China is where table tennis was developed, after which it spread to Europe and ultimately the US. Some claim that “Ping-Pang”—which eventually became “Ping Pong”—was the game’s original name because it sounded similar to phrases used in the Chinese language in the seventh century. The game started to spread to India, Persia, and then the West by the eighth century. These early games involved hitting a lichee, a dried Chinese fruit.
Others assert that the sound created by the European ping pong rackets, which are constructed of pieces of paper stretched across a frame, is what gave rise to the names “Whiff-Whaff” and then “Ping-Pong.”
Many people in Europe think that army officers who used old cigar boxes as paddles and spherical wine corks as balls created ping pong. Up until it was first recognized as a sport in 1927, ping pong was still a favorite party game among the wealthy in England.
Ping pong eventually became so popular in Europe that game manufacturers started selling the equipment commercially, initially under the name “Gossima.” However, before English manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd. officialized the term “Ping-Pong” in 1901, it was already extensively used. The American business Parker Brothers eventually purchased the “Ping-Pong” name rights from Jaques & Son.
On a vacation to the United States in, James Gibb, an English fan of the game, discovered novelty celluloid balls and discovered them to be the perfect balls for the game.
Table tennis experienced an explosion in popularity in the 1950s thanks to the mass production of plastic balls, notably in Asia, where nations like China and South Korea have produced the majority of the world’s best players. The majority of Americans played ping pong at home, in rec rooms in the attics or in basements, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. In China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, and Germany, table tennis has significant fan bases. It is less expensive than sports like baseball or golf.
In order to increase spectator accessibility to the fast-paced gameplay of ping pong, improvements have been made to tournament rules as ping pong’s popularity has grown. The ball in this back-and-forth activity may go at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. To slow down play and make games more entertaining, the International Table Tennis Federation altered the official ping pong ball size from 38 mm to 40 mm in 2000. Games were also decreased from 21 points to 11 points. Additionally, it is no longer acceptable for players to conceal the ball in their palms while serving.
The evolution of arcade games and the personal computer was greatly influenced by ping pong.
The first video game to have substantial commercial success was Atari’s Pong, a ping pong game that was introduced in 1972. Electronic ping pong became a popular gaming genre in the 1970s, which was a good decade for ping pong, thanks in part to home and arcade versions of Pong. Nine American ping pong players traveled to China in April of 1971 for a week of exhibition matches against the top Chinese ping pong players. Ten months later, President Richard Nixon’s historic visit was made possible thanks to this “ping pong diplomacy.”
Since becoming an official Olympic sport in 1988 in Seoul, ping pong has grown to be the sport with the highest participation rate worldwide, according to the International Olympic Committee. Over 40 million people worldwide participate in competitive ping pong games nowadays.