Strava released its 12th Annual Year in Sport Trend Report on Friday, with running still dominating as the top activity on the platform as run clubs continued to grow on the platform while walking surged to second position among workouts synced to the app.
The report is a detailed breakdown of insights into how Strava’s 180 million worldwide users have spent their time in 2025, with billions of activities analyzed in a period as the company is surging.
While Strava touts a massive trove of data about user habits, it comes at a time when the company, reportedly valued at over $2 billion, is readying a public offering following high profile acquisitions like the purchase of Runna in April.
One metric that is an easy indicator of interest in the app is the 14 billion kudos given across its global community — with paid subscribers racking up an hour of being active for every two minutes they spent using the app.
But probably the biggest highlight for Strava in 2025 is the importance of Gen Z which it considers a critical demographic that is putting fitness first through their spending and are major boom to the rising running ecosystem.
“More than half of Gen Z plans to use Strava more in 2026, while most say they’ll use Instagram and TikTok the same amount or less,” Michael Martin, chief executive officer of Strava said in the report. “As the fastest growing demographic on Strava, we know that Gen Z is looking for real experiences, not more time staring at screens. This generation is rewriting the rules, and we’re committed to building the platform that keeps people connected and moving together for generations to come.”
Meanwhile, walking has shot up Strava’s list of activities and lands at the second slot behind running, with cycling, hiking, weight training and general workout rounding out the top six slots.
Running is still a major core activity of the company’s user base, with race participation continuing to soar. Strava says that Gen Z is 75 percent likely than their Gen X counterparts to look toward a race as a motivator for running.
And even with an increased push toward racing, new runners have dipped into the sport with data from Runna showing that 26 percent of user identifying themselves as beginners or intermediate (34 percent), while 86 percent of Runna’s community said they achieved a personal best.
Other figures provide a deeper dive on the now-united Strava and Runna alliance:
• Gen Z and women are hitting the gym and weight room as Gen Z is twice as likely than Gen X to lift weights as a primary activity, while women are 21 percent more likely than men to sync a weight training workout to the app.
• 54 percent of Strava users are tracking more than one activity, adding walks to pre and post workout lineups. According to Strava, some users want to try new sports but find skiing and snowboarding particularly challenging — with twice as many Gen Z as Gen X feeling that it can be intimidating to take on a new sport.
• Gen Z has been impacted by inflation and other broad economic challenges but is still guiding their spending toward fitness with 30 percent planning to invest more in 2026 with watches and wearable trackers part of big buys this year or a priority to purchase next year. 63 percent more of Gen Z than Gen X said buying a watch or wearable was their top fitness spend in 2025.
• Meanwhile, Gen Z wants to catch the fitness bug (and keep it) instead of dating, with 64 percent opting to want to spend money on gear than a date and 39 percent more of Gen Z meet people through fitness. They’d prefer to be in a crowd with similar interests with 46 percent of those polled saying they would do a workout first date while 31 percent are firmly against.
• Clubs keep soaring on Strava and in 2025 one million clubs are now on the platform, with hiking as the fastest club segment at 5.8 times growth, followed by run clubs (3.5 times). The club structure is also pulling in crowds in-person with organized events soaring 1.5 times over the previous year.
• Gen Z is making the time to workout while on vacation even though it is not a priority, but 23 percent say exercise on vacation is part of the package. 22 percent were likely to trip trips closer to home instead of venturing internationally, with Germans and the British leading the charge among Strava users who did opt to travel. And when they did travel, winter sports were the preferred activity at 65 percent followed by hiking (58 percent) and water sports (48 percent).
• Boulder, Colorado dominated the leaderboard in the Unites States in 2025, with the most steps per day (6,302), longest average runs (4.4 miles), most weekly moving time (3:09:58), longest median streak (39 days) and the highest share of runners grabbing personal records (57 percent).
• In the battle of east and west coast, New York logged the faster runs, lifted more weights and hit the yoga mat more often than Los Angeles Strava users. But the Los Angeles crowd went on more walks, hikes and got up earlier for fitness activities.
• On the global stage, Copenhagen is the fastest city at 8:52 minute per mile pace with users in South Africa and Colombia running in groups the most.
