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.”