The strong growth trend in the European fitness and health market continued last year. Membership numbers and revenues developed positively, setting a new industry benchmark.
In 2024, European health and fitness operators generated €36 billion in revenue, an increase of approximately 10 per cent on 2023. This was mainly driven by a combination of additional price increases, which were implemented in response to ongoing inflationary pressures, along with expansion and a significant rise in memberships.
By the end of last year, the European fitness market had grown to more than 64,000 clubs (an increase of around 2 per cent), serving around 71.6 million members (up 6 per cent). This upward trend is also evident in the positive business climate among European operators. In January 2025, 80 per cent of all European operators surveyed for this report rated their current business situation as good – a 20 per cent increase from January 2023.
Additional penetration for the overall market through intermediaries can be anticipated. In Germany, intermediaries such as EGYM Wellpass, Urban Sports Club and Wellhub provide more than 1.2 million members with access to physical activity, adding roughly 10 per cent more users to the market.
The top 20 fitness operators collectively generated €7.4 billion in revenue in 2024, marking a 15 per cent increase. In terms of memberships, Basic-Fit leads the ranking with almost 4.3 million members, followed by PureGym (around two million) and RSG Group (around 1.8 million). Together, these three operators account for more than 40 per cent of the top 20’s total membership.
By the end of the year, these leading operators had 18.8 million members, an 8 per cent increase compared to 2023. Their combined network of clubs also grew by 9 per cent, reaching 6,851 locations. Overall, the Top 20 operators either matched, or outperformed, the broader European market across all three mentioned KPIs.
Behaviour and wellbeing
A chapter is dedicated to the fourth edition of EuropeActive’s Fitness Consumer Survey, which questioned almost 13,000 people in 19 countries in January 2025. This offers key insights into consumer behaviour and emerging trends, notably, the enduring trend of hybrid fitness with people using home, outdoor and health club settings to work out.
While participation in home and outdoor fitness among regular fitness practitioners has decreased by 2 and 5 percentage points respectively, club-based exercise has seen a 2 per cent increase compared to the previous year. This shift reflects the post-pandemic return to fitness clubs as the preferred workout environment.
Analogously to last year, the most important factors when choosing a health club are the hard facts, such as location and price, followed by value for money, opening hours and quality of equipment. Social factors, such as community, referrals and the club’s environmental or social sustainability, play a secondary role in decision-making. Among the hard factors, location ranked first this year, ahead of price. This reverses last year’s order, suggesting consumers feel inflationary pressures are easing, or they have become accustomed to them.
When it comes to consumers’ wellbeing, regular fitness practitioners are more likely to experience a higher level of physical and emotional wellbeing compared to those without a regular fitness routine.
A greater proportion of respondents without a regular fitness routine also indicated a strong desire for improvement regarding different physical and emotional wellbeing components. For example, the share of regular fitness practitioners who consider themselves in very good physical health is about 30 per cent higher than those without a regular fitness routine.
Conversely, the share of individuals who don’t exercise regularly and feel the need to improve their physical health is about 21 per cent higher than among those who exercise at least once a week.
Mergers and acquisitions
During 2024, there were 30 M&A deals – with a minimum of four clubs and at least 50 per cent of the target’s shares – across Europe’s health and fitness club sector, resulting in the transfer of 669 clubs.
This surpassed the five-year average of 18 deals, marking a record number of M&A transactions in one year. Several companies completed multiple transactions: VivaGym Group (five), Benefit Systems (three), LifeFit Group (three) and Nordic Wellness (two). The three largest deals by club volume included the acquisition of Germany’s LifeFit Group (140 clubs) by financial investor Waterland Private Equity, the sale of VivaGym Group (104 clubs) to Providence Equity Partners, and the acquisition of Altafit (70 clubs in Spain) by VivaGym Group.
Key takeAways
The health and fitness club sector has continued its growth, surpassing the 70 million membership mark across Europe, with the volume and quantity of M&A deals reaching its highest annual number yet. A clear trend towards greater health awareness within the population can be observed, with an increasing importance of the fitness industry for physical and also mental health and wellbeing.
As a result, many chains are broadening their services to incorporate wellbeing options, reflecting a shift towards a more holistic approach to fitness.
With the market’s steady expansion and its shifting focus towards the consumers’ overall wellbeing, EuropeActive remains committed to its goal of reaching 100 million members across the sector by 2030.
About the authors
Karsten Hollasch is partner, EMEA private equity leader and Steffen Gausselmann is senior manager, Sports Business Group at Deloitte Germany
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