The fitness industry’s resilience should come as a surprise to no one, having not only survived a recent pandemic, but emerged from it thriving. Nonetheless, the extent at which fitness and wellness has rebounded remains a sight to behold.
At the 2025 ATN CEO Summit, R.J. Hottovy, CFA, Head of Analytical Research at Placer.ai, broke down the industry’s evolution over the past decade, specifically touching on how chains are spurring increased visitor frequency, driving retention, and evolving to withstand economic volatility.
Fitness Reigns Supreme
Relaying foot traffic data from the several hundred mobile apps Placer.ai taps, Hottovy revealed that fitness industry experienced a 6.6% increase in quarterly visits in Q3 of 2024, blowing away others such as discount and dollar stores (2.0%), superstores (2.0%), groceries (1.6%), overall retail (0.3%), apparel (-0.8%) and home improvements and furnishings (-0.9%).
“It’s pretty rare right now in this environment where people are being more conscious about what they spend,” Hottovy said. “That’s a real paradigm shift in this category, something that we haven’t seen. This is one of the few categories when we look at it, compared to the pre-pandemic levels, we’re actually ahead of where we were. There’s not many retail categories right now that can say that. This is one of those things that you look at and it really gives you some confidence about where we’re headed as an industry.”
Numbers to Know Behind the Surge
Hottovy added that the yearly visit attrition curve for the fitness industry in the past typically hovered around 20-15%, but in 2024, it only did so by 10%, putting more faith behind the industry’s sustained success. Increased availability of low-price membership gyms, growth of connected fitness, targeting Gen-Z and the power of community and connection were mentioned as drivers for that trend.
Hottovy specifically shouted out Crunch Fitness as a “big winner” in this regard, the HVLP gym saw users come in roughly six times per month for every four that competitors did. It also noted how Planet Fitness’ experienced only moderate attrition after raising its class card price.
“Yes, I think you are going to continue to see attrition in a given year, but it’s really flattened out quite a bit,” Hottovy said.
Visitations at gyms and fitness studios aren’t just increasing, but diversifying as well. Hottovy pointed out that thanks to factors like the hybrid work model, members are able to get a sweat in at times other than the early mornings. From Q3 of 2019 to Q3 of 2024, visits across fitness chains nationwide increased from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., while decreasing from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The largest time periods to surge in traffic were 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., where they leaped by 1.7%.
“Just being aware that there’s a lot of change in people’s working out preferences, it helps in designing a membership program that really works with engagement too,” Hottovy said. “I bet we’re going to continue to look a lot like this next year.”
The discussion also placed a spotlight on rightsizing and its effectiveness when it’s done strategically. 24 Hour Fitness was touted as an example. The brand’s change in visits per location increased by 40% in January through September of 2024 compared to the same year to 2019 after undergoing some reconstruction.
“Changing programs in place led to higher engagement,” Hottovy said. “In a case like that, where maybe the company got away from some of the things that they should have been doing in terms of engagement, reorganization was a big driver and really helped the business.”
Boutique’s Aren’t Left Behind
Big chains weren’t alone in pushing this fitness surge, however. Hottovy concluded with a nod at boutique fitness, mentioning that Pure Barre and Club Pilates experienced a substantial lift in visits across the past two years as well.
In January of 2023, Purre Barre increased by nearly 20% while Club Pilates did so by almost 25%. Much of that can be attributed to new locations opening up in wake of the increased demand for boutique offerings, Hottovy added.
“This is again, is a category that we’re seeing much higher visit frequency,” he said. “A lot of clubs are starting to figure out, getting people in more often and that unlocks a lot of different things. This is a perfect example of another two chains that are doing some really interesting things, helping drive this engagement and putting it all together.”
Be on the lookout for more information on the ATN Innovation Summit, a can’t-miss two-day event to be held on June 17th and 18th in New York City featuring the biggest names, brands, and ideas across fitness, health, and wellness.
