IFPA: Competitive Pinball Bounces Back in 2022

The International Flipper Pinball Association just released its annual “State of the Union” address recapping 2022. The big takeaway is that attendance is up in the competitive pinball scene and the slate of events is expanding. According to the article there were over 8,366 IFPA-sanctioned events in 2022, a 10% increase from the 7,591 events in 2019. This is of course, ignoring the Covid-stricken years of 2020-2021 where almost no IFPA sanctioned pinball tournaments were held. 

Pinball has roots stretching back to the late 1800s and has seen many changes over that time, with varying levels of popularity. But has retained iconic status since exploding onto the mainstream in the 1970s. As a sport, it’s been thriving under the IFPA’s care and prior to the pandemic they had celebrated record levels of growth in their 2019 State of the Union. It’s great for everyone involved to see them returning to a more familiar growth trajectory.

There Were Some Rough Times

The pandemic caused a downturn for all public entertainment venues, but arcades were hit particularly hard. Many were forced to shut down permanently, and even giants like Sega shut down operations in places like Japan and pulled out of the coin-op industry entirely. There was much doom and gloom with some speculation that arcades were dying out entirely.