RunSignup releases Top 100 Largest Races report

RunSignup, the leading registration and technology provider for races in the U.S., releases a list of the top 100 Largest Road Races in the United States. This report is compiled in an effort to build an improved understanding of the top tier, most attended, events in the road race industry. The report ranks races based on the total finishers for each race weekend in 2022 and evaluates the decline and growth in finishers during the last three years.

The overall participation numbers within the Top 100 Largest Race list confirms the finding of RunSignup’s 2022 RaceTrends Report that the largest races struggled the most to match pre-pandemic participation levels. On average, this segment of races was down 24% compared to 2019 and only 11 of the 100 events saw growth compared to 2019. However, when looking at total races in the industry, those in-person events that took place both in 2021 and in 2022 experienced a 41% increase in participation over the last year.

Highlights of the report include:

• Five registration platforms hosted 75% of the races, including 25 on RunSignup, 14 on Haku, 14 on Active, 13 on Race Roster, and 10 on Enmotive.
• The top 5 largest races in 2022 included the TCES New York City Marathon & Dash to the Finish Line 5K, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon & 5K, the AJC Peachtree Road Race, the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, and the Boston Marathon & BAA 5K. All five exceeded 34,000 finishers in 2022.
• Eleven races experienced growth compared to 2019. The most significant growth was seen by the Seattle Cherry Blossom Run (497%), NYCRUNS Brooklyn Marathon & Half (234%), BMW Dallas Marathon (40%), BakerRipley Houston Turkey Trot (40%), and NYRR – Run as One 4M (34%).
• Seventeen races from the 2019 list fell off the top attended list in 2022. Of those, seven races did not have enough finishers in 2022 to make the list, four races were discontinued, two races were replaced, one race moved to Spring 2023, and two races were virtual in 2022.

RunSignup continues to compile and publish endurance market data to help provide greater insights into a diverse industry that comprises many providers. The Largest 100 races report is manual aggregation of data based on publicly available finisher data for timed events. Data adjustments can be submitted to eric@runsignup.com. For more information, visit the online published report.