The global market for yoga-related goods and services is expected to reach $120bn in 2024. Yoga in its modern form - with postures-asanas and more physical than spiritual content - became popular in the 20th century, when this Indian practice was sporadically in vogue around the world. In the 21st century, yoga has gained worldwide popularity - it is now a well-developed market, including a whole industry of special clothing and equipment, training courses, classrooms, apps, etc. Yoga has become a global phenomenon.
Ancient modern practices
On 21 June the UN celebrates the International Day of Yoga. This day is celebrated not so long ago - just since 2017. However, India had previously proposed to establish such a date several times: first in 1949, soon after independence, then again in 1977. Finally, in 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the importance of yoga and decided to establish this holiday at the international level.
- Yoga has its roots in ancient times - it is believed that the first depictions of its postures date back to the fourth millennium BC.
However, in its present form it is a relatively new phenomenon and appeared in the XIX century. It was then that Europeans, primarily the British, many of whom had travelled to India to serve, became interested in the ancient practices.
In the 1890s, the famous Indian yogi Swami Vivekananda toured Europe and North America. He is considered to be one of the first popularisers of yoga in a form close to modern yoga. At the time, yoga was still more of an exotic hobby of units and was largely seen as part of a wider interest in Indian philosophy and mysticism.
The first mass flowering of the yoga craze - now as a form of exercise - came in the 1910s and 20s. Then many people began to perform certain postures (asanas), which traditionally did not play such a big role in classical Indian yoga. Nevertheless, it is the asanas with memorable names that many people now associate with yoga.
- In the first half of the 20th century, in a general wave of enthusiasm for physical culture, Eastern practices began to be combined with gymnastics common in Europe.
‘European ideas about gymnastics and bodybuilding were mixed with Indian poses in the process. And what many of us now know as yoga is largely the result of this blending,’ says Mark Singleton, a researcher on the modern history of yoga at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.
Another SOAS yoga historian, Jim Malleson, says that, for example, the Surya Namaskara (‘sun salutation’) complex, which ‘is now seen as an integral part of yoga practice’, is not found in ancient texts and was not taught until the 1930s. ‘We find elements (of modern styles and sets of exercises) in ancient texts and historical sources, but many parts of them are modern innovations from a yoga point of view,’ he notes.
So while most yogis appealed to ancient practices, in fact they created these sets of exercises themselves, albeit with elements from ancient books. Sometimes the creator of modern yoga is called Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, a yogi and specialist in ancient texts, who in 1933 opened his own school in the city of Mysore in southern India. Many yogis came out of this school and helped spread the practice in different countries.
In the 1940s, yoga gained some popularity in Hollywood. Not least thanks to one of the first female yogis, Indra Devi, who organised yoga classes for Greta Garbo, Jennifer Jones and many other actors and actresses.
By the way, at birth Indra Devi's name was Eugenia Peterson. She was born in Riga and was the daughter of a Swedish banker and a Russian noblewoman. In the 1920s she travelled to India, studied yoga and changed her name. In the following years she popularised yoga among Chiang Kai-shek's cronies in China, Hollywood and Latin America.
It reached a new peak of popularity in the 1960s and 70s, in the wake of the hippie movement, New Age and other similar cultures. The Beatles' highly publicised trip to India to study Transcendental Meditation with preacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968 also contributed to the popularisation. Around the same years, yoga became widespread in the USSR, where there was also a growing interest in all things exotic and irrational.
In 1967, members of The Beatles travelled to a conference with preacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Bangor in North Wales, and a year later went to India to learn Transcendental Meditation with him
‘There's this idea that the West is rational and the East is mystical. And then practices and traditions like yoga and Ayurveda come to the West as an elixir for all ills, but in a commercialised form: they become commodities and their religious origins are often erased,’ says Sofia Arjana, a professor of religious studies at Western Kentucky University and author of Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi: Orientalism and the Market for Mystical Goods.
Yoga as a Market
In the twenty-first century, yoga has experienced a third burst of mass interest and has become a worldwide market. The industry encompasses not only classes, but also clothing for such classes, equipment, facilities, courses, related apps, etc. Many celebrities, including Madonna, Julia Roberts, Kim Kardashian, Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr. and others, claim to be yoga practitioners.
According to some estimates, the total market for various yoga-related products reaches $119.1 billion, with an average annual growth rate of about 9%. By 2034, the market could reach $288 billion. There are unofficial figures that more than 300 million people worldwide practice yoga, and more than 37 million in the US alone.
The growing popularity of wellness and mindfulness practices has led to innovative ways to integrate relaxation and entertainment. For example, initiatives like stay casino free chips reflect how the concept of balance extends to new forms of leisure, blending the thrill of games with moments of rest and mindfulness.
This cultural and economic boom highlights yoga's universal appeal, proving that its benefits resonate across diverse demographics and lifestyles.
- Renting studios and paying for classes in them is an important part of the market for yoga products and services.
In Europe alone, the market for yoga and Pilates studios reached nearly $27bn in 2019 and is forecast to grow to nearly $50bn by 2027.The yoga apparel market reaches $18.9bn.
- Statista predicts that 4 billion pairs of yoga tights and leggings will be produced in 2027.
The now popular Canadian sportswear brand Lululemon started out as a yoga apparel retailer. In 2000, it had one yoga clothing and accessories shop in Vancouver. Lululemon now has more than 700 shops in various countries and a market capitalisation of $39 billion. This year, Lululemon was ranked in the top 100 of Kantar's annual BrandZ ranking of the world's most valuable brands. It ranks alongside brands such as Bank of America and Budweiser.
There are many other specialised clothing brands such as Gymshark, Hey Honey Yoga, Skims. Sports giants like Adidas, Nike, Puma have also started producing yoga clothing.
The growing popularity of yoga is also fuelling the tourism market in Asia, such as to the Indian city of Mysore, often referred to as the yoga capital of the world. ‘Foreigners who practice yoga and come to Mysore are serious practitioners. The appeal of Mysore lies in its traditional approach to yoga - it has not deviated much from the original format,’ says Acharya Vinay Kumar, head of Prana Vashya Yoga, one of the major local schools.
In recent years, yoga has gained popularity in China as well. Between 2017 and 2021 alone, the number of yoga studios in China tripled to 42,000. According to calculations by Chinese online retailer JD, the local market for yoga products grew more than fivefold between 2013 and 2021, reaching 14.1 billion yuan (almost $2 billion). Experts say that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the fact that yoga can be practised at home also contributed to its popularity in China.
During the pandemic and related lockdowns, demand for yoga products as well as home exercise apps grew across countries. According to Social Blade, a website that analyses YouTube channel traffic, the number of views and subscribers from popular yoga-themed vloggers rose sharply in March 2020. At that time, sales of sportswear and equipment for exercising at home - including yoga pants, yoga mats, etc - were on the rise.
There are many yoga apps available, and Airnow Data estimates that the most popular include Yoga-Go (more than 5 million downloads in 2021), Yoga For Weight Loss and Daily Yoga (1.4 million downloads each). According to Ophelia Jung, a researcher at the Global Wellness Institute, a non-profit organisation, it is still difficult to estimate the scale of yoga classes through different online services, as we are talking not only about specialised apps, but also about yoga classes through fitness apps in general, such as Peloton and Apple Fitness, or simply through YouTube videos.
