What is YOUR favorite Backyard Game?? Empire Today did some research on what is the most searched Backyard Game in each state. Does your favorite backyard game match your state’s preferences?
We are from Utah, and not all surprised to see that Pickleball is number one. The number of Pickleball courts that have popped up throughout the state in the last couple years is insane… from what we counted via the Association of Pickleball, it has gone from 90 courts in 2017 to 264 in 2019. That’s a 294% increase for all you nerds like Cassidy out there. On top of that, the courts are ALWAYS FULL. Day or night, it is hard to find a court that is available.
Seeing as Utah has quite a few pickleball courts (and growing rapidly), it makes sense that it’s the most searched game in the state. Empire Today also dug into some other reasons why certain backyard games may have topped the charts in other states.
“The states with the largest average yard size include Vermont, Montana, and Mississippi. The most popular lawn games in those states are Croquet, Horseshoes, and Ring Toss, respectively. All of those games require a decent amount of green space, so perhaps yard size plays a role in the popularity of certain games.”
The Most Searched Backyard Games, Empire Today
Now at the same time, we did a bit of research of our own—to top off the 5 states with the smallest average yard size: Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas, and Utah. Now thinking about the Bay Area in California, there is not enough room in most of those backyards for a full game of badminton. Though, Merek grew up in the Bay Area, and can attest to the fact that there are more people on the Badminton team than the football team. Not sure if it was because of the social aspect, but there were so many kids on the high school’s badminton team. Even though they have small backyards, Badminton still dominates.
Looking at Pickleball & Utah, it’s usually not played in the backyard (though if you have a court in your backyard, we are down to play anytime :)). From what it seems, if you have small backyards, you are going to parks, gyms, pickleball courts, etc. to be able to get your backyard game fix in.
The fact that Ring Toss was the most searched in 9 states, but Kubb only in 1 state actually made our hearts a little heavy. At the same time, it solidified our assumption that the world needs to know about more cool games. Backyard Buffs is needed! Ring Toss is great and all (I mean we did create our own Candy Cone Ring Toss), but at the same time there are so many other cool games out there. Stay tuned next week for the game that I’m shocked didn’t make it to the top of any state—Spikeball.
Images from Empire Today.
Backyard Buffs 