The fitness vertical has evolved rapidly over the last few years. With various app developers looking to retain their users to achieve a positive return on ad spend (ROAS), alongside the rapid expanse of apps available to choose from, it has truly become the battleground for growth.
However, the implementation of gamification has helped developers retain users for the long term.
In this second part of the series, we focus on how gamification works in practice. We break down what gamification really means in a fitness context, how it supports long-term engagement, and how it can contribute to stronger retention and more sustainable ROAS over time.
But what is gamification? How can it help developers achieve a positive ROAS and keep users engaged for the long term? Stick around and find out!
New Year, new me
Have you ever had a friend who, on January 1st, exclaimed, “I’m going to focus on my fitness” or “I’m going to start going to the gym” as their New Year’s resolution, only to find that a few days later they’ve fallen back into old habits?
This was the issue that Health and Fitness developers contended with for a long time. They would spend money to acquire new users in heightened periods of seasonality, only to realise that users didn’t stick around long enough to drive value.
Research has found that habits can take weeks or even months to form (depending on the person and/or behaviour), and without the gamification in place to build those habits, you have a very good chance of seeing an influx in deletions.
What is gamification?
Ever wondered how Wordle kept users hooked with a simple word search, or how people started building an emotional connection with a Green Owl that kept them learning a language? It’s all based on gamification.
Gamification’s core principle is to tap into human psychology to drive a desired action, and/or build an emotional connection with the brand, with the overall goal of retaining users for longer. This can lead to a range of benefits, including monetisation, higher engagement, stronger loyalty, and enhanced data collection – to name a few.
The all-important question – what types of gamification should I implement to keep users retained?
Ultimately, users feel rewarded in different ways, and while we shouldn’t be all things to all people, there are certainly some use cases that we can apply.
To explore this, we’ll create a scenario where we’re working for a new app called “MuscleUp: Build Strength”, and our goal is to help users build muscle with home workouts over 30 days.
Where do we start?
We should put ourselves in the user’s shoes. Ultimately, anyone who goes to the gym or starts a new habit wants to see progress quickly and be gratified that the hard work they’re putting in will yield results. This could come in a variety of ways:
Badges
The tried-and-tested methodology that almost all gamified apps have implemented: badges help keep users on track with the progress they’ve made.
They’re quick, easy, and drip-feed positivity to the end user to let them know they’re staying on track.
For MuscleUp, we’d implement badges for workout streaks, making improvements to the amount of weight they can work with, or the number of classes that they’ve joined, which would provide a psychological signal to the end user that they’re on the right track, helping them stick around for longer.
Push notifications
What better way to keep a user engaged than to meet them where they are? Whether that is through email, or in this case, push notifications.
That said, there is a very fine line between being helpful and annoying, which can lead to those dreaded app deletions mentioned above.
The key? Put yourself in the user’s shoes.
Would receiving a helpful, timely notification about your activity on the app be useful? Probably. Would being bombarded with several back-to-back notifications that you haven’t opted in for be useful? Probably not.
For MuscleUp, we’d look to build an automation flow:
Keeping users engaged and providing helpful reminders about their daily practice can lead to prolonged usage.
Streaks/progress
It sounds simple, right?
Allowing users to measure the progress is a proven mechanic across apps in almost every vertical.
Whether it’s workouts, language learning, or even household tasks, making progress visible increases motivation and makes users more likely to stick with a programme.
For MuscleUp, one idea would be to introduce a more interactive way to visualise progress. When a user completes 7, 14, or 28 days of consistent muscle-based training aligned with their focus area (arms, legs, abs, and so on), a silhouette in the app could gradually light up. This gives users a clear, visual representation of the work they’ve put in and the muscle groups they’re developing. Simple, tangible, and surprisingly effective.
What are the holistic benefits you’d get through implementing gamification in fitness apps?
You may think retention is the only lever you can pull through gamification, but its impact now extends far beyond keeping users active.
Improvements in metrics such as daily active users (DAU) and monthly active users (MAU), retention and overall engagement are increasingly influencing organic visibility. Both Apple and Google prioritise surfacing apps that deliver a strong user experience. Over the past year, each platform has introduced measures that can negatively affect the visibility of apps that:
- Repeatedly crash, exceeding “bad behaviour” thresholds across both iOS and Android
- Show spikes in uninstall rates, signalling that users do not find the app helpful or have had a poor experience (primarily Android)
- Suffer from technical performance issues, such as slow load times or excessive battery usage, which degrade the user experience (primarily Android)
As we progress through 2026, we expect this trend to continue, with app stores increasingly prioritising apps that deliver a consistently strong user experience across engagement, performance and stability.
Conclusion
Gamification in fitness apps should no longer be viewed as a surface-level engagement tactic or a retention-only lever. When applied thoughtfully, it plays a broader role in shaping how users interact with an app, how often they return, and how valuable they perceive the experience to be.
Across the fitness vertical in particular, where motivation fluctuates and competition is intense, gamification helps bridge the gap between short-term intent and long-term commitment. By making progress visible, rewarding consistency, and delivering timely, relevant nudges, apps can support users through the habit-forming phase that so often determines success or churn.
If you’re looking to apply these principles within your own fitness app, get in touch with our team to discuss how a tailored gamification strategy could support retention, return on advertising spend (ROAS), and long-term growth.
