Gen Z is ditching bars for run clubs — and finding more than friends along the way

QUEENS, NEW YORK — Diplo, the globally famous disc jockey, has become accustomed to performing in front of audiences wearing glitzy outfits and clutching alcoholic beverages in the dark.

Some of his recent shows have looked very different. Swap the cocktails for electrolytes, the swanky clothes for athleisure and the nightclubs for sunny public parks.

The Grammy Award-winner's team hosts five-kilometer races across the globe branded as "Diplo's Run Club." After runners cross the finish line, they enter a post-race festival that includes cold plunges, peptide product samples and a Diplo-led dance party. About 12,000 participants paid entry fees starting at around $70 — and up to about $250 for a VIP experience — for last week's race in the New York City borough of Queens.

Younger American adults are spending less at bars and staying home more than their older counterparts. That's left them with fewer close friends and, during the pandemic, led to what's being called a "loneliness epidemic" that has persisted in the years since. But one type of experience appears to be getting them out of the house and socializing: sporting leagues and organized races.

"There's a big generational shift right now, with young people realizing that they want to spend their time working on themselves and their bodies," Diplo told CNBC ahead of the New York City event.

About seven out of every 10 adults under 30 say they anticipate participating in a recreational sports league over the next six months, according to a survey from polling firm CivicScience earlier this year. Across all age groups, 37% of respondents planned on joining a league, up five percentage points from 2025.

Volo Sports, an operator of recreational leagues, is on track to have 950,000 total player registrations for sports like volleyball, kickball and soccer this year. That would be an increase of around 34% from the 710,000 registrations last year and almost 500% from the 160,000 seen in 2019.

Volo has attracted private-equity investors and gone on a buying spree to snap up smaller competitors in recent years. But Giovanni Marcantoni, Volo's founder and CEO, told CNBC that about three-fourths of its growth has come from organic expansion, rather than through acquisitions, as more Americans look for ways to build community.

"I think 'Volo,' I think 'friends,'" said Marcantoni, who met his wife through a recreational bocce league. "Both those things put a smile on your face, and that's what our goal is as a brand."

Demand from young consumers

The communal fitness fervor among young adults extends to categories like cardiovascular exercise that have historically been viewed as individual affairs, but younger runners have found a way to make it more social by joining clubs and signing up for organized races. On social media, some users joke that partaking in distance running or other endurance-based competitions is now a "quarter-life crisis."

The share of finishers of the New York City Marathon in their 20s neared 24% in 2025, up from about 15% in 2019. New York Road Runners, the nonprofit behind the marathon, told CNBC that 27% of registered runners for the 2026 race, which takes place this weekend, are twenty-somethings. Participation by runners in their 20s in the Chicago Marathon and the Boston Marathon has also been on the rise in recent years, according to the organizers of those races.

And Ironman said a quarter of total participants in its half and full-distance triathlons are under 30 years old, an increase from 13% a decade ago. This age group is Ironman's fastest-growing market in North America.

Gen Z was 39% more likely than Gen X to say they used fitness to meet people who share their interests, according to a 2025 survey from fitness tracking platform Strava. A year prior, a Strava survey found that nearly one out of every five Gen Z respondents said they went on a date with someone they met through exercise.

Hyrox, which runs fitness competitions that mix running with strength work, is leaning into its role as a potential matchmaker. It has teamed up with a dating app called Surf Dating to connect users of the platform for blind dates in its doubles competition. Participants meet for the first time just before they undergo a series of one-kilometer runs interspersed with workout stations.

Surf also hands out special wristbands to singles at Hyrox events to help them advertise their relationship status, and hosts post-race parties for them to mingle.

"Matching with someone based off a shared interest or passion is a better way to meet your person than hot-or-not swiping," said Rob Long, Surf's co-founder and CEO.

Demand from young consumers has helped power postpandemic expansions for some traditional gyms like Life Time and workout studios such as Solidcore. But not all businesses are feeling the same tailwinds. SoulCycle has shuttered studios in recent years, and Xponential Fitness divested from underperforming brands such as CycleBar, Rumble and Row House over the last few years.

'Barstools to barbells'

Spending by Gen Z and millennials on fitness-related categories rose at a sharper rate year over year in early 2026 than bars, according to a report from Bank of America released earlier this year. Gen X and older generations did the opposite, with bar spending climbing at a faster clip in the period tracked by the bank.

Said another way: Younger cohorts are shifting "from barstools to barbells," according to Joe Wadford, an economist at Bank of America. It's part of a longer-term trend of Americans drinking less and less, sending the share of people who say they consume alcohol to record lows.

Still, organizers of these athletic events aren't writing off booze entirely. Volo partners with bars to offer deals for players looking to fraternize before or after their matches. Diplo's Run Club had several bars in the post-race festival selling cocktails and beer.

"I definitely don't think there's a death to drinking," said Autumn Rossi, a 30-year-old sales analyst who came to Diplo's race from New Jersey. "I think people are just doing it in a different way, which is important."

Brody Short identifies as one of those young people shifting her time and spending toward community-based fitness. After struggling to convince people in her social circle to forgo late nights at bars for early weekend mornings spent running and at hot yoga classes, the 26-year-old founded a run club called Energy in Liberty Lake, Washington.

Beyond meeting each week for runs, Short's club organizes fundraisers for local nonprofits and cheering squads when members are partaking in organized races. Short is a bridesmaid and maid of honor in upcoming weddings of friends she met through the club.

"It's deeper than the running," Short said. "I didn't start it just so every Tuesday I could run three miles with somebody I didn't know. I did it because I wanted to meet friends. I wanted to find real people that I could integrate into my life."

When talking with older generations, Short said she typically fields questions about whether she's dating someone or hopes to have children soon. After she responds no, Short said follow-up questions focus on how she's filling her time instead.

"We're not raising kids," Short said. "What are we doing? Well, I guess we're running marathons and doing Hyrox."

And they're dancing — at least at the run clubs that Diplo is hosting.

The DJ, born Wes Pentz, says the run clubs he hosts are a blast, but he also has a more selfish motivation: As the 47-year-old ages, he can opt to work fewer late nights.

"I don't want to spend the rest of my career playing into the night until 4 in the morning," Diplo said. "I want to build this brand where I can have these parties in the daytime."