24 Hour Fitness, Life Time and Planet Fitness also saw significant increases in foot traffic compared to last year, while Orangetheory and LA Fitness saw relatively modest increases.
If your gym feels more crowded than it used to be, you’re not in the wrong.
U.S. gym visitation continued to grow year-over-year in the second quarter, led by high-value, low-price (HVLP) brands EoS Fitness and Crunch Fitness, which saw visitation increase 23.4% and 21.4%, respectively, compared to Q2 2023.
The findings come from Placer.ai, a location intelligence company that uses machine learning and data science to generate pedestrian traffic analytics. As Placer.ai points out, fitness has been shown to be immune to inflation, theorizing that rising costs across the board may be driving more gym visits, with consumers opting to take advantage of gym memberships rather than spending money on going out.
EoS Fitness, a HVLP fitness chain with the motto “Better Gym, Better Prices,” aims to open five new gyms across four states in the first quarter of 2024 and have more than 250 gyms by 2030. EoS is reportedly seeking $100 million to support its growth strategy.
Crunch Fitness is also thriving in the HVLP space, with approximately 2.5 million members systemwide as of early 2024 and plans for domestic and international expansion. Supporting Crunch Fitness’ growth is Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who partnered with CR Fitness Holdings, the largest operator of Crunch Fitness franchise locations, to expand the brand in Texas.
Following EoS and Crunch is 24 Hour Fitness, which saw a 9% increase in foot traffic compared to the second quarter of 2023. Earlier this spring, the gym chain announced a multimillion-dollar investment in its four San Francisco Bay Area locations, which will include adding new cardio and strength training equipment and grassy areas for group exercise zones.
Premium fitness and lifestyle operator Life Time, where the average monthly membership is about $190, also saw an 8.9% increase in foot traffic. Life Time founder and CEO Bahram Akradi noted that the brand has had strong customer retention thanks to investments in areas like pickleball and small-group training.
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Planet Fitness, which brought in a new CEO and raised membership fees for the first time in 26 years this summer, recorded a 6.2% increase, while group fitness giant Orangetheory Fitness saw an increase of 2.4%.
LA Fitness, which operates under parent company Fitness International, increased 1.3 percent. Fitness International acquired XSport Fitness this month. The deal will see XSport’s 35 gyms in New York, Chicagoland and Virginia rebranded under one of Fitness International’s four brands, including LA Fitness.
Placer.ai’s Q2 2024 white paper can be found here.