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Hyrox is no longer a fad that the sportiest person in the office does at the weekend. It’s a mainstream fitness phenomenon that is reportedly attracting serious investor interest.
Combining running with high-intensity strength stations, the format now attracts everyone from first-time competitors to elite fitness enthusiasts and celebrities such as Mel C and Jay Park.
With events staged across multiple continents and a growing network of affiliated gyms, Hyrox is positioning itself as a permanent fixture in the competitive fitness landscape.
And, with reported revenues of UK£140 million (US$187.8 million) last year, up from UK£40 million (US$53.66 million) the year before, the Infront-owned organisation could be the subject of investment within weeks by L Catterton, according to Sky News.
“It’s grown into a global movement in a global sport,” says Douglas Gremmen, chief growth officer and board member for Hyrox, speaking at SportsPro London in April. “We’re not only trying to create a new events category – we are actually redefining a new sport.”
Gremmen believes Hyrox can help fitness become the biggest sport in the world (Image credit: SportsPro)
From fitness concept to global phenomenon
Co-founded by Christian Tötzke and Olympic field hockey champion Moritz Fürste in Hamburg, Hyrox set out to create a running-based fitness competition with a low barrier to entry for everyday gym-goers.
Since launching its first event in 2017, the series has expanded rapidly. Athlete participation grew from 570,000 competitors during the 2024/25 season to 1.5 million in 2025/26, while the number of races increased from 74 to 105 over the same period.
The acceleration reflects both rising consumer interest in experiential fitness and Hyrox’s expanding global footprint.
Much of that growth followed the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers increasingly sought fitness-led experiences and event-driven goals. The strength of demand became clear as events began to quickly sell out.
“When we saw that people were buying tickets on Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays, it was a pinch-me moment,” Gremmen recalls. “We realised we can have 52,000 runners at New York, the same amount of people at the New York Marathon.”
Hyrox’s accessible format has also helped broaden its appeal, attracting an almost even split between male and female participants through formats ranging from individual races to doubles and team relays.
That momentum shows little sign of slowing: “Over a calendar year, we’re looking at over 2.5 million athletes around the world in 2026. It’s bigger than all of the world marathons combined – that’s something we’re pinching ourselves at.”
The commercial engine behind Hyrox’s rise
This surge in participation has driven Hyrox’s largely self-sustaining commercial model. Most revenue is generated directly through race entries, meaning rising popularity has translated almost immediately into commercial growth.
Athlete entries and ticket sales generate between 55 and 65 per cent of revenue, while sponsorships contribute around 15 per cent. Merchandising adds an estimated US$40 to US$50 million, creating a stable financial base that supports continued growth.
This has been supported by growing commercial income. Hyrox has secured long-term partnerships with global brands including Puma and Red Bull and increasingly targets major international sponsors capable of activating across its worldwide event portfolio.
This growing appeal to sponsors is rooted in Hyrox’s distinctive position within the fitness industry. Gremmen notes the fitness market has historically been fragmented, leaving brands without a clear entry point. Hyrox addresses this gap by “creating a sport around fitness,” offering a structured platform to engage a global audience.
He adds that attracting “tier one global non-endemic brands” will be critical if Hyrox is to evolve from a fitness company into a global sports phenomenon.
To accommodate this growth, Hyrox now operates 11 regional offices and employs around 400 staff worldwide.
Gremmen stresses this scalability has not come at the expense of financial stability. He says Hyrox has been “cash-flow positive from the beginning”, carries no debt and relies on scalable digital infrastructure that avoids legacy system constraints.
“We’re pretty much the first sport that’s being built from the ground up in the digital age,” Gremmen says. “[So], we’re really learning as we go [and] building the ship as we’re flying it.”
Building scale through grassroots distribution
Rather than prioritising media rights deals, Hyrox focuses on building demand and audience scale through grassroots infrastructure and organic engagement. Gremmen says Hyrox ultimately sees the property as a broadcast product but is “in a luxury position not to need to rush distribution revenues and get a half-hearted TV product out there.”
This demand-led strategy relies on partnerships and community engagement to acquire customers. Its distribution network now comprises 15,000 gyms worldwide, supplying partners with branded equipment and coaching resources, embedding the brand in everyday training and strengthening long-term engagement.
Its affiliate programme is growing by five to six per cent each month and is on track to reach 24,000 gyms by the end of the year.
This ecosystem receives access to half of all event tickets and has helped generate tens of billions of Instagram impressions.
Gremmen describes this as a deliberate top-of-funnel strategy central to Hyrox’s growth: “The stickiness in gyms and the grassroots is extremely important for us. We want to empower gyms to build better relationships to their athletes, and we can then invite them into our ecosystem, to sell more merchandising, without taking people away from Peloton or Third Space.”
Laying the foundations for an Olympics debut
Having firmly established its grassroots credentials, Hyrox can focus on growing and marketing its Pro Series, a project which requires a “significant investment” that diverts resources from its mass participation races.
To help with this, the company is seeking scalable technologies that can deliver a consistent participant experience across its global events without driving up costs.
“Christian [Tötzke] has been an advocate that the best marketing is to keep investing in the product and to make everyone’s experience that much better when they come back the following year,” Gremmen says.
“The investment in the product – in [audiovisuals], the sound, the arenas – will really make this the Champions League of fitness racing, which is fundamental to our growth.”
Building a credible elite competition structure is also central to Hyrox’s longer-term ambition of achieving Olympic recognition. The organisation has set out a two-to-three-year development phase to strengthen its foundations, with the ambition of becoming Olympic-ready by 2032.
Achieving that ambition, however, will require significant organisational development.
“The biggest challenge is really getting that organisation right in the next 12 to 18 months, because that will build the biggest foundation for long-term sustainable sport,” Gremmen adds.
“Deep down, we truly believe fitness can be the biggest sport in the world.”
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