indoor structures that mix padel and fitness. This model works very well for them. The many exhibitions with world padel stars seem to work to create fans!
Spain is the most mature market in terms of padel, and we see that in this country that has many great tennis players, padel is very well established as a recreational sport. Portugal, the new padel policy at school already seems to be bearing fruit.
En Italy, padel is gaining more and more space; but do not seem to generate a lot of fans. Tennis still maintains a good margin in terms of popularity. Until when? Skeptics will note that it is a tennis federation that is at the head of Italian padel.
En France, it is surprising that the number of requests today equals the number of requests in 2017. On paper, and if we compare with other countries affected by covid, France is the only country where we see the padel figures stagnating... We will come back to this soon.
I wish the entire Padel Magazine has been trying to offer you the best of padel since 2013, but also surveys and analyses to try to understand the world of padel. From the game to the politics of our sport, Padel Magazine is at your service.
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La France is by far the worst performer in terms of the number of request shares between tennis and padel. It's quite astonishing because there are more and more padel clubs and the padel wave is well and truly here.
Are we creating real padel fans? Is the FFT's policy really effective? Should it free up this sport a little more? Should it trust more concretely the private structures that say they are taking an ever greater step back with the increase in the administrative involvement of the FFT? We will try to answer these questions soon.