The report is also heavily focused on Gen Z users, suggesting that Strava take-up is increasingly centred on this younger user base.<\/p>\n
![\"Orbea](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image.jpeg\")
Mountain biking and gravel cycling were perceived to present a high barrier to entry. <\/p>\n
As well as crunching the numbers, Strava surveyed a subset of its users to add more depth to its analysis. One finding was that, after skiing and snowboarding, mountain biking<\/a> and gravel cycling<\/a> were perceived as presenting the highest barrier to entry.<\/p>\n Although not broken down by sport, Strava says 7.6 million KOM\/QOMs<\/a> or course records were set in 2025. There were also 14 billion units of kudos given across its 180 million users, a 20 per cent increase from 2024.<\/p>\n That may have been helped by the Kudo All plug-in<\/a> for Google Chrome, released earlier this year, which automatically gives kudos for all the activities recorded by people you’re following, saving you the bother of having to find out what they’ve done.<\/p>\n Strava says 54 per cent of its users were cross-training<\/a> \u2013 recording activities in two or more sports \u2013 with 34 per cent participating in three or more. Multi-sport users were four times as likely to record at least one activity a week for a period of over a year.<\/p>\n Strava\u2019s survey indicates that over 50 per cent of its Gen Z users expect to use Strava more in 2026, versus a majority who expect to use Instagram and TikTok the same amount or less, which suggests Strava\u2019s stated objective of becoming the social network for athletes may be bearing fruit.<\/p>\n It claims the social side of sport is growing, evidenced by an increased number of clubs on the site, with cycling clubs increasing 2.8-fold.<\/p>\n Strava has also noted a decrease in international travel<\/a> among its users, although Britons and Germans bucked the trend. UK-based Strava users most commonly headed to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to record activities away from home, while US users headed to Maine, Vermont, Wyoming, Nevada or Hawaii.<\/p>\n Needless to say, French Strava users were more likely to stay within the country and head to the Alps<\/a>, Massif Central or Pyrenees. Interestingly, cycling didn\u2019t feature among the five sports for which Strava users were most likely to travel.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more cycling-specific data for bike brands, with Specialized<\/a> the most popular for both gravel and mountain bikes, and the second most popular for road bikes, behind Trek<\/a>. The order was reversed for second place in all three categories.<\/p>\n There\u2019s even more data on how people recorded activities, where the Strava app<\/a> was most popular, with 74 per cent of the total. Next came Garmin<\/a> devices, with which Strava had a short-lived tussle<\/a> back in October, then Apple. Apple was number one for activities recorded on a watch, with Strava adding new features<\/a> to its Apple app in September.<\/p>\n So is cycling going out of style? What\u2019s the reason for cycling taking a back seat on Strava? Maybe it\u2019s the increasing difficulty of capturing a KOM\/QOM, or even improving your own personal best, that we talked about<\/a> a few weeks ago. Maybe cyclists are getting tired of dutifully logging their activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the proliferation of smartwatches<\/a>, making it much easier to record an activity in sports such as running and hiking where you don\u2019t have equipment to bolt a larger device to, as in cycling.\u00a0<\/p>\n Strava also bought the Runna app in 2025, giving it yet more stats, which it has maybe chosen to highlight. As its name suggests, it\u2019s focused on running, although Strava hints more cycling-related functionality will follow.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n As the Financial Times<\/a> pointed out in October, running is experiencing a boom, particularly with Gen Z \u2013 and Strava is their preferred activity-logging platform. And as Strava gears up for a public share offering<\/a>, following the money in growing its user base must be a priority.<\/p>\n![\"Strava](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-05-06-at-10.38.11.png\")
The Kudo All plug-in has upped BikeRadar’s writers’ kudos tally. Strava<\/p>\n![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/The-draw-of-the-mountains-GettyImages-2170327971.jpg\")
Why head abroad when you’ve got this on your doorstep? Justin Paget \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Strava-top-bike-brands.jpg\")
Specialized and Trek dominate the bike brands recorded by Strava users. Strava<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Amy-Hudson-Rider-of-the-Year.jpg\")
Is cycling going out of style? It’s not clear from Strava’s Year in Sport. <\/p>\n