Strava 2025 Report: Apple Watch Leads, COROS Grows Fastest

Strava's 2025 Year in Sport report, pulling data from over 180 million athletes, confirms Apple Watch as the most-used wearable on the platform. That's a significant statement given the competition from dedicated sport watches like Garmin, Polar, and COROS.

COROS is the standout growth story here. The brand has been aggressively pricing its watches, with the COROS PACE 3 sitting around $229 against the Garmin Forerunner 265 at $449. That gap matters to a lot of athletes, and the data shows they're voting with their wallets.

Gen Z is spending heavily on fitness tech, which shifts the conversation around who's buying and why. Younger athletes tend to prioritize sleek design and social integration, which partially explains Apple Watch's dominance. It syncs cleanly with Strava, looks good off the track, and works as a daily phone companion in a way Garmin and COROS don't quite match.

For serious endurance athletes, Apple Watch still has real limitations: battery life on the Ultra 2 caps around 36 hours in GPS mode, while a COROS VERTIX 2S pushes past 140 hours. Garmin's Fenix 8 Solar sits in between at roughly 90 hours with solar assist. If you're racing an ultramarathon or a full-distance triathlon, those numbers still point you away from Apple.

The verdict: Apple Watch wins on volume, COROS wins on momentum. Neither is beating Garmin at the serious end of endurance sport yet.