The Top Sports Apps (Android as of 1 Nov 2020)
Next year, I’m going to come back in more detail to this data and the iOS data that goes with it. Briefly, for now, I was prompted by Friday’s demise of Endomondo to check which apps were growing in spite of CV-19. There are some significant growth numbers here, perversely also including Endomondo.
| Android App Name | 01-Nov 20 | Link | Jan 20 |
| adidas Running by Runtastic | 1,044,630 | Link | 948,762 |
| Nike Run Club | 999,571 | Link | 911,752 |
| Samsung Health | 1,098,585 | Link | 870,580 |
| 765,271 | Link | 692,536 | |
| 716,050 | Link | 582,656 | |
| Asics Runkeeper GPS Track Run Walk | 563,003 | Link | 539,371 |
| Strava Running & Cycling GPS | 612,473 | Link | 518,920 |
| Garmin connect | 575,374 | Link | 450,817 |
| Google Fit | 398,963 | Link | 337,373 |
| Under Armour Map my Run | 278,965 | Link | 225,181 |
| 220,856 | Link | 214,605 | |
| UA Map my Walk | 237,308 | Link | 186,989 |
| Huawei Health | 365,985 | Link | 149,828 |
| Zepp (Amazfit) | 190,458 | Link | 149,000 |
| UA Map my Ride | 157,173 | Link | 127,191 |
| Komoot | 166,617 | Link | 107,492 |
| Polar Flow | 121,208 | Link | 99,661 |
This data is the number of reviews made on Google PlayStore. Let’s leave the merits and demerits of that measure to one side. Whatever you think of it, it IS indicative of changes to the user base in some way shape or form.
Several of the apps, above, have added over 100,000 reviews in a little over 6 months. That must mean a larger multiple than that of new users has been created. The figures seem truly-impressive, perhaps aided by some of us turning to sports to stay healthy over lockdown. But there are other factors at play too, perhaps including a disproportionate rise in usage in the East – there’s almost certainly a couple of China-focused apps I’ve entirely missed off the list.
We can also see the continued rise of apps from the perspective of those that are linked to sports & smartphone hardware (Garmin, Fitbit, Amazfit, Huawei, Polar), apps that are linked to apparel (Nike/Apple, adidas Runtastic, UA Endomondo, Asics Runkeeper) and the independents (Strava, Komoot). And we can also see that Polar is growing albeit modestly yet as if we need further confirmation, these stats also show the inexorable rise of Garmin in the sports realm.
An outsider looking at these market stats would be seriously impressed. Yet we know that quite a few of these companies have serious financial concerns. I’ll just mention those that have been widely publically aired – Endomondo (closed!), Strava (needs new investors), Fitbit (about to be acquired by Google), Nike (have had a mixed bag of results that I’ve not covered)
What is going on? Is it as simple as 1) the consolidation of ‘Western/traditional’ hardware suppliers 2) Rise of the East 3) Our aversion to pay for apps and content (I draw your attention once again to the supporter link for this site 😉 ) Or is it all the fault of CV-19?
I suspect in 2 years time we will have a better understanding and that this list will look very different. We are in changing times.
Alternatives to Endomondo
So where should you put your data? What’s the point in leaving one almost-sunk ship to jump onboard another which may or may not be sinking too?
Where would I recommend Endonondo users to go to? Eesh. Tricky. If you have a Garmin device then Connect is still going to be there in a few years time. Maybe you choose a much smaller app that is nowhere near making the top20 on this list. Fine, there are some good ones out there but there are few guarantees of financial stability of the owners. Maybe you choose a sports data platform like Runalyze (free), or Training Peaks, Final Surge (sort of free) or Today’s Plan.
Your thoughts welcomed. There are lots of different angles to discuss.
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PC non-web based applications still rule for analysis. See e.g. MyTourBook
I agree with Tex, and am afraid that still disagree with DCR (https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/10/sporttracks-connect-automatic.html#comment-3301443).
Accidently it was just yesterday when I made my yearly routine with ST3.0 (PC-based, of course) to archive and transfer the detailed data from my current logbook to the giant, archived one.
So I have a sort of “clean” (=without data tracks), 7MB logbook with thousands of activities and another one of a size of over 200MB. I regard the clean one as a sort of MyTourBook logbook file, and I consider the giant one as a sort of PC-based Garmin Connect dataset.
Zoltan
i’ve just downloaded MyTourBook (rubbish name), let’s see what it can do. hopefully i can compare metrics from developer fields in multiple FIT files
Will you post a review once you’ve looked at it?
very unlikely
more likley will be comments here or there saying how good it is (if it is good).
Thinking about a sport data platform, which of them is tour personal recommendation (runalyse, Training peaks…)?
well, that’s a question I wish I could answer for myself. I was a sportracks user for many years and it did 98% of what I needed it for.
now my ‘solution’ appears to be using lots of different tools for lots of different purposes. strava, xert,golden cheetah, garmin connect, stryd, dcr’s analyzer, flow, TP and more.
if i move to the next stage for myself i would look at runalyze and the tour book mentioned above. i’ve not really used either for more than a few minutes.
there will CERTAINLY NOT be an app that would do what I need. a single platform solution would only come a desktop product (maybe TP, i don’t really use that much either)
Thank you!
I wonder why you crossed Sports-Tracker (Suunto)
It’s not really a longterm viable future option.
it was easier than adding lots of words about movescount migrating to the suunto app and the suunto app being kinda the same as sportstracker but different. a line was easier, no intel.
Well, to me what you said is exactly why it’s viable option – won’t be dropped by apparel company like Endomondo by UA
sports tracker is owned by suunto.
i cant see any future for it
the future is the Suunto app.
(sporttracks mobi is a different product)
You missing the point that Suunto is owned by Amersports.
But again, we’ll see, I just believe that your crossing of Sports-tracker and Fitbit are really premature, so far totally different from Endomondo situation
sorry i dont understand the first line.
Suunto is owned by Anta sports
there is a future for the Suunto app.
yes fitbit the fitbit situation is totally differnt to endomondo.
We talking analysis tool or run tracker on the phone? Analysis tool, GC is really the way to go. Yes it has a learning curve but it’s very powerful. If you don’t want to buy into a gps watch then I’d suggest simply using Google Fit or Apple Health. Those aren’t going anywhere. When I started running I used mapmyrun, it was perfect at the time for me to get out there and get exercise in. My data was kind of trapped in there and that’s just how it is. Now I use a Garmin watch but since the Garmin hack, I do not use Connect anymore and simply download the fit files directly into GC for analysis.
The beauty of Endomondo is that you could track a bunch of sports within the same app. I was a subscriber of Endomondo. If you find a nice app that could track at least the 3 triathlon disciplines, let us know.
depends what you want to track and on which platform and with which device
ismoothrun is powerful on ios, polar flow is great too as is garmin connect. there are many other reporting tools