The European fitness market closed 2025 with solid membership and revenue gains — and all signs point to a space that’s just warming up.
European fitness memberships reached 75.5 million by year-end 2025, up from 71.4 million in 2024, according to the European Health & Fitness Market Report 2025, released by Deloitte and EuropeActive, the non-profit trade organization representing Europe’s fitness and physical activity sector.
Total revenue climbed 9.1% to 39.1 billion euros ($44.5 billion), driven in part by higher yield per member across most markets.
The big markets delivered: the U.K. posted the strongest percentage growth, reaching 12.2 million members (up 6.6%), while Germany led in total members at 12.4 million (up 5.6%) and Spain surged to 7.1 million, a gain of 8.3%.
At the operator level, Basic-Fit led all European chains with 5.8 million members and 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in revenue, followed by PureGym with 2.1 million members and 750 million euros ($853 million) in revenue, and RSG Group — which owns Gold’s Gym, John Reed and McFit among others — at 1.8 million members.
RSG Group, for its part, is making moves beyond its current footprint. McFit, the group’s largest European brand with more than 230 company-owned locations across Germany, Austria and Italy, recently announced a shift to international franchising, modeling its expansion strategy after fellow brand Gold’s Gym, which operates 507 franchise locations worldwide.
David Lloyd Leisure, which claimed the second revenue spot at 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion), is also making noise. The U.K.-based operator recently launched “kidult” classes with guided sessions that lean into nostalgia, incorporating childhood games like hopscotch, tag and wheelbarrow races as a play-driven approach to member retention.
Room to Run
Meanwhile, Europe’s fitness penetration rate sat at just 9.3% of the total population in 2025 — up from 8.9% in 2024, but a fraction of the 24.9% penetration rate recorded in the U.S., according to HFA’s 2025 Global Report.
“Based on the growth shown in our research and the outlook for 2026 and beyond as expressed by the operators we interviewed, we are confident to reach EuropeActive’s ambition of getting to 100 million members of health and fitness centers by 2030,” said Herman Rutgers, EuropeActive ambassador and the report‘s co-author.
Investor interest is keeping pace. Twenty-seven major mergers and acquisitions were completed across the European fitness market in 2025, a sign that investor confidence in brick-and-mortar fitness isn’t fading, the report indicates.
The hunger for European expansion isn’t limited to local operators, either. Purpose Brands, the parent company of Anytime Fitness and Orangetheory, has identified Europe as a major growth priority, with plans to expand both brands in mid-sized cities and markets. Boutique brands are circling, too, such as FS8, the Australian-born fitness franchise fusing Pilates, tone and yoga. The brand is under the FIT House of Brands umbrella, along with F45 and Vaura Pilates.
