Can you play pickleball with two people?

Yes. Two people play singles, one player on each side of the full court, and what changes from doubles is the score and who serves: two numbers instead of three, and one server a side.

The USA Pickleball rulebook settles it in its first section: Pickleball can be played as singles or doubles. Rule numbers here are from the 2026 rulebook.

How many people do you need to play pickleball?

Two. Singles for two and doubles for four are the official games, and three, five or more can play with formats players have worked out on their own, each with a way to keep score. Find your number in the table.

How do you play pickleball with two people?

Play singles. You use the whole court, the same 20 by 44 feet as doubles, and the serve, the two-bounce rule and the kitchen work just as they do with four.

The score is two numbers, the server’s and then the receiver’s, and every game starts at 0–0 (rule 6.B.1). Only the server scores (rule 4.A). You serve from the right when your own score is even and from the left when it’s odd (rule 5.A.1), and you keep serving until you lose a rally (rule 5.A.2), when the serve passes to your opponent. Games go to 11, win by 2.

The one thing that feels different is the running, since one of you covers what two usually do. Our singles scoring guide follows the first few rallies of a game, call by call.

Skinny singles: half the court for two

Skinny singles is singles on half the court: each player covers only the half of their end on one side of the centerline, and the score works exactly as in singles. The rulebook’s version is called mini-singles (rule 14.B.1.a), and house versions vary, from moving with your score to staying on one diagonal all game. Our singles guide explains how each is played.

How do you play pickleball with three people?

Play cutthroat: one player against two, everyone for themselves. It isn’t in the rulebook. The version here is the one both The Dink and Wichita’s pickleball community describe.

The player on their own serves, and can hit anywhere on the other side. The pair can only hit into the half of the court the single player serves from, which evens out two against one. The single player serves from the right when their score is even and from the left when it’s odd, and keeps serving until they lose a rally. Then everyone rotates clockwise, and the next player takes the single spot.

Each player keeps their own score, and the first to 11 wins. Neither write-up says the pair can score, so the simplest way to play it is as a side-out game: you score only on your own serve.

If you’d rather not change the rules, play singles or skinny singles and swap the third player in after each game, as The Dink suggests.

How do you play pickleball with four people?

Play doubles, the standard game: two against two, with each pair splitting its half of the court left and right. The call is three numbers: the serving team’s score, the receiving team’s, and the server number, 1 or 2 (rule 6.B.2). Both partners serve before the serve passes to the other team, except at the start of a game, which is why the first call is 0–0–2. Our scoring guide explains the rest and has a cheat sheet for when you lose track.

Rally Trace keeps this score on your Apple Watch or iPhone. Tap the side that won each rally, and it tracks the server and where everyone stands and calls the score out loud, so nobody has to remember whether it’s server 1 or 2.

How do you play pickleball with five or more people?

Play doubles and take turns sitting out. With five on one court, number yourselves 1 to 5 and play this order. Everyone plays four games, sits out one, partners each of the other four once and plays against each of them twice.

Each game is scored as normal doubles. If you want a winner for the night, count each player’s wins out of their four games.

In Rally Trace, games played within an hour of each other are saved as one session, so the whole rotation reads as one night.

Six or more people

Once people are waiting, a fixed order gets long, and groups use a queue instead. These write-ups come from clubs, and the details vary from place to place.

• In a paddle queue, waiting players put their paddles down in groups of four, and the next group plays the next game. At Cromer’s pickleball club, winners and runners-up go to separate benches, winners split up for their next game, and games after the first round go to 9, win by 2.
• King of the court, also called up and down the river, needs a few courts. Winners move up a court and losers move down, and partners split or are drawn again each round. Rounds are often timed: 8 to 10 minutes at Cromer, 12 at Chilliwack Pickleball Club, and the team ahead when time runs out wins.
• A round robin changes partners every round. Cromer’s “popcorn” version draws pairings at random each round and rotates who sits out.

Keep your record, whoever turns up

Rally Trace scores singles and doubles, side-out to 11, on your Apple Watch or on iPhone alone, where Keep Score takes it rally by rally and Add result takes a final score. It saves each game with who was on your side and who was across the net. Two of you, and it’s singles, with your record against that opponent. Four, or five taking turns, and it’s doubles, with your record beside every partner and against every opponent on your iPhone. Scoring and all of those records are free.

Rally Trace Pro adds how often you win the rally on your serve and on theirs, and how your win rate moves month by month. Skinny singles scores the same as singles, so keep it as a Singles game. Cutthroat isn’t a game type in the app, so keep that one out loud. Rally Trace is on the App Store, for iPhone and Apple Watch.