Pinball was banned in New York City for three decades because it was considered a menace to society. Fifty years later, the game is not just accepted but is also thriving, spawning competitions across the world and encouraging local connection and community.
The arcade game you may remember playing as a kid isn’t just for kids.
The Utah State Pinball Championships, which included both an open championship and a women’s championship, were held Jan. 17 and 18 in Salt Lake City and South Jordan. The winners, Marc Jackson and Paige Peck, will represent Utah at the North American Championship Series in Chicago and the Women’s North American Championship Series in Colorado in March.
Is pinball a sport?
The first thing you need to know about competitive pinball is that it’s not a game of chance — it requires skill that can be developed through practice.
Dan Newman, who founded Salt Lake Area Pinballers 11 years ago and is one of Utah’s pinball state representatives, explained that each pinball game represents a unique challenge.
“Each individual game is its own universe,” he said. “It has its own rules, its own shots, its own timing.”
If you’re familiar with Formula One racing, where each racetrack has a different layout and requires specialized technique and strategy, you can think of each pinball game in similar terms.
There’s also a fair bit of technical jargon to define each pinball machine. They are sorted into three eras: classic, with basic electromechanical systems; mid, which introduced ramps and dot-matrix displays; and modern, which has all the bells and whistles of screens and graphics.
Crystal Cory, who placed second in the women’s competition and is one of two women who played in this year’s open competition, added that classic games have lower scoring and don’t play as fast, while modern machines offer more varied ways to score and tend to move faster.
Twenty-two men and two women competed on 19 pinball machines in the state open tournament at Kiitos Brewing in Salt Lake City. The tournament is bracket-style, with two players facing off against each other in multiple rounds on multiple machines. Each player picks one game from each of the three eras, and the best out of seven games goes on to the next level.
Newman added that the machines for Saturday’s tournament were set up to be especially hard. “They’re all in competition mode, and they all have an extra sheen of wax,” he said.
If you played pinball as a kid, you might recall losing after 30 seconds or so. Some of these competitive games can go on for 40 minutes or longer.
Nate Smith, owner of arcade bar The L.A.B. in Ogden and a competitor in Saturday’s open tournament, explained some of the technique that goes into excelling at pinball.
“Reaction time is huge, watching the motion of the path of the ball,” he said. “The ball actually also gets some spin on it.”
Pinball gets surprisingly physical — players can even nudge the machine in order to move the ball where they want it to go. But if you bump it too hard, Smith cautioned, a mechanical pendulum inside the machine could end the game.
“So part of the skill is learning how much you can get away with, how rough with the machine you can be,” he said. “I personally like the challenge. They’re all like puzzles to figure out.”
But beyond the competition and skill, Smith says the game is simply fun.
“Who doesn’t like bells and chimes and neon lights?”
How did competitive pinball get started?
Zach Sharpe, the vice president of the International Flipper Pinball Association, or IFPA, has seen pinball’s popularity ebb and flow over the years, from nearly going extinct a decade ago to becoming an international competition.
While Sharpe said pinball isn’t lucrative enough for players to quit their day jobs, sponsorships and entrance fees do create a sizable prize pool. State championships were held across the country this past weekend, with 1,200 players competing for their share of a $220,000 prize pool. A total of $1,300,000 in cash and prizes was awarded throughout 2025.
Sharpe was raised around pinball. His father, Roger Sharpe, is known as “the man who saved pinball” for his role in overturning New York City’s pinball ban, and his mother is also an avid player. Zach Sharpe’s brother, Josh, is the president of the IFPA and helped spearhead the creation of the worldwide pinball ranking system, which has encouraged the growth of competitive pinball.
Sharpe is also the senior director of marketing for Stern Pinball, the largest pinball manufacturer in the world. He said pinball manufacturers saw a downturn after the 2008 financial crisis but managed to stay afloat, and the game has seen a lot of growth come from marketing to fan bases, from “Star Wars” and “Stranger Things” to Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden.
Introducing a competitive element to pinball has brought even more people to the game.
“It is just more fun to connect and compete,” Sharpe said. “Whether you’re playing for $20 or $20,000, it is a form of entertainment that a lot of people don’t experience in their day-to-day lives.”
Sharpe added that Todd MacCulloch, a former NBA player turned pinball champion, once mentioned that he had more nerves playing in a high-stakes pinball tournament final than playing in the NBA Finals against Shaquille O’Neal.
“So that gives some perspective,” Sharpe said.
Why is pinball becoming so popular?
The advent of the internet and popularity of livestreaming has also advanced pinball’s growth. Streaming website Twitch now has a dedicated pinball category, where hundreds of players stream their games to thousands of fans. Utah’s championships were broadcast by player Jeff Larsen on his channel, thekingpinball.
Josh Craig, the other Utah state pinball representative, said pinball is “meditative” for many, which is part of its appeal.
“It’s you and the machine, and you’ve got to block out every thought in the universe,” he said. “If you start thinking, ‘Oh, I got this at work,’ you’re not gonna be able to play very well. You’ve got to have that complete focus.”
Although many arcade games have been turned into video games, Newman says pinball cannot be replicated — it has to be played in person.
“It’s the whole mechanical feel of the ball rolling around the play field,” he said. “No matter how good the computers get, you just can’t replace that.”
And while cost is often a barrier to people considering new hobbies, pinball is cheap. You can even earn free game credits if you play well.
Another reason pinball has grown so much, Sharpe said, is that anyone can compete, regardless of age or gender.
Nate Smith, for instance, got into competitive pinball because he first enjoyed the game as a family hobby with his kids. They would play a few nights a week, and eventually he found more tournaments. When Smith moved to Utah seven years ago, he could find a competition once or twice a month. Now, there’s a tournament almost every night.
“You can literally play pinball competitively, five, six nights a week, which is amazing,” he said. “We’ve really accelerated.”
Utah is now a pinball “super state,” a title bestowed upon a state that holds 100 sanctioned tournaments with 400 unique players in one year. Utah has surpassed that criteria with over 140 tournaments and 520 unique players this year, according to Newman.
Getting involved
While Americans are growing increasingly isolated and spending less time outside home and work, pinball is one of a few niche social hobbies that has gained popularity in recent years.
“It’s hard for adults to get out and meet people and have fun anymore,” Newman said. “Pinball is a great opportunity. Everybody in the community is really accepting and open.”
Crystal Cory, the Utah women’s pinball state representative, said that the women’s tournaments are special because of how community-focused they are. For instance, although she doesn’t ask people to bring food, almost every women’s tournament is also a potluck. They have players of all ages, from 8-year-olds to retirees.
“Women’s events really are about the community. We’re definitely going to take the competition seriously, but also, ultimately, we’re just happy for each other,” Cory said.
Pinball playing is a skill just like anything else, Cory said, and if you come to tournaments, ask questions, learn game rules and start practicing, you can become a competitive player.
“The Utah community is especially really welcoming,” she said. “So if you’re hesitant, if you’re on the fence, just go for it. It’s the best.”