The health & fitness app category spans a wide range of apps, including everything from workout routines, to calorie counters, to menstruation cycles. Some focus on solo-rewarding users for hitting metrics, while others are community hubs for sport activities.
We created this Top 50 Health & Fitness apps infographic to better visualise how the health and fitness app market is structured at the top end, looking at key metrics such as installs and in-app purchase and subscription revenues.
This category generates over $5 billion in-app revenue according to the Health & Fitness App report, largely from subscriptions. About three quarters of the revenue comes from subs, with the other quarter supplied by ads. Connected hardware, in the form of smartwatches, fitness bands and gym equipment, makes a larger amount of revenue than the app side, but has much tighter margins, hence why major hardware suppliers like Peloton, Apple and Fitbit have pushed heavily into subscription services.
This is how we break down this app category into segments:
- Calorie counter: Counting calories and macros has been a thing for decades, apps such as MyFitnessPal, Yazio and Yuka made it more accessible through their large databases of food products.
- Activity tracking: This subcategory is split into two distinct types of tracking: solo and community. Strava and Runna are both big on friends and community, while Sweatcoin and StepsApp provides solo rewards for walking.
- Home and gym fitness: This is another subcategory split in two, although less so that activity. Some apps, such as Ladder and Fitbod, really recommend a gym or lots of equipment, while Sweat and Home Workouts: No Equipment by Leap Fitness are focused on exercises than can be performed at home.
- Hardware: Connected devices still play a big part in this category, with some such as Whoop, Oura, Connect by Garmin and Zwift unable to operate without them. Google Fit, Samsung Health and Huawei Health operate on a variety of devices including smartphones, Apple Fitness will offer limited functionality to iPhone-only users.
- Heartrate monitor: Checking your heartrate can be critical for some, and there are several apps that offer this either through a connected smartwatch or band, or through the smartphone.
- Health tracking: Holistic health tracking, which can cover a variety of metrics from the very broad to specific, are available on app through Apple Health, BetterMe and MyChart.
- Female focused: There are several apps that focus on female health. With Flo, the female-focus is in the functionality being a period and ovulation tracker, while LazyFit and Sweat market their exercise and health routines to women.
- Wellness: A rather broad category in its own right covering wellness, meditation, sleep and yoga. Calm and Headspace are two of the big names in this space, and offer a wide variety of services, including sleep noises, meditation guides and yoga.
- Sleep: Sleep tracking and noise is a booming industry with hundreds of apps offering white, green and every other colour noise to help you snooze, while also offering analytics on how well you slept. Apps like Pokemon Sleep offer rewards for having a better rest.
- Yoga: Then there are a few apps that focus on yoga routines, stretching and meditation, with LazyFit, Bend and Endel being the three top apps in this subcategory.
Check out the Top 50 Health & Fitness Apps infographic here, with a landscape version available to download for slides and presentations.
