How many people can you cram into one gym? For Planet Fitness, the jury’s still out

Running a gym group in 2026, there’s really only three ways to make more revenue: open more gyms, squeeze more members into your existing gyms, or charge higher prices. And Planet Fitness, America’s largest gym company with an eye-watering 20.8 million members — about 800,000 more people than live in the state of New York — has been putting in the reps and getting pretty good at all three... the second one especially.

Indeed, since 2011 the company has grown its membership count by 617%, while its total gym count has lagged behind, only increasing by 493% over the same period. The result has been that the average Planet Fitness gym, which are mostly run by franchisees, went from packing in a little over 5,900 members per unit in 2011, to 7,262 members at its peak two years ago.

After years of remarkable execution and expansion, the chain’s opened an average of 167 gyms annually over the last 15 years, Planet Fitness might now finally be pushing up against the limit of just how many members it can cram onto its gym floors. PLNT’s average members per store figure has now fallen for two years in a row, suggesting that future growth might need to come primarily from new gym openings, price hikes, or squeezing more ancillary revenues — like equipment sales — from franchisees, rather than crowding the machines and racks any further.

That pressure already seems to be weighing heavy on the minds of investors. Yesterday, the company’s stock fell 9% after revenue guidance underwhelmed Wall Street, with system-wide club sales expected to climb 4% to 5%, missing analyst expectations for a 6.2% increase, per Bloomberg. It now seems like the easiest gains are gone for the $6.7 billion gym giant.

Go deeper: Planet Fitness’ business only works out if its members don’t