CHICAGO (NewsNation) — The number of Americans who play pickleball has shot up more than 150% in the last three years, and experts are warning the spike in pickleball’s popularity is starting to show up in emergency rooms across the country, especially among seniors.

But while more and more people are crazy about pickleball, others say the noise associated with the sport drives them crazy.

As the fastest-growing sport in the country, nearly nine million people play pickleball in America — an 86% jump from the year before, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.

Between 2019 and 2022, pickleball grew 159 percent from 3.5 million players in 2019 to 8.9 million players in 2022, The Hill reported.

“I love it, it’s nice. I make friends and I make friends from all walks of life and all political persuasions,” one woman said.

But as the sport gains in popularity, it’s starting to take a toll on players’ bodies.

“We’re seeing people fall and get wrist injuries,” Dr. Jeremy Alland, a sports medicine physician, said. “We’re seeing people land on their back, land on their hips.”

According to a new research note published by UBS analysts, pickleball-related medical costs could be contributing five to 10 percent of the “unexpected medical cost trend this year. The analysts wrote that in 2023, medical costs attributed to pickleball could total between $250 and $500 million in the U.S.

The analysts wrote that while seniors are becoming more active, they can be more susceptible to injuries, especially those associated with pickleball. They said that the sport is “highly attractive” to seniors, who make up one-third of players who play eight times or more per year. 

The majority of those injured have reportedly been senior citizens. One study conducted in 2020 in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, titled “Pickleball-Related Injuries Treated in Emergency Departments,” found that almost 9 out of every 10 patients to go to the emergency room for a pickleball injury were over the age of 60.

And then there is the noise.

As picklers crowd the courts, neighbors who live near courts say the noise has become unbearable. And it’s a problem impacting communities from coast to coast.

One Arlington, Virginia, resident told the county’s board it’s too much “for a father trying to put his two-and-a-half-year-old kid to bed at 7, 8 o’clock to hear, ‘ping, ping, ping, ping, ping.’”

“If you want to sleep in on a Saturday, forget it,” Mary McKee, who lives across the street from pickleball courts, told DC News Now. “People are out before 7 a.m. If you want to go to bed before 10 p.m., forget it.”

The noise has sparked some to organize petitions and even file lawsuits against their communities. Some towns have gone as far as to ban the sport from certain parks.

“They come, they play for an hour, they go home,” McKee said. “I’m already home. I have to live with your noise.”

Love it or hate it, the game isn’t going away anytime soon. Analysts estimate the number of pickleball fanatics to hit 22 million this year.

The Hill and DC News Now contributed to this report.