Table tennis vs badminton - which is more popular

Which sport is more popular in your city/town?

Badminton..

Originally Posted by SFF_lib

Which sport is more popular in your city/town?

My country has produced some world class badminton players over the years.

Walk into any Tom, Dick & Harry sports store and you'll see racks and racks of badminton related equipment but hardly any TT related equipment.

So, it will be badminton for me.

Same here. Especially among kids, 50 kids play badminton while 12 kids play tt.

Badminton.
But even badminton is struggling compared to 30 yrs ago as far as numbers of players is concerned.
There are less clubs and the number of divisions in leagues has reduced as well, but that’s no different to how TT has fared over the years.

As an off topic side note
In England there is a difference in how both sports are run as well. This topic came up at a competition I went to watch yesterday
TT has local club leagues, and national club leagues, then the regional competitions (individual) TTE 1/2/3 star competitions etc. County representation is there ( a County is a region within a Nation) but is way less attractive because the Counties are ranked WITHOUT any recognition of the standard of players they have!!!
Badminton has local club leagues, the buck stops there for clubs!! No national club leagues. Individual competitions are there but usually based around ‘restricted’ County and ‘open’ County competitions,
There are 4 or 5 National Divisions and a County can be promoted or relegated. A County can also have an ‘A’ team, ‘B’ team etc.

Progression through the ranks!! (Generally, perhaps simplified to much!!)
Table Tennis - Club / Individual to National
Badminton - Club to County to National

Checked Table Tennis England (TTE) and Badminton Association of England (BAE) websites.
Badminton - 560,000 participants a week
Table Tennis - 290,000 twice a month, (so roughly 145,000 participants a week) this is down from about 440,000 twice a month pre COVID, (220,000/week)
note - figures rounded up for easy reading!!! No pre COVID figures from BAE

hard to find ‘definitive’ or possibly reliably accurate figures !!!!

badminton

its not hard to see why its more popular than table tennis though considering its way easier for anyone to just pick a racquet up and play compared to table tennis

way less frustrating to play too compared to table tennis

as what Gozo mentioned, my country is pretty much known in the badminton scene as we have legends like Lee Chong Wei and the Sidek brothers

Originally Posted by IB66

Checked Table Tennis England (TTE) and Badminton Association of England (BAE) websites.
Badminton - 560,000 participants a week
Table Tennis - 290,000 twice a month, (so roughly 145,000 participants a week) this is down from about 440,000 twice a month pre COVID, (220,000/week)
note - figures rounded up for easy reading!!! No pre COVID figures from BAE

hard to find ‘definitive’ or possibly reliably accurate figures !!!!

I like figures. They explain the situation really well.

Our club has suffered significantly as many players over the age of 50 are very concerned to play tt again.

Originally Posted by netdriver

badminton

its not hard to see why its more popular than table tennis though considering its way easier for anyone to just pick a racquet up and play compared to table tennis

way less frustrating to play too compared to table tennis

as what Gozo mentioned, my country is pretty much known in the badminton scene as we have legends like Lee Chong Wei and the Sidek brothers

But I heard that you can fit more tt players in the same area as compared to badminton. Badminton courts take up more space hence is less affordable in Asian cities. It's just a saying I've heard.

Tennis is more popular at my place because we don't have badminton courts.

Originally Posted by netdriver

badminton

its not hard to see why its more popular than table tennis though considering its way easier for anyone to just pick a racquet up and play compared to table tennis

way less frustrating to play too compared to table tennis

as what Gozo mentioned, my country is pretty much known in the badminton scene as we have legends like Lee Chong Wei and the Sidek brothers

How so? There are outdoor tables for table tennis and schools usually have ones too (at least here in Germany). If you want to play badminton you have to enter a club or rent a court so table tennis is way easier to get into. We got to play badmintion during PE at school, but none of us showed interest in following it outside of school because we couldn't conveniently play it somewhere close. You got outdoor courts for badminton over there?

In France it's 200 000 for tt against 190 000 for badminton. So...

For those knowing nothing about badminton and table tennis, the only option is badminton. Table tennis is not table tennis to them, it should be called floor tennis because they are chasing the ball on the floor.

Originally Posted by backspacer

How so? There are outdoor tables for table tennis and schools usually have ones too (at least here in Germany). If you want to play badminton you have to enter a club or rent a court so table tennis is way easier to get into. We got to play badmintion during PE at school, but none of us showed interest in following it outside of school because we couldn't conveniently play it somewhere close. You got outdoor courts for badminton over there?

Interesting. Outdoor tables cost a horrendous price in my country. It costs like $1300 USD and no school will buy it. Indoor table also costs ~$300USD each. Again schools don't buy them. A set of badminton nets cost far less that's why schools here prefer badminton.

My German friends also told me tt is easily accessible in Germany for kids and adults. I wonder if a country's economy plays a role since tt cost more to set up than badminton.

Originally Posted by Equaaz

In France it's 200 000 for tt against 190 000 for badminton. So...

That's why France can produce champions like the Lebrun brothers 😉

Originally Posted by SFF_lib

That's why France can produce champions like the Lebrun brothers 😉

We can consider ourselves lucky to have them. Only 200,000 players in a country of over 67 million people... that's not a lot.
And our training philosophy is very archaic, most players don't know anything about what's going on abroad (equipment, competition, technique, training, etc...) and aren't interested in it.

Originally Posted by backspacer

How so? There are outdoor tables for table tennis and schools usually have ones too (at least here in Germany). If you want to play badminton you have to enter a club or rent a court so table tennis is way easier to get into. We got to play badmintion during PE at school, but none of us showed interest in following it outside of school because we couldn't conveniently play it somewhere close. You got outdoor courts for badminton over there?

where i live outdoor tables for table tennis do not exist at all, but we do have outdoor courts for badminton in parks

though you're right, you do often need to enter clubs or rent a court if you want to play badminton "seriously".

however, the same thing applies to table tennis too. you will be pretty hard pressed to find a table tennis table you can play for free here. the only option for table tennis here is to either join the club and pay a membership fee to play or join a training center. table tennis training centers here are more abundant than table tennis clubs for some reason.

the reason why i think badminton is more accessible (here at my place at least) is because all you need is just an open space to muck around with shuttlecocks and racquets. it is a pretty common sight to see young people just go at it in parks without the need for a court or a net.

yes, they play in such a way because its just recreational fun, but don't people play table tennis for recreation too? well thats where the problem lies, you need a table. there just isnt any outdoor tables. to play table tennis here you need to go out of your way to find one, either by entering clubs, renting a table tennis court (rental table tennis rooms exist here) and so on.

Originally Posted by SFF_lib

But I heard that you can fit more tt players in the same area as compared to badminton. Badminton courts take up more space hence is less affordable in Asian cities. It's just a saying I've heard.

its true u can fit more tt players in the same area but considering that table tennis is the lesser popular sport here compared to the likes of badminton, football/soccer and even tennis, it doesnt rly give most people the incentive to just make a huge court only for table tennis.

but thinking about it, its most likely why theres a lot of training centers for table tennis (at my place) compared to clubs. its to maximize ur profits by providing training services since less popularity meant that renting table tennis courts will probably not make enough revenue to justify the establishment of one.