Earlier this month, popular fitness-tracking app Strava released its annual “Year in Sports” wrap-up — a slick, animated series of graphics summarizing each user’s athletic accomplishments.
But this year, for the first time, Strava made the feature available only to users with a subscription ($80 per year), rather than making it free for everyone, as it had historically done since the review’s inception in 2016.
This decision has upset many Strava users, especially those who have enjoyed the app’s social incentive features. Shobhit Srivastava, a Strava user in India, implored Strava to “please let people see their year in the game as well.” He later explained to Ars that this short animated video is more than just a collection of raw numbers.
“When someone takes a video of you and your accomplishments and tells you that these are the people who were standing right behind you, inspiring you, cheering you on – that feeling is very important to me!” he said in an email.
Strava spokesperson Chris Morris declined to answer specific questions from Ars about why the decision to put Year in Sport behind a paywall was made now.
Other users feel that Strava has become too greedy. Dominik Skylarov, an Estonian startup founder, wrote on
Meanwhile, Reddit user “andrewthesailor” pointed out, “Well, they want me to pay to look at the data they gave me (power, [heart rate] etc). And the subscription isn’t that cheap, especially when you consider that you’re 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 is no longer.
“I noticed the year in the game and was a little annoyed that I couldn’t unlock it,” she said in an email. “I would have expected some overall stats for everyone and additional stats for subscribers. Review-type content is great content and distribution for most apps because everyone shares it on social media, so I’m surprised Strava is limiting its reach by only allowing paid subscribers to view it.”
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