Strava puts popular “Year in Sport” recap behind an $80 paywall

Earlier this month, Strava, the popular fitness-tracking app, released its annual “Year in Sport” wrap-up—a cutesy, animated series of graphics summarizing each user’s athletic achievements.

But this year, for the first time, Strava made this feature available only to users with subscriptions ($80 per year), rather than making it free to everyone, as it had been historically since the review’s debut in 2016.

This decision has roiled numerous Strava users, particularly those who have relished the app’s social encouragement features. One Strava user in India, Shobhit Srivastava, “begged” Strava to “let the plebs see their Year in Sport too, please.” He later explained to Ars that having this little animated video is more than just a collection of raw numbers.

“When someone makes a video of you and your achievements and tells you that these are the people who stood right behind you, motivated you, cheered for you—that feeling is of great significance to me!” he said by email.

Strava spokesperson Chris Morris declined to answer Ars’ specific questions about why the decision to put Year in Sport behind a paywall was made now.

Other users feel that Strava is getting a bit too greedy. Dominik Sklyarov, an Estonian startup founder, wrote on X that Strava’s decision was a “money hungry move, really sad to see. Instead of shipping useful features for athletes, Strava just continues getting worse.”

Meanwhile, Reddit user “andrewthesailor” pointed out, “Well, they want me to pay to look at data I gave them (power, [heart rate] etc). And the subscription is not that cheap, especially when you consider that you are also paying with your data.”

Sana Ajani, a business student at the University of Chicago, told Ars that she used to be a premium member but isn’t anymore.

“I did notice the Year in Sport and was a little annoyed that I couldn’t unlock it,” she said in an email. “I would’ve expected some overall stats for everyone and extra stats for subscribers. Year in Review-type stuff is great content and distribution for most apps since everyone shares it on socials, so I’m surprised that Strava is limiting its reach by only letting paid subscribers see it.”

The San Francisco-based company, however, clearly sees things differently.

“Our goal was to give our users ample notice before the personalized Year In Sport was released,” Morris, the Strava spokesperson, wrote Ars in an emailed statement. “With the relaunch of our subscription this year, we wanted to clarify the core benefits of Strava—uploading activities, finding your community, sharing and giving kudos—remain as accessible as possible.”

Some Strava users have blamed financial pressures as the company’s monthly average user base has nearly tripled since 2020, reaching 50 million as of this year, according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm. Per PitchBook, Strava’s rapid rise has only made the company more valuable; it now has an estimated valuation of around $2.2 billion as of May 2025.

CEO Michael Martin told the Financial Times in October that the company has an “intention to go public at some point.” “Growth profiles like ours… are particularly uncommon, especially at scale,” Martin added. “It attracts a lot of attention—especially from bankers.”

Some disappointed fans say restricting access to Year in Sport represents the latest in a series of company missteps dating back to at least 2023, when the company raised its annual subscription fee from $60 to $80. On top of that, last year, many Strava users thought the company’s foray into AI (or as Strava put it, “Athlete Intelligence”) was a bit of a miss. Earlier this year, Strava sued Garmin over alleged patent infringement—before promptly dropping the case less than a month later.

Still, at least one longtime user is now having second thoughts about Strava.

Matt Cook, 32, an amateur triathlete in Oakland, California, who has been active on Strava for a decade, told Ars that while he is a Strava Premium member, many of his friends are not. As such, that’s created some stratification and anxiety for him.

“It makes me not want to share [my Strava year-end results] because it feels like I’m flexing,” he said.