12 Examples of Fitness App Gamification

This post is part of a series on how gamification mechanics are used effectively in various types of consumer apps. You may find these gamification examples helpful if you are looking to incorporate gamification into your product strategy.

Fitness Apps and the Role of Gamification

Fitness apps are software programs designed to help people track, manage, and improve their physical activity and overall health. They are interesting because they offer personalized and convenient access to fitness guidance and motivation. Gamification, through elements like points, badges, leaderboards, and challenges, is often used to make workouts more engaging, foster a sense of achievement, and encourage consistent use, ultimately adding value by helping users reach their fitness goals and develop healthier habits. Now, without further ado, here are 12 fitness apps that use gamification to create engaging user experiences.

12 Examples of Fitness App Gamification

BetterPoints

BetterPoints rewards users for healthy behaviors like walking, cycling, and using public transport with points that can be redeemed for prizes.

BetterPoints uses the following gamification features:

• Points: Users earn points for tracking active travel (walking, cycling, etc.) and for participating in challenges and surveys. These points can then be exchanged for rewards.

• Challenges: BetterPoints uses challenges to encourage specific activities, such as walking a certain distance or visiting a particular location. Users earn bonus points for completing challenges.

• Rewards: The app offers rewards in the form of vouchers, discounts, or charitable donations. Users can redeem their accumulated points for these rewards.

• Badges: BetterPoints awards badges to users for achieving specific milestones or completing certain activities. Badges serve as visual representations of user accomplishments.

• Streaks: The app uses streaks to encourage users to repeatedly engage with the app. Users receive bonus points if they log activity several days in a row.

DietBet

DietBet is similar to StepBet but focuses on weight loss. You bet on your ability to lose a certain percentage of weight within a set timeframe.

DietBet uses the following gamification features:

• Challenges: DietBet utilizes Challenges to encourage users to participate in themed weight loss competitions with friends or other DietBet members, adding a social and competitive element to their weight loss journey.

• Progress Bars: DietBet uses Progress Bars to visually represent a player's weight loss journey and provide a sense of accomplishment as they get closer to achieving their goals.

• Rewards: DietBet employs Rewards in the form of monetary prizes for successful players who achieve their weight loss goals. The reward can be the pot of money from the bet, minus a percentage taken by DietBet.

Fitbit

Fitbit tracks activity levels and offers badges and challenges to motivate users to reach fitness goals.

Fitbit uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Fitbit awards badges for various achievements, such as reaching step goals, climbing a certain number of floors, or maintaining activity streaks. These badges provide a sense of accomplishment and encourage users to continue engaging with the platform.

• Challenges: Fitbit uses challenges to motivate users to be more active. Challenges can be solo or group-based and often involve competing with friends or other Fitbit users to reach a certain step goal or activity level within a specific timeframe.

• Leaderboards: Fitbit allows users to form groups and compete on leaderboards based on daily step count or other metrics. This fosters a sense of competition and encourages users to increase their activity levels to climb the ranks.

• Streaks: Fitbit tracks streaks for consecutive days of meeting step goals or activity targets. Maintaining a streak provides a sense of accomplishment and motivates users to stay consistent with their fitness habits.

• Progress Bars: Fitbit uses progress bars to visually represent a user's progress towards their daily goals for steps, distance, active minutes, and sleep. These progress bars provide immediate feedback and encourage users to complete their goals.

Keep

Keep is a comprehensive fitness app that offers workout routines and tracking. It uses points and achievements to motivate users towards their fitness goals.

Keep uses the following gamification features:

• Streaks: Users track consecutive days of journal entries. The app displays a visual indicator of the current streak, encouraging daily use.

• Progress Bars: Keep provides a visual representation of how much of a goal or habit has been completed, providing a sense of accomplishment and motivation.

• Points: Users earn points for completing activities like writing entries, completing goals, and using different features within the app. These points act as a general indicator of engagement and progress within the Keep ecosystem.

Lifesum

Lifesum combines nutrition tracking with gamified elements to help users achieve their health and weight loss goals.

Lifesum uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Users earn badges for reaching milestones, completing challenges, or consistently tracking their food and exercise. These badges are displayed on the user's profile, providing a sense of accomplishment and encouraging continued engagement.

• Progress Bars: Lifesum uses progress bars to visually represent the user's progress towards their daily goals, such as calorie intake, macronutrient balance, and water consumption. This allows users to quickly assess their performance and make adjustments as needed.

• Streaks: Lifesum incorporates streaks to motivate users to consistently track their food intake, exercise, and other healthy habits. The app tracks the number of consecutive days a user has achieved their goals, encouraging them to maintain their routines.

• Challenges: Lifesum offers challenges related to nutrition and fitness. Users can participate in these challenges to earn rewards, badges, or points. Challenges promote engagement and encourage users to try new habits.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal tracks calorie intake and exercise, offering personalized goals and rewards to help users achieve weight loss and fitness milestones.

MyFitnessPal uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Users earn badges for achieving various milestones, such as logging meals for a certain number of consecutive days, completing workout routines, or reaching specific weight loss goals. These badges provide a sense of accomplishment and encourage continued engagement.

