Strava 2023 Trends
by Doug Stewart
Every year Strava produce an annual trend report, analysing the workouts of over 120 million users and their uploads, including the type, duration, speed and so on, to provide an overview of the trends they are seeing.
© Strava
In 2023 (data is actually from October 2022 to September 2023), the most popular sport was running, seeing a 4% increase on the previous year. Trail running saw a 16% increase in the share of athletes that logged a run compared to 2022.
The most popular running shoe was the Hoka Clifton, followed by the Nike Pegasus, but there was a slight difference between women and men. Women had the Clifton as number one and Brooks Ghost were the second most used shoe, whilst male runners had the Pegasus and Clifton as 1 and 2 respectively.
The fastest growing shoe was the Clifton, followed by the Asics Novablast, whilst the most popular sports watch for logging runs was the Garmin Forerunner 235.
There were also large variations by country, with the most popular shoes in Brazil being the Olympikus Corre, whilst in Spain the Garmin Fenix 6 was the most popular device for logging runs.
Cycling remains popular, with riders that completed a single ride of over 100km increasing by 5% compared to 2022. Other cycling trends saw a 23% increase in e-bike rides, whilst gravel saw a 55% increase in athletes who had tried it. Mountain biking also saw a rise in popularity compared to 2022, with a 13% increase compared to the previous year.
The top 3 most used bike brands were Trek, Specialised and then Giant, with the Garmin Edge530 the most popular device for cycling related uploads.
Again, there were regional variations, with Orbea being the most popular bike in Spain, Giant in the UK and Oggi in Brazil.
Comparing athletes by age and activity type, it is clear that older athletes logged more rides and younger athletes logged more runs. Older athletes’ average ride distance was longer than those under 40 years old, but younger athletes have the fastest average speeds for runs and rides uploaded. However, despite a faster average speed, 8% of those aged 42 to 57 achieved a King of the Mountain or a Course Record, whilst only 4% of those aged 13 to 26 achieved one.
Older athletes tend to exercise earlier in the day, with younger Strava users preferring to exercise later in the day.
Another interesting finding, but perhaps not surprising, is that when running or cycling in a group, people go faster! 83% of runners and 53% of cyclists (excluding races) are more likely to get a personal best on a segment when they’re in a group of 2 or more. With cycling, there may be an element of drafting, but this is less beneficial for running – suggesting that the external motivation of a training buddy will see speeds increase.
Whilst the results are interesting, it is worth remembering that there are limitations to the findings. The data comes exclusively from Strava users, so it is not reflective of a wider population of endurance athletes. Arguably, a certain type of athlete signs up to Strava. Moreover, even within the Strava user group, the report only uses publicly accessible workouts - those that have set workouts to be visible to “Only Me,” for example, are not included. However, the report points to some interesting trends, especially around the growth of sports like e-bike, gravel riding and trail running.
Garmin also produce an annual report, and saw their users in 2023 increase gravel rides logged by 45%, e-bikes by 62% and e-mountain biking by 49%. Trail running across Garmin users saw an 11% increase compared to 2022. Given that Garmin are the most popular devices for Strava users it is not surprising to see similar trends across both user groups.