Side-out vs rally scoring in pickleball

In side-out scoring, only the serving team can score, and a doubles score is called as three numbers. In rally scoring, whoever wins the rally gets the point, whoever served, so a game to 11 takes about half as many rallies; the call is two numbers.

Side-out is the standard in the 2026 USA Pickleball rulebook. Rally scoring is in it too, as a provisional option for singles and doubles (rule 14.A), and USA Pickleball plans to decide in 2027 whether to keep it provisional, make it permanent or drop it.

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rallies in a doubles game to 11: side-out scoring against rally scoring, in our model.Rally Trace model

What is side-out scoring?

It’s pickleball’s traditional scoring, where only the serving team can score. The rulebook puts it in one line: A point is scored by serving the ball and winning the rally (rule 4.A). Win a rally on the other team’s serve and you get no point, only the serve, or one step closer to it.

In doubles each team gets two servers a turn, so the call has three numbers: the serving team’s score, the receiving team’s score and the server number (rule 6.B.2). The team that serves first gets only one server on its first turn, which is why every game starts at 0–0–2 (rule 5.B). When a team’s last server loses a rally, the serve passes to the other team. That’s the side out. The rulebook’s definition: The awarding of the serve to the opposing team after a singles player or doubles team loses its serve.

If your group loses track of the server number, Rally Trace keeps it on your Apple Watch, on screen and in the spoken call.

Singles uses two numbers and one server a side. How to keep score in pickleball goes through the rest of side-out scoring: what happens after each rally, where to stand, and what to do when someone calls the wrong score.

What is rally scoring?

Every rally scores a point for the team that wins it. In the rulebook’s words, A point is scored by the singles player or doubles team that wins each rally (rule 14.A.2). Each doubles team gets one server a turn, so losing a rally on your serve sends the serve straight to the other team, and the call drops to two numbers, the server’s score first (rules 14.A.3 and 14.A.5).

Since 2026 there’s no freeze, so a team can win the game on the other team’s serve. Rally scoring in pickleball covers who serves after each rally and how the freeze used to work.

Side-out vs rally scoring

Doubles, under the 2026 rulebook.

The rally counts come from the model behind our rally scoring guide: 200,000 simulated doubles games of each kind, win by 2, with each team winning 45% of the rallies it serves. When one team gets a small edge, 47% on its serve, it wins 55.5% of side-out games to 11 and 53.8% of rally games to 11. A shorter game leaves more to luck. Played to 21, rally scoring is back to 55.2%, and the games run about as long as side-out to 11.

Where is each one used?

In rec play, it’s whatever your group agrees on before the first serve.

At USA Pickleball tournaments, side-out is the standard, and the tournament director may choose rally scoring instead, except in double-elimination doubles, 2026 Golden Ticket events and the 2026 National Championships (rule 15.C.2).

Major League Pickleball says that in 2026 it will continue a side out scoring system for the doubles format, with games to 11, win by 2, and that its DreamBreaker tiebreakers use rally scoring, played to 21 points (MLP, ABC’s of MLP). A DreamBreaker is played when a match is tied 2–2 (The Dink, 20 May 2026). We couldn’t find a statement of the PPA Tour’s 2026 scoring format from the tour itself, so check an event’s own page before you go by what you’ve heard.

DUPR rates games under either system. Its post comparing the two says its algorithm factors in rally scoring (DUPR, 1 August 2025).

Which should your group play?

If players are waiting for the court, rally scoring to 11 moves games along. If you like rally scoring’s simpler call, with no server number to keep, but want full-length games, play to 21.

Stay with side-out if your group already knows it, or if you play leagues or tournaments that use it, since that’s the score you’ll be calling there. DUPR’s comparison puts the difference this way: traditional scoring rewards patience, holding serve, and strategic sideouts, while rally scoring increases pace, simplifies scoring, and speeds up the game.

How to switch your group to rally scoring

Settle these before the first serve, not at 10–9.

1. Pick the target, 11 or 21, as above. Win by 2 either way.
2. Agree there’s no freeze, as in the 2026 rules, so game point can be won on either team’s serve. Players who learned rally scoring before 2026 may expect one.
3. Call two numbers, the server’s score first. The third number is the habit to break.
4. After every point, the two partners on the team that scored swap service courts, right and left; nobody changes ends. As in side-out, the server alternates serving areas after each point won, and when your team wins the serve back, whoever is then on your right serves (rule 14.A.4).
5. Keep the usual position check. Your team’s starting server belongs on the right when your score is even and on the left when it’s odd (rule 5.B.3). In rally scoring both teams score, so both teams move.

Going back to side-out, the first call is 0–0–2 again.

Keeping score on Apple Watch

Apple Watch’s Workout app records a pickleball workout but doesn’t keep the score. For that you need a scoring app on the watch.

Rally Trace keeps side-out scoring on your Apple Watch, in doubles or singles, free. It doesn’t keep rally-scoring games. Tap the side that won each rally, and it moves the score, the server number and who serves from which side, then calls the score out loud. The watch buzzes one way for a rally won and another for a rally lost. If you tap the wrong side, turn the Digital Crown to undo it. If the score has drifted, Fix score sets it right.

Every game goes to your iPhone with its heart rate, and your record with every partner and opponent is free. Rally Trace Pro adds the side-out numbers: points per serve turn, side outs, and how often you win the rally on your serve and on theirs. Get Rally Trace on the App Store.