Quidditch is the wizarding sport created by J.K. Rowling for the Harry Potter universe. It is played by two teams of seven players on flying broomsticks, with goals, a Quaffle, Bludgers and a Golden Snitch.
A match traditionally ends when a Seeker catches the Golden Snitch, earning 150 points, although the team with the most points wins. Rowling has said the sport’s name was inspired by a word she invented while writing and by the fictional place Queerditch Marsh.
Real-world fans adapted the game into a ground-based sport in the early 2000s. Many clubs later adopted the name quadball. This distinction explains why “Quidditch” can refer either to Rowling’s fictional game or to the adapted athletic version played without flying.