Cue the cue stick comeback
Almost all pool tables in the Santa Lucia Bowling and Billiards Center are full on this early Friday afternoon. One table is full of older, middle-aged men wearing what appears to be a team jersey. Another is full of teenagers, school polos and blouses interspersed with jeans and jackets, collars open.
There’s a smell of fries and beer in the air amidst the roll and tumble of pins, the whacking of cue sticks and billiard balls.
The Center is a time capsule, open since 1995, and the interiors with their neon signs and faded glam finishes can make a good setting for anyone wanting to shoot a period piece. The scene above could be from that era, kids after school unwinding, flared jeans and chunky dad sneakers, but their smartphones and selfies say it’s 2025.
Though pool sports have been around for centuries, and the Philippines in the 20th century had a billiards environment which produced the likes of Efren “Bata” Reyes, casual billiard halls as a mainstream recreation of choice, it seems, are making a comeback in 2025.
Micro to macro
It’s not just in the Santa Lucia Center. “Good thing we opened shop in March this year,” Reiyo Ocfemia, 25, says, adding “I thought we were going to be the only billiards joint here, but since May, every neighborhood seems to have one now.”
Reiyo and his dad Benedick co-run Sargo Billiards & Cafe in hilly Parang, Marikina, named after the Tagalog term for the first shot, “sargo,” in a round of billiards.
I’ve noticed it too, especially during my last-mile commutes taking trikes or walking: More and more billiard halls have been cropping up around Metro Manila, from swankier places catering to moneyed young professionals to neighborhood holes-in-the-wall barely furnished, more construction site than game room, save for the billiards tables and lamps and chairs surrounding them. A Taft avenue coffee shop I visited in 2024 moved and was replaced by a billiards hall.
Closer to home, Indexbox (with specific data behind a paywall) reported a “surge” in the Philippine billiard accessories market where “imports into the Philippines expanded” in 2024. From 2013 to 2024, “imports stood at a lower figure.”
Cheska Picache, a Filipina venture builder and entrepreneur, currently working at a Series C startup while taking a Masters in Management in Germany, shares how “market growth is an external factor,” and while difficult to operate in a “declining overall demand, it’s not impossible. I’m a firm believer in a business’s success being attributed to the people who run it.”
Just 10 years ago, what few billiards halls were open were legacy establishments with vibes similar to Santa Lucia and the ones named after bowling legend Paeng Nepomuceno in Eastwood and Makati Cinema Square.
In 2022, Paeng’s opened a bowling alley and billiards hall in Robinsons Manila and later, in March 2025, another was opened in Festival Mall in Alabang.
Picache notes how “people are creatures of change—our problems, motivations, and behaviors evolve over time,” postulating that billiards could be making a mainstream comeback because Paeng’s and similar establishments didn’t simply hold on to nostalgia and their existing customers, but smelled the barbeque in the air, and began preparing good sauce accordingly.
The people yearn to go offline
Wendy Maghuyop has been working in the Santa Lucia Center since 2016. Currently, she also helps manage the cashier. Sales were low even during the pre-pandemic years, just enough to stay afloat.
But it was around mid-2024 when they saw their sales rise by almost 50 percent, she shares. “Napansin ko halos karamihan ng mga dumadalaw dito ay hindi na puro matatanda.”
“Sawa na kami sa apps,” a teenager playing billiards with his friends in Santa Lucia, who requested anonymity, tells me.
Sargo, meanwhile, was the elder Ocfemia’s “dream project,” Reiyo shares. Benedick, who’s worked in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ printing plant for 26 years has religiously played in office billiards tournaments, winning some here and there. They chose Sargo’s venue mainly for the foot traffic. Their clients seem to be demographics you don’t often see in the same venue.
Verified Market Research predicts that the global billiards market will grow from USD 475 million in 2023 to around USD 800 million in 2031. The same report notes how “younger millennials and Gen Z consumers are increasingly drawn to billiards, exploring interactive and competitive environments. Furthermore, family-oriented recreational spaces often incorporate billiards, appealing to a broader audience and fostering intergenerational play.”
Thanks to mixed-concept stores like Sargo, a new generation gets to enjoy the camaraderie and icebreakers Benedick and his peers enjoyed and continue to enjoy. “It seems like billiards is literally getting passed from generation to generation,” observes Reiyo, adding that “we made three to four times more than what we predicted we’d make upon opening.”
While most older people stick to themselves and rent out the billiard facilities while the younger visitors stick to themselves focusing on the “cafe side” and board games, Reiyo explains, there are many instances where families visit the shop, and the elders often teach the young billiards, with the same young ones later returning with their friends to play pool.
A June 2025 report by Business Research Insights notes how “social gatherings around cue sports, such as pool, snooker, and other genres, appeal to people because of the ability of such an activity to entertain customers without losing the laid-back atmosphere.”
Picache concurs, noting how “for younger demographics like Millennials and Gen Z, my guess is that the saturation of ‘digital everything’ (and remnants of post-COVID longing for connection and in-person activities) makes them (us) seek tactile, real-life experiences.” Reiyo, the co-owner of Sargo, agrees.
I see a snout peek from the table Reiyo and I are sharing, and it’s Phoebe, his dog, who seems happy that her human is having a friendly interaction with this new human. “Oh,” Reiyo chuckles, “we also wanted Sargo to be pet-friendly!”
“Another hunch” for Picache, the entrepreneur-academic, “is that Gen Z is becoming more aware of consumerism’s excesses. I foresee a shift toward collecting experiences over material goods. Social media can also contribute to the growth of “retro hobbies and experiences” becoming more popular; I’ve been seeing reels and TikTok videos about roller discos!”
Now, Sargo is expanding to another floor of the building they’re renting, to open a private billiard lounge for rent to cater to the growing number of families interested in billiards in a cafe setting, sea salt lattes and all.
Once again, a snout pokes out from under the table. Phobe sees that I see her, and her stubby tail starts wagging. Whack! She’s no longer startled by the billiard ball’s impacts. I reach out to pet her, and her fur feels like the smooth, velvet felt of the pool tables all around.
