Only got an hour to kill, but promised your friends you’d all go play pickleball together? You might have a hard time fitting a couple games in. Pickleball games can really vary in length, especially if you’re playing doubles. Maybe you want to do a tournament with them, but don’t know how long it can go. No matter the reason, we’re going to help you figure out how long your pickleball game will last.
Length of a Standard Recreational Pickleball Game
Pickleball games are actually surprisingly short. When I’m playing doubles with my friends, we usually get in about 3 games in an hour.
Each game will usually last somewhere between 10-30 minutes on the extreme end. That being said the vast majority of them fall somewhere between 15-25 minutes. This will depend on a number of different factors.
A game in pickleball is played to 11 usually, but it is also common to play to 15 or 21. This will depend on however long you and your opponents want to play for. If there are a lot of people waiting courtside, 11 is probably the one to go with. If you’re in a group of 4, shorter games can be more fun too because they allow quick shuffling of teams to keep things fresh and new. But at the same time, although its less common, games to higher totals are great for when you aren’t pressed for time, or are wanting to work on your stamina.
How Long is a Game of Pickleball in a Tournament
Tournaments are certainly unique.
But surprisingly, there actually still isn’t that big of a difference in game length. Games are maybe even a little bit on the shorter side but they’ll still all likely fall under 25 minutes long.
The level of talent in these is definitely higher, and this can result in games that are between very evenly matched opponents. This is especially the case in as the tournament gets closer to crowning the winner, because the skill gap narrows.
But sometimes the top players are so good that this doesn’t matter. In the semifinals of the recent Orange County Cup tournament, Anna Leigh Waters won the first game of her semifinals match in just under 9 minutes.
If you ever watch a tournament, players will play for much longer though. This actually isn’t because of a change in game length.
Tournaments Use Sets
If you want to know how long a pickleball game lasts in a tournament you really should be asking a different question. A showdown in a tournament is rarely determined by a single game.
Most of the time players will be playing in a best of three. This is called a match. The first player or team, depending on if it’s doubles or singles, to win two games wins the match.
This means there is a much wider variety of time for each match. You might have a short match that ends after two quick games. Or you might get a grueling extended one that goes three games, with each being a long drawn out affair.
This is something you’ll have to prepare for when getting ready to play in a tournament. Your stamina and conditioning will have to be operating at a much higher level.
If you’re really wanting to get a good idea for match length in tournaments, why not watch one. You can try to find some taking place locally, but if not you can always watch a live match or recording. I know pickleball games may not be playing on ESPN every night, but there are some great youtube channels for this. If you go to the PPA Tour’s Channel (Professional Pickleball Association), they’ll stream full games from recent tournaments.
I know, I know, I should probably get a life if I have that much time on my hands. But it can be really cool to watch the best in the game play.
There are matches that last 15 minutes or matches that go well over an hour. Again, this is due to a variety of factors, but it shows the wide range you might be dealing with here.
Other Determining Factors of Game Length
While there’s a huge range of time for how long a pickleball game is, we can begin to narrow that down by looking at a few factors. You might already have a feeling going into a game for how long it’s going to be. You don’t even really know why, it’s just intuition, but a lot of times it ends up right.
Singles vs Doubles
So while I just said this can help you tell how long a game will last, unfortunately I’ve seen both types argued as creating longer games. I’ll tell you what people say and then give my own perspective.
The explanation for doubles games being longer is that there’s double the number of players on the court and therefore they cover way more ground. There’s a much stronger defensive presence and therefore rallies go on longer. There’s so much space in singles a lot of rallies can be won just by hitting the ball to an area on the court where your opponent can’t get to it. In doubles it comes down more to the team that makes the first mistake, which can take longer, and obviously impacts how long the pickleball game lasts.
But there are also those that say doubles games can go much shorter. If there’s a large skill gap between the two teams, that gets exacerbated in doubles. Also because of the rules in doubles teams can score faster. You and your partner both get to serve. If one team gets hot they can win 6 or 7 points before their opponents even get to serve again. Constantly alternating servers in singles between evenly matched players can draw out the game.
Personally I don’t notice a difference when playing too much. But if you really want to analyze it, (still can’t believe I’m going this in depth) go look back at the youtube channel I recommended earlier and look at the difference in video length between the singles versus doubles games. Both singles and doubles produce a lot of short matches, many of them in the low 20 minutes. But if you look at the other side, almost all the games lasting over an hour are doubles, so I’m inclined to believe a doubles pickleball game can last longer.
Skill Level
This is really intuitive, but no matter whether you are playing singles or doubles skill level plays the biggest factor.
Being significantly better than your opponent makes the game go faster. The same applies vice versa.
When I was in college, I played a friend who I had no idea played at all. He smoked me in maybe under 10 minutes in a game to 11. Turns out he’d played at home with his family for years. Go figure.
Again like I said earlier this goes even faster in doubles. If they can serve consecutively you might never get the serve back.
Length of Rallies and Number of Faults
This factor doesn’t jump to your mind in game length but plays a big role.
The more faults a team makes the faster the game will go. Where do the most faults happen? At beginner levels.
Players new to pickleball will do one of two things. One, the worse team will make so many faults that it ends the game quickly. Two, both teams fault so much that it is difficult to score points because the server is always switching. Still, this is how you get the extreme outcomes of really quick games.
The length of a rally relates to this as well. When players play relatively mistake free, rallies will last longer.
This also brings play style into the conversation. An aggressive player will both create a ton of opportunities to force their opponent to make a mistake while simultaneously giving the opponent more windows to make a play due to the reckless play style.
On the other hand, a conservative players that plays safe, mistake-free pickleball waiting for the opponent to make mistakes will have longer rallies. Put two of these teams together and you may well have a game lasting 30+ minutes.
Closing Thoughts
While many things impact the duration of the game, you can bet pretty safely on the 15-25 minute mark. Next time you make plans to hit the courts, you’ll know just how much time to plan for depending on how much you want to play. Speaking of pickleball constraints, if you aren’t playing on a designated pickleball court, its always a good idea to know if the area is big enough for a game. The minimum space needed for a pickleball game might surprise you.