Strava doubles athlete numbers to 100 million in 2 Years + hits 2.5bn activities in 18 months

Story #1 – The Numbers

Let’s start with that 100 million figure. The cynics amongst us will say that not all of the 100 million users are active and there is certainly some truth there. The 2.5bn figure is more meaningful. Strava also claims that 2.5 billion activities were recorded in the last 18 months — that figure chimes sensibly with a similar one from February when Strava claimed to have recorded their 3 billionth activity since their founding in 2009.

Let’s do some Maths

• 2.5bn = 2,500,000,000 activities in 18 months; or approx 1,666,666,000 per year
• Assume 1 average person records 4 activities per week = 208 activities per year for the average, active Strava user
• Dividing out: 1,666,666,667 / 208 = 8 million active users
• Put another way: 90% of Strava’s accounts aren’t used

Even if you assume 2 activities per week as an average that just doubles the number of users to 16 million and lowers the number of inactive users to 80%. I can’t see any way of saying Strava has anywhere near 100 million active users — which, of course, is NOT quite what they claimed in any case.

Strava Valuation

In 2020 Strava got some funding that essentially assumed a $1bn valuation. Let’s assume that the valuation figure is unchanged, give or take.

Maths: 1,000,000,000 / 8,000,000 = $125

So a $1bn valuation divided by 8 million active users means that you are worth $125 to Strava.

Let’s say there are 9 free users for every paying user. Even if we guess a paying subscriber is worth 10x as much ie $1,250 then that would assume a paying subscriber needs to continue to be a subscriber at $60/year for another 21 years. Cycling probably makes you live longer but not that much longer.

Strava is valued generously. The valuation assumes significant future growth from subscription growth OR other income streams. As a thousand other people have said before it’s flippin’ obvious that Strava needs to get ads on their site.

Story #2 – Pro Athletes

The same press release from Strava talks about 2,500 PROFESSIONAL athletes also using their platform. I’m surprised at the 2,500 figure and would bet that the figure is WAY higher than that — it’s just that not all Pro athletes want to be public with their training.

Story #3 – Strava Acquisition

Last week Strava acquired Recover Athletics. Recover Athletics previously linked to Strava to get data about your efforts per sport. Their cleverness came by trying to pre-empt an injury by assessing cumulative load on various muscle groups and to, simplistically, get you to do a bit of stretching on those at-risk muscle groups.

It’s similar to how PowerDot link to Strava and Garmin to determine muscle usage and over-usage.

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Last Updated on 28 May 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID