Gym visits went up again this summer. Visits per facility rose 1.3% in the third quarter compared with a year ago. That comes from the Health & Fitness Association's latest FIT Tracker, published November 9. Boutique studios grew the most.
The bigger finding is about January. Before 2020, the first quarter was the busiest of the year by a wide margin. That lead has more than halved.
If your marketing plan still puts most of its money into the New Year rush, it is betting on a peak that keeps shrinking.
Is January still the most important month for gyms?
It is still the busiest quarter, but it wins by much less than it used to. From 2017 to 2019, first-quarter visits per location averaged about 15% above the year's other quarters, per HFA. From 2023 to 2025, that gap was under 7%. People still turn up in January. They are also turning up in July, September and November at nearly the same rate. The resolution rush has turned into something closer to a year-round habit.
The third-quarter numbers
Visits grew in three of the four segments HFA tracks and in seven of nine US regions. The Middle Atlantic led at 4.6%, followed by New England at 3.0%.
| Segment | Q3 2026 visits per location, year on year |
|---|---|
| Boutique studios | +1.9% |
| High-volume, low-price gyms | +1.5% |
| Mid-priced gyms | +1.4% |
| Fourth segment | Not published in the summary |
A note on the data. HFA built the tracker with Sports Marketing Surveys USA, using foot-traffic data from Placer.ai, which estimates visits from phone location signals. It covers more than 10,000 US facilities. The full report is for HFA members only, and the public summary does not explain the method in detail. Read these figures for direction more than decimals.
Visits also differ from members. Planet Fitness, the biggest budget chain, reported flat membership in the same quarter. More visits can mean the same people coming more often.
The boutique number is worth a second look. Studios have had a rough year on the business side. Xponential, the biggest studio franchisor, has been reporting falling sales at existing studios, as we covered in its Q2 numbers. Yet studio visits grew faster than any other segment. People still want the classes. The pressure is on how the businesses around those classes are built.
Why the January spike is fading
HFA's summary doesn't say why. Our read: fewer people treat the gym as a resolution, and more treat it as routine. HVLP (high-volume, low-price) gyms made a membership cheap enough to keep all year. Boutique studios sell classes people book weekly, around their lives more than the calendar. HFA also says visits per location at low-priced and mid-priced gyms are well above 2019 levels. That fits a habit better than a burst.
What this means for you
Start with your own marketing calendar. When we looked at how much gyms spend on marketing, Planet Fitness franchisees were putting about 9% of revenue into it. Ask how much of yours goes into one six-week window.
Keep January, shrink its share. It is still your best quarter. It is no longer your only good one. Move part of the budget to the moments people restart on their own: late summer, back to school, the week after a holiday.
Spend on the second visit. If members now train all year, the money is in keeping them. Most studio churn happens in year one, so the weeks after sign-up deserve as much attention as the sign-up itself.
Treat every January join as worth more. If January brings fewer extra people than it used to, each one counts for more. Book their second and third visits before they leave the front desk. A new member who comes back twice in the first two weeks is far more likely to still be there in March.
Staff for a flatter year. HFA's own benchmarking found profitable gyms spend 32.4% of revenue on payroll. Steadier demand makes it easier to staff for the whole year, instead of hiring for a January surge and cutting back in March.
January still matters. It just matters half as much as it did, and your budget should know that.