Our annual 2025 Race Trends Report is here, breaking down the participation numbers and industry trends from 2025 to help race directors and timers make better predictions and more successful decisions in 2026. The headline from this year continued, but slowing growth, with races growing an average of 5% in 2025.
For all the numbers, dive into the full 2025 Race Trends Report or sign up for our upcoming webinar!
Key Takeaways from the 2025 Race Trends 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 2025:
- Per-race participation grew. Looking only at races on RunSignup in both years (to eliminate any growth from increased RunSignup Market Share), races grew 5% compared to 2024. This means the average race has surpassed their 2019 size and continued to grow.
- The market is stable. Just 3.1% of 2024 races (with more than 500 participants) did not take place in 2025, the lowest churn rate since RunSignup started tracking it in 2018. This is a positive sign for existing races, but may make it harder to enter the market with new events.
- Race Week Registrations Decline (barely). While race patterns remained largely similar to previous years, race week registrations fell just under 24% (23.7%) for the first time – previous years have seen 24-26%. On the flip side, race day registrations increase a touch, to 3% of all registrations.
- Mobile leads the user experience. 74% of race website views and 63% of transactions coming from mobile or tablet devices
- Word of mouth works. Referral programs contribute 7% of all registration dollars when enabled (and more when promoted and implemented well).
- 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 continue to increase. Prices rose across all distances for the third year in a row, likely a reaction to increasing costs and inflation. The most notable increase is for 10Ks, which have seen prices go up 21% since 2019.
- Women race more than men. Females still make up the majority of participants but the gap continues to narrow a bit, with 53% of participants identifying as female
- Young adults are back? After years of concern about young adult participation, 18-29 year-olds made up 17.9% of 2025 participants. That’s the highest percentage we’ve seen since 2017.
- Easy payments are important. 42% of participants paid with Apple Pay or a Saved Credit Card in November.
- Email is still relevant. Races sent 815 million free emails on the RunSignup platform in 2025 . 12% of all registration dollars came from RunSignup emails – and because we know some races still use other email platforms, we know the real impact is even greater.
- The RaceDay CheckIn App continues to improve race day. The app had record usage in 2025 (again), with 51% of races using the app to check-in 60% of participants.
About the Race Trends Report
The report was built by mining RunSignup’s registration and finisher data 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 at least 50% of the US endurance market. The data in RunSignup’s 2025 Race Trends report includes more than 97,000 race events and 12.2 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
- Ultrarunning Magazine Year in Review
- Running USA Runner Surveys and additional research (free or discounted for members)