Federica Laricchia
Research expert covering the global consumer technology industry
Fitness trackers - statistics & facts
From tracking walking or running distances to monitoring heart rates or blood oxygen, to recording calorie consumption and sleep schedule, fitness trackers can keep your wellness and fitness activity under control. As part of the wider wearable industry, fitness trackers mostly come in the form of wristbands, but they can also appear as clip-on devices, earbuds, smart rings, and clothing made of smart fabric. Users can then check their metrics on specific apps, often installed on smartphones utilizing the device’s built-in components. As health and fitness become increasingly important topics, fitness trackers are among consumers’ favorite devices, and the market is expected to grow in the coming years.
In the future, the fitness tracker market will offer more options to consumers interested in tracking health and fitness data, whether in the shape of smartwatches, smart rings, or new devices yet to be manufactured.
Standalone fitness trackers on transition
In the beginning, there was a clear divide between smartwatches - when they were solely an extension of a smartphone screen - and fitness trackers that had sensors that relayed physical activity data to a smartphone. However, these two devices converged when smartwatches started leaning towards integrating sensors for tracking activity, as we see in one of the most popular smartwatches, the Apple Watch, which recorded shipments of almost 40 million units in 2023. The smartwatch serving the purpose of a fitness or activity tracker has resulted in the decline of devices specifically or only designed to help as an activity tracker, despite their advantage of being more compact with longer battery life over smartwatches.Apple leads the market
Fitbit had long been the leader in the wearables industry in terms of unit shipments, but it lost its top position to Apple back in 2017, before being acquired by Google in 2021. Apple has been the leader ever since, shipping millions of wearable devices every year, while Xiaomi, Huawei, and Samsung recorded lower numbers. Apple’s supremacy is evident also in regional markets. For instance, when asked what brand their smartwatch or fitness tracker was, most American consumers and British consumers answered Apple. Whether on Apple or other brands’ devices, consumers have access to a wide range of fitness and sport apps to track their progress, such as fitpro and Da Fit, the two most downloaded fitness apps in early 2024.In the future, the fitness tracker market will offer more options to consumers interested in tracking health and fitness data, whether in the shape of smartwatches, smart rings, or new devices yet to be manufactured.
