Is indoor rowing fun? If you asked any competitive rower that question, they would give you a short shrift; ergos are the foil of many a fledgling on-water ambition and the nemesis of many who dread their monotony and induced pain.
Amongst other things, EXR has been on a mission to bring some relief to the world of indoor rowing. This market was measured at 1.2bn USD in 2024 and is slated to grow to 2.5bn USD by 2032, demonstrating just how popular this niche sports space has become. Although many on-water rowers use the ergo as a utility score to get faster on the water, millions more regard the ergo as critical equipment in their workout regime.
EXR creates real-life 3D locations for indoor rowers to train in while using the machine. They are not the only ones trying to change the indoor rowing world, but they have made significantly more progress than most, establishing partnerships with British Rowing, World Rowing and a host of high-profile ambassadors.
“EXR is reshaping the landscape of indoor rowing applications,” said Ami Kucharek, Chief Communications Officer at EXR. “The app strikes an innovative balance between performance and community, offering in-depth live performance data that syncs with popular platforms like the Concept2 Logbook, Strava, and Intervals.icu, while also creating a social happening on virtual waters.”
The rise of platforms like EXR begs the question as to whether rowing needs a broader rethink. Filip Ljubicic, Chair of the Indoor Rowing Commission, believes that gamification has always been part of the machine. “Concept2 have been building games since the 1980s and maybe earlier for the machine,” he commented. “These games look more like the racing we have today with boats going across the screen, but these were games for the machine. The Fish Game was one of the first fitness games to be launched in the 2000s, and now we are seeing more through games and experience publishers like EXR, Ergatta and Aviron, who are building this for the machine.”
Tom Aulet founded Ergatta in 2018, driven by a desire, as he puts it, ‘to break a sweat every day to feel well’. He struggled, though, to find the time and the right routine in his adult life. “Gaming makes rowing more fun and habit-forming,” he said, when probed on the trend. “Gaming brings more people into the ecosystem; it solves the accessibility problem. Indoor rowing has had an accessibility problem in the past. Gaming makes rowing more palatable, accessible, and appealing to regular people. It turns it from something that seems hard and inaccessible and gruelling to something that’s fun and fit for normal people.”
Rowing on the water – and its relative inaccessibility – and whether the growth of indoor rowing should feed that community has been a constant source of conversation in the past five years. Governing bodies have thrown significant weight behind creating stronger national and international indoor rowing championships in the hope that those who currently treat the ergo as a tool in the gym might be tempted to step in a boat. Ljubicic believes that although rowing is inherently gamified due to race, more can be done to improve the on-water experience. “What might be missing is something like XP points or points that are part of a ranking,” he said. “A ranking system helps drive competition, which might be a good thing.”
Iain Weir, Founder of Fantasy Rowing, launched the Winter Rowing League in 2025 to address the perceived gap in the market around mid-season rankings. “When I started Fantasy Rowing in 2015, I didn’t look at what other sports were doing and see an opportunity to exploit the same mechanic in rowing,” said Weir. “I was just frustrated by what I saw on the towpath, which I viewed as a lack of engagement and wanted to try and change it. The pandemic and redundancy gave me the opportunity (and the motivation) to change it up. I wanted to prove to myself that I could build a great product, and that I was up for the challenge of developing something from scratch. It’s now an iOS and Android app with a 4.8* rating, and it’s grown into a brilliant community of 1000s of active participants. It’s mainly been centred around Fantasy Henley, although I’m looking to develop the Winter Rowing League into a fun way to follow rowing through the colder months, where players will be able to follow the trials and tribulations of the clubs that they pick.”
It would be reductive not to factor the wider role of the pandemic into the growth of indoor rowing too, where millions were consigned to their homes with nothing but fitness equipment they already owned for support. “Covid was great for the at-home fitness market,” acknowledged Ljubicic. “It definitely helped the sales of all rowing machine manufacturers, but also forced many to look at new technology to provide what was lost from gym workouts, community and coaching. We are now seeing these changes in the market as more and more apps and services do interesting things in the space.”
Ljubicic also believes that the trend will improve accessibility for rowing: “It (gamification) would make the machine more attractive to more people. We are also looking at the impact of gamification through a partnership with the Japan Sport Council, where we want to understand the impact of virtual sport on performance.”
That view is one shared by EXR, whose focus has always been on increasing the number of rowers, both on and off the water. “In the future, we want to grow the global indoor rowing community by making the sport more accessible, enjoyable, and rewarding with EXR,” said Kucharek. “We want indoor rowing to be something people of all ages and fitness levels genuinely look forward to, whether they’re training for performance, injury recovery or just staying active.”