• Progress Bars: MyFitnessPal uses progress bars to visually represent a user's progress towards their daily goals for calorie intake, macronutrient balance (protein, carbohydrates, and fat), and water consumption. This feature helps users quickly understand their current status and motivates them to stay on track.

• Streaks: The app tracks and displays a user's streak for logging their weight, food intake, and exercise. Maintaining a streak motivates users to consistently engage with the app and adhere to their health and fitness plans.

Nike Run Club

Nike Run Club tracks runs and provides challenges, badges, and leaderboards to encourage users to achieve their fitness goals and compete with friends.

Nike Run Club uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: Users earn badges for completing specific running milestones or challenges, like running a certain distance, achieving personal bests, or participating in special events. Badges are displayed on a user's profile, providing a visual representation of their accomplishments and encouraging further engagement.

• Challenges: Nike Run Club offers various running challenges, both individual and community-based. These challenges motivate users to reach specific goals, such as running a certain number of miles in a month or completing a particular race distance. Users can track their progress and compete with friends or the broader NRC community.

• Streaks: The app tracks running streaks, rewarding users for running consistently week after week. Streaks are prominently displayed, encouraging users to maintain their running routine and avoid breaking their streak.

• Progress Bars: Nike Run Club provides progress bars to visually represent a runner's advancement toward their goals, such as weekly mileage targets or challenge completion. This visual feedback helps users stay motivated and informed about their progress.

• Levels: The app offers different levels that runners can achieve based on the total number of kilometers they've run. As users log more runs, they accumulate mileage and progress to higher levels, earning recognition for their dedication and progress.

Run an Empire

Run an Empire turns your neighborhood into a strategy game. Conquer territories by running to them!

Run an Empire uses the following gamification features:

• Points: Players earn points by claiming and holding territories, which are real-world locations. The longer a territory is held, the more points are accumulated.

• Leaderboards: Players compete against each other on leaderboards, ranked by the total points they have accumulated. This encourages competition and motivates players to expand their empires.

• Badges: Players can earn badges for completing specific in-game activities or milestones. These badges serve as visual representations of accomplishments and provide a sense of progress and recognition.

• Streaks: The app uses streaks to encourage consistent engagement. Players are rewarded for claiming territories on consecutive days.

StepBet

StepBet motivates you to achieve your step goals by placing bets on yourself. If you reach your goals, you win money; if not, you lose.

StepBet uses the following gamification features:

• Challenges: StepBet uses challenges in the form of weekly step goals. Users bet money that they can meet these goals for the duration of the game.

• Rewards: StepBet uses rewards by allowing players to split the pot if they win the bet. The pot is funded by the entry fees and those who do not meet the step goals.

• Progress Bars: StepBet uses progress bars to visually represent a player's progress towards their daily and weekly step goals.

• Streaks: StepBet uses streaks to show the number of consecutive weeks a player has been successful in reaching their goals. The app celebrates user's streaks.

StepsApp

StepsApp is a pedometer that tracks your daily steps and active calories burned. By achieving milestones, you earn badges to motivate users to walk more.

StepsApp uses the following gamification features:

• Badges: StepsApp awards badges for reaching certain milestones, such as taking a certain number of steps in a day, walking a certain distance, or maintaining a streak of daily activity.

• Streaks: StepsApp uses streaks to motivate users to maintain consistent activity. The app tracks how many consecutive days a user has met their step goal, and displays this as a streak. This encourages users to keep walking to avoid breaking their streak.

• Progress Bars: StepsApp uses a progress bar to show how close users are to their daily step goals. The progress bar fills up as users take more steps, providing a visual representation of their progress and motivating them to reach their target.

Strava

Strava is a social network for athletes that tracks activities and allows users to share progress, join challenges, and compete on leaderboards.

Strava uses the following gamification features:

• Challenges: Strava offers various challenges, both recurring monthly challenges and limited-time challenges sponsored by brands. Users can join these challenges and track their progress against the challenge goals, earning a digital badge upon completion.

• Leaderboards: Strava uses leaderboards to rank athletes based on their performance on specific segments (sections of roads or trails). These leaderboards foster competition and encourage users to push themselves to achieve better times.

• Badges: Strava awards badges for achieving certain milestones or completing specific activities. These badges serve as virtual rewards and recognition for users' accomplishments.

• Streaks: Strava tracks activity streaks, such as consecutive weeks or months of running or cycling. These streaks encourage consistent activity and provide a sense of accomplishment for maintaining a regular exercise routine.

• Achievements: Strava provides achievements for personal bests and top performances on segments. These achievements offer immediate positive feedback and incentivize users to improve their performance.

Walkr

Walkr turns walking into an interstellar adventure where your steps power a spaceship exploring the galaxy.

Walkr uses the following gamification features:

• Points: Players earn Energy by walking, which is used to explore the universe and build new planets.

• Levels: As players explore and build, they level up, unlocking new content and features.

• Rewards: Players receive rewards such as food and cubes (in-game currency) for completing missions and achieving milestones.

• Achievements: The app has a series of goals and milestones that players can aim to complete, and which can unlock rewards.

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of how gamification can be used effectively in fitness apps. We hope you found these examples inspiring and that they help you think about how you can incorporate gamification into your own product strategy.

If you're looking to build gamification into your app or platform, we encourage you to check out Trophy, a set of APIs and tools that make it easy.