Our annual RaceTrends Report is here, breaking down the participation numbers and industry trends from 2024 to help you make better predictions and more successful decisions in 2025. The headline from this year is the strength of the endurance market, with races growing an average of 8.2% over the course of the year and race churn a low 3.9%.
For all the numbers, dive into the full 2024 RaceTrends Report or sign up for our upcoming webinar!
Key Takeaways from the 2024 RaceTrends Report
We’ll take a closer look at some of the key stats over the next few months to break down what the data says – and what we recommend for your race. In the meantime, a few of our favorite takeaways from 2024:













- Per-race participation grew. Participation increased 8% compared to 2024. With 2023 participation trailing 2019 levels by just 1%, this indicates that races have not just recovered, they are thriving.
- Large races saw improvement. Large races (over 5,000 participants) recovered more slowly than smaller events. That remained true in 2024, but large races continue to catch up: races with fewer than 500 participants grew by 10% and races with more than 5,000 participants grew by 5%.
- Race Churn is low. Just 3.9% of 2023 races (with more than 500 participants) did not take place in 2024, the lowest churn rate since RunSignup started tracking it in 2018.
- Repeat Participation is hard to come by. Just 17% of participants from 2023 repeated the same event in 2024, with just 12% of marathoners repeating.
- Most races are small and most runners run in small races. While big races grab the headlines, 87% of races have fewer than 500 participants, with those small races seeing 38% of participants.
- Prices increased. Prices rose across all race distances for a second year, with 10K prices going up 5% while marathon prices went up just 1%.
- Women race more than men. Females still make up the majority of participants but the gap is narrowing, with 53% of participants identifying as female
- Young adults participation is improving. 16% of participants were between 18-29; while that still lags behind the rates seen in the late 2010’s, it’s a good sign that young adults are starting to reappear at the start line.
- Mobile dominates. 74% of race website views and 61% of transactions coming from mobile or tablet devices
- Easy payments are important. 35% of participants paid with Apple Pay or a Saved Credit Card.
- Email prompts registrations. Races sent 669 million emails on the RunSignup platform in 2024. 12% of all registration dollars came from RunSignup emails.
- Runners are registering (slightly) earlier. While race patterns remained largely similar to previous years, week registrations fell from 25% to 24% in 2024 and registrations more than 3 months before race day increased from 13% to 14%.
- RaceDay CheckIn checks in half of all participants. The RaceDay CheckIn App saw record usage in 2024, with 43% of races using the app to check-in 50% of participants.






About the RaceTrends Report
The report was built by mining RunSignup’s registration and finisher data over a five-year period to generate transparent statistics, identify trends in the industry, and provide recommendations to boost endurance event participation. It is estimated that the data on RunSignup accounts for 45-50% of the US endurance market. The data in RunSignup’s 2024 RaceTrends report includes more than 85,000 race events and 10.8 million registrations.
Want more data? We (obviously) love data, too. While there’s no single aggregator of endurance industry information, there are a few good sources for insight into the industry
- Top 100 Largest Races report, aggregated by RunSignup
- Running USA Runner Surveys and additional research (free for members)