Kickball (also known as soccer baseball in most of Canada and football rounders in the United Kingdom) is a team sport and league game, similar to baseball. Like baseball, it is a safe haven game in which one team tries to score by having its players return a ball from home base to the field and then circle the bases. Meanwhile, the other team tries to stop them by tagging them "out" with the ball before they can return to home base. However, instead of hitting a small, hard ball with a bat, players kick an inflated rubber ball; this makes it more accessible to young children. As in baseball, teams alternate half-innings. The team with the most runs after a predefined number of innings wins.

Kickball is typically played among young, school-age children,^{[citation needed]} both as a playground game and as part of physical education (PE). The lack of both specialized equipment and highly skill-based positions (like the pitcher) makes the game an accessible introduction to related sports such as baseball and softball. In recent decades, it has gained popularity among adults, and today many cities are home to one or more organized kickball leagues for adults.

Kickball was likely invented around 1910 in the United States and began to spread from about the 1920s onward, mainly via PE classes in public schools. It became an especially popular recess sport on playgrounds across the country in the 1970s, and is now played in various forms in countries around the world, such as Canada, England, Japan, South Korea, and in South America.

The World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) was found in 1998.

There is debate on who invented kickball. More than likely, it evolved from baseball, or even softball, which was initially played inside gymnasiums when it was invented in Chicago in 1887. In the late 19th century, the YMCA was a hub for sports innovation, with basketball and volleyball being invented there. Around the same time, Charles Gregory Lang, a highly educated and respected physical director, is credited with inventing a lesser-known sport called Lang ball. The sport combined elements of baseball with a twist: players kicked a round, inflated ball (like a soccer ball) while hanging from a horizontal bar. The ball was served by a pitcher, and the rest of the game followed baseball rules with bases, runs, and scoring.

The earliest known set of rules resembling the game appeared in the book "Street Games of Brooklyn, NY" (1891) by Stewart Culin. The game was called "Kick the Ball," and a diagram in the book shows four corners of intersection used as bases. There were four innings of play, and outs are made on a fly out and when a ball is thrown towards the defender at home before the runner reaches any of the bases. A player is out when a kicker misses a kick. Interestingly, there was no pitcher to deliver the ball to a catcher at home plate.

In 1901, an organized game of "kickball" was played by youngsters in Chattanooga, Tennessee. "The game of kickball between the teams of the junior department of the YMCA and the First district school resulted in a victory for the First district with a score of 10 to 9," reported the Chattanooga Sunday Times on December 15, 1901. “This sport is creating much interest among the boys.” A few months later, a five-inning game was exhibited again by the junior members of the Chattanooga YMCA that featured “as much excitement as if it had been a professional game.” Nine players were listed on the rosters, but catchers were not; therefore, it is inconclusive whether the ball was delivered to the kicker as in the modern game.

The Cincinnati Post wrote an article on September 2, 1908, describing the popularity of the new game that was being implemented in Cincinnati-area public school programs. A regulation basketball was used, and games were held outside or inside school gymnasiums. “From the experimenting we have done, we are safe in saying it will prove even more popular than basket ball and can played indoors or out of doors,” declares Physical Director of Cincinnati Public Schools Dr. Carl Zeigler.