The Open Report: Week 1

Credit: www.instagram.com/crossfitgames/

Days until the 2024 CrossFit Open: 35

(Register for the Open now)

The Open is a barometer for your fitness.  

It tests you and can forecast the year to come. Has the extra accessory work paid off? Will I get a muscle-up this year? Nail consecutive double-unders? Will I make the top 10% in my region? Okay, what about the top 25%?  

Since 2011, the Open has been the starting line of the months-long funneling process to trim down a field of hundreds of thousands to eventually qualify 40 men and 40 women for The CrossFit Games to crown the Fittest on Earth. (Along with teams, age groups, and adaptive divisions.) 

For the vast majority of CrossFit athletes, however, it’s a one-and-done competition, mostly against themselves and their friends at their affiliate. Everyday athletes may never get to The Ranch, Carson, Madison, or Fort Worth, but they still want to test their current fitness and get a reading on where they are seeing new PRs and where they still need some coaching in 2024. Paying the $20, doing the work, and putting their name on a public leaderboard puts that into sharp focus that they can track year over year.

The Open, however, has also been a way to read the atmospheric pressure on CrossFit HQ. 

• If Open registration numbers are strong, the community views CrossFit HQ’s “fitness” as improving; if the registration numbers dip, the community sees HQ’s “fitness” as being in decline.   

With the last few years of ups and downs, the coming and going (and second coming) of leadership, recent increases in affiliate fees, sponsorship changes, re-location of the Games, CEO Don Faul’s stated goal of 30,000,000 CrossFitters, the list goes on… a lot of eyes are on the 2024 Open to gauge if the recent changes will continue a positive climb or if a chill is in the air.

And, that’s what this report is: A weekly check-in on Open registration numbers; where they stand in historical contexts; and a current breakdown of the regional and divisional numbers as we march closer and closer to the “3…2…1… GO!” of Open Workout 24.1 on February 29.

Let’s dive in.

First, to set the table, some quick dates and info for the 2024 Open:

• Registration started on January 9 at noon PT
• Open Workout 24.1 starts on February 29 at noon PT
• Open Workout 24.3 ends on March 18 at 5 PM PT

That gives us a window of 52 days for registration prior to the first workout, plus 19 days between workouts 24.1 and 24.3.

Credit: Morning Chalk Up 

From the inaugural year of 2011 to the high-water mark of 416,000 in 2018, it was a roller coaster ticking up the hill. Then the fall in ‘19 and fall again in ‘20. The Open has seen the good and the bad, but lately, it’s climbing again.

CrossFit Open Registration Numbers, with percent change year-over-year:

Tracking this number shows an average 10.5% growth year-over-year since 2020. 

It’s likely that the goal for CrossFit HQ is another year of 10% growth, so for reference, that would be around 355,000 registrants. (That 2019 registration number is looking pretty good right now.)

(Editor’s Note: All data below this point for the 2024 CrossFit Open was pulled from the CrossFit leaderboard on Wednesday, January 24 at 3 PM ET.)

We are now 17 days into the registration window and 35 days until the Open begins.

The current 2024 registration total is growing at an average rate of around 3,600 each day after the initial day 1 of 20,982. 

Okay, but what’s that look like compared to previous years?

Past 7-Day Comparison Year-Over-Year

Note: The 2023 Open registration started on November 17, 2022, with an incentive from NOBULL to register prior to December 31. In 2022, Open registration started on January 13, similar to 2024.

You can see a much higher registration gain comparing similar years 2022 and 2024 for the same registration period showing that 2024 is strongly outpacing a previous comparable year. 

The bottom line: This will be our weekly monitor as the Open approaches and we go through to 24.3. I will also post daily check-ins at @known_knowable on Instagram. 

• BUT!: While we are here, I want to give a few other metrics that may be helpful to both athletes and affiliates… and my fellow CrossFit data nerds!

Open Division – Registration by Region and Division then 10% cut and 25% cut

MEN

WOMEN

Top 10 Affiliates

Registrations by Age Group Divisions