2025 CrossFit Games Athletes’ Instagram Gains Hit 5-Year Low — What It Says About the Sport

Every year after the CrossFit Games, we take a look at who won the “Instagram follower game” — meaning, which athlete picked up the most followers during the week of the Games. 

• We track their follower counts from the morning of the first day of the Games through the morning after the final day. 

For the first time since we began analyzing the data in 2021, the two athletes with the most new followers this year are the two athletes who actually won the CrossFit Games: Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and Jayson Hopper.

• From last Thursday night (7/21) until the Monday morning (8/4) after the Games, Toomey-Orr added 30,344 new Instagram followers, while Hopper logged 18,722.

Worth noting: The athlete with the largest percentage increase in followers was rookie Lydia Fish, who added 4,669, amounting to an 87.25% increase.

The Big Picture: The Trend is Down 

When we compare the number of followers athletes gained during the Games week this year to the past four seasons, the overall numbers are considerably lower.

2024 – Top 10 IG Followers Gained	2023 – Top 10 IG Followers Gained	2022– Top 10 IG Followers Gained	2021– Top 10 IG Followers Gained
Luka Đukić – 63,059	Roman Khrennikov – 61,004	Dani Speegle – 37,805	Danielle Brandon – 77,702
Lazar Đukić – 47,732	Laura Horvath – 41,920	Mal O’Brien – 34,713	Mal O’Brien – 70,566
Gui Malheiros – 24,408	Jeff Adler – 35,114	Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr – 31,285	Gui Malheiros – 68, 086
James Sprague – 23, 805	Emma Lawson – 30,891	Emma Lawson – 29,603	Justin Medeiros – 47,336
Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr – 13,688	Danielle Brandon – 20,735	Danielle Brandon – 24,209	Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr – 41,449
Dani Speegle – 11,896	Kaique Cerveny – 19,954	Haley Adams – 28,073	Brooke Wells – 38,590
Danielle Brandon – 10,067	Alexis Raptis – 17,059	Justin Medeiros – 24,625	Annie Thorisdottir – 31,863
Haley Adams – 8,821	Justin Medeiros – 11,147	Ricky Garard – 22,205	Haley Adams – 20,400
Jeff Adler – 8,816	Jack Farlow – 10,845	Gui Malheiros – 20,896	Katrin Davidsdottir – 11,986
Arielle Loewen – 8,364	Arielle Loewen – 9,318	Brooke Wells – 13,658	Dani Speegle – 9,748

Looking at the last five years, not only is Toomey-Orr’s gain of 30,344 new followers at this year’s Games the lowest of any year, but when you consider the total number of followers the top 10 athletes gained this year, it’s also the lowest by a wide margin.

• 2025 – 125,869
• 2024 – 220,656
• 2023 – 257,987
• 2022 – 267,072
• 2021 – 417,726

Ultimately, the number of followers the top 10 athletes gained on Instagram during these Games is 57% of what it was last year and only 30% of what it was in 2021.

Why This Matters

Love it or hate it, social media matters if you’re an amateur athlete trying to gain visibility and ultimately enough sponsorship money to become a full-time professional athlete, which is very much the reality for many Games athletes. 

So the fact that this year’s numbers are significantly lower than every other year since 2021 suggests there’s something going on.

• One theory suggests that Instagram may no longer be as relevant, given that the numbers from 2021 and 2022 are the highest of the last five years. Still, another theory is that fewer people tuned in to watch the live feed this year than in previous years, and there was no national TV coverage, as in years past. 

Also, we can’t ignore the fact that there were considerably fewer spectators in Albany, NY, this year than at Games of the past. 

Worth noting: Recently, we spoke to a few dozen gym owners, and the general consensus was that their communities aren’t as interested in the CrossFit Games as they used to be.

Just for Fun: Three More Trends

Year over year, three consistent trends have included:

Female Dominance

There are consistently more women than men on the top 10 followers gained list.

• 2021: 8 women, 2 men
• 2022: 7 women, 3 men
• 2023: 5 women, 5 men
• 2024: 5 women, 5 men
• 2025: 7 women, 3 men

Danielle Brandon’s IG Dominance

Danielle Brandon picked up the most followers of any athlete in 2021 (and the most of any athlete in the last five years). She has been on the top 10 list for five years in a row, and it doesn’t seem to matter how she performs on the overall leaderboard.

Big Lifts = Big Followers

Athletes who win the max lift event at the Games always find themselves on the Instagram followers top 10 list.

• 2021: Gui Malheiros won the one-rep max snatch and picked up the third most followers, while Toomey-Orr won on the women’s side and she picked up the fifth most followers.
• 2022: Dani Speegle won the max sandbag to shoulder event, and she picked up the most followers. Malheiros won for the men and picked up the ninth most followers.
• 2023: Rookie Jack Farlow and Speegle won the Olympic Total event, and both were on the top 10 list.
• 2024: Toomey-Orr won the clean ladder and she picked up the fifth most number of followers.
• 2025: Colten Mertens won the one-rep max back squat, and he’s on this year’s top 10 list.

The Bottom Line

This year’s CrossFit Games was a good week for athletes when it comes to gaining social media followers, but the numbers don’t lie: the numbers took a hit. 

• Whether it’s a drop in viewership, waning interest in the sport, or just a shift away from Instagram as a platform, time will tell. 

However, the bottom line is that while podium finishes still matter, in today’s landscape, so does social reach, making this downward trend something that cannot be ignored. 

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Featured Image: Scott Freymond