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Life & fun · May 16, 2011

Fitocracy, an RPG for fitness

My cofounder and I have been working on a site called Fitocracy (www.fitocracy.com), which is a social game for fitness. The idea was very much inspired by our experiences growing up as nerds playing video games, later on discovering weightlifting, and drawing the parallel between working out and "leveling yourself up." XKCD has a pretty well known comic to this effect: http://xkcd.com/189/. We find that the metaphor of workout out as leveling up in a video game resonates with quite a few people, so Fitocracy is an attempt to bring that to life. On Fitocracy, tracking your workouts earns you…

Fitocracy, an RPG for fitness launched on May 16, 2011 with 102 votes, #5 of 217 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 15 years on.

Visit xkcd.com ↗Alternativestop 2% of May 2011

In plain words

Fitocracy is a social fitness platform that gamifies exercise by treating workouts like a video game. Users earn points and levels by logging their fitness activities, unlock achievements, and complete quests that encourage workout variety and progression. Designed for people who enjoy gaming, the platform uses RPG mechanics to motivate consistent training and help users "level up" themselves through exercise.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License . This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). More detailsfrom xkcd.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

My cofounder and I have been working on a site called Fitocracy (www.fitocracy.com), which is a social game for fitness. The idea was very much inspired by our experiences growing up as nerds playing video games, later on discovering weightlifting, and drawing the parallel between working out and "leveling yourself…

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Launched alongside, May 2011

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