2023 began a bit rough in the land of Zwift, with workforce reductions announced and very few updates being released. But as the year went on, Zwift’s restructured teams and refreshed leadership seemed to find their footing, releasing new features and game updates at a regular bi-weekly cadence.
Was 2023 everything we’d hoped for on Zwift? Of course not, because we always want more than Zwift delivers. That’s just part of being a Zwifter; we never get enough new roads, carrots to chase, or new shiny features. But Zwift made some major internal changes this year to focus on their core product more than ever, and that bodes well for 2024.
This is our look back at all things Zwift for 2023. Enjoy the ride!
New Roads and Routes
While Zwift still isn’t creating fresh roads as fast as most Zwifters would like, they’re still giving us new routes on existing roads from time to time. This year, the Scotland map was added, plus a solid Watopia expansion. Here’s a list of new routes added to the game:
February (Scotland release)
March
November (Watopia Southern Coast expansion)
- Accelerate to Elevate
- The Big Ring
- Canopies and Coastlines
- Coast Crusher
- Going Coastal
- Shorelines and Summits
- Sugar Cookie
- Temple Trek
That’s a total of 14 routes added in 2023. By comparison, 20 routes were added in 2022, 26 in 2021, 19 in 2020, and 34 in 2019.
Looking for a complete list of Zwift routes? Check out our Master List of All Zwift Routes.
Major Events
In 2023, we didn’t see Zwift rolling out major new community events. Instead, they largely built on previous years’ successes, attempting to improve what was already proven to work in marquee events like the Tour de Zwift, Tour of Watopia (which they did twice), Zwift Fondos, Zwift Academy, and more.
Zwift introduced the “Zwift Ride Series” in May. These are monthly themed group rides set up to provide consistent group rides when there isn’t a big event underway like Tour de Zwift. This is a smart move on Zwift’s part. It feels inconsistent to have large Zwift-owned events come in every few months then have community events fill the gaps on the off months. The ZRS keeps the calendar feeling like it has a more consistent balance between community-led and Zwift-owned events.
On the racing side, Zwift Grand Prix built on the previous year’s launch success and is nearing season end, while Zwift Racing League continues to grow and will soon enter the final round of this season. Zwift’s ZRacing series (see the current series here) has matured and built a reputation as the most popular weekly series, the inventive Ladder Races are receiving rave reviews, and (shameless plug) Zwift Insider’s Tiny Races are still very popular every weekend.
We should also mention the UCI Esports Worlds that happened in February, since, well, it was the Worlds, hosted on Zwift! Also worth a mention is the Olympic Esports Series held in Singapore in June, simply because it points to bigger things to come in the Olympics with indoor cycling.
We won’t list all of Zwift’s major events for 2023 here, but you can certainly browse the events archive to see what we highlighted throughout the year.
Workforce Reductions and New Hires
In March, Zwift announced a 15% workforce reduction. This wasn’t a surprise, given the state of the indoor cycling industry and overall economy. Plus, the tech space as a whole was reducing its workforce at the same time (giants like Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet/Google all announced similar cuts).
March’s cuts were actually the beginning of a refresh in top Zwift leadership. A month or so after the 15% reduction, some top leaders left, including Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer Steve Beckett, VP of Acquisition Ian Vinten, SVP of Brand Experience Laurent Janneau, Director of Content Programming Craig Taylor, and more. Departments were reorganized and newish co-CEO Kurt Beidler soon brought on CTO Mike Lusthaus (former Amazon) and CPO Manlio Lo Conte (former Meta).
What are the fruits of all this change? Zwift seems more focused than ever on product (both hardware and software), taking more of a “quick and dirty” approach to the marketing side of things. And that may be exactly the balance needed in these times. A glance at their careers page indicates a strong focus on product development, which any Zwifter should be happy to see.
Wahoo: Foe to Friend
2023 began with Wahoo and Zwift embroiled in a legal battle but ended with them acting like the closest of friends. What happened?
It appears both companies realized that the way forward is to work together to grow the pie. Instead of squabbling over pieces of the current pie, they could collaborate to make indoor riding a better experience, attracting and retaining more customers, thus growing the pie. So they announced a settlement in September and seem to have been working closely ever since.
Hear Wahoo CEO Chip Hawkins discuss this with DC Rainmaker in a recent interview:
What are the fruits of the Wahoo + Zwift collaboration so far? Wahoo items are now being sold in Zwift’s store, Wahoo is selling trainers bundled with a deeply discounted year of Zwift membership, and Wahoo’s KICKR Core has replaced the Zwift Hub Classic as the go-to trainer if you want a full cassette. Word is Wahoo is working with Zwift to bring other features like virtual shifting via Zwift Play to Wahoo trainers.
Hardware
Zwift made a big move in the hardware space this year by releasing Zwift Play: bar-mounted controllers with buttons for steering, braking, virtual shifting, navigation, powerups, and more. Since their release in June, Zwift has steadily improved functionality and reliability, and today you’ll see many riders using them on Zwift’s roads.
Still, it’s clear Zwift hasn’t convinced the vast majority of Zwifters to jump onto the Play wagon. What will it take? A velodrome? Auto-braking on corners? Virtual shifting capabilities on existing trainers? It will be interesting to see what happens in 2024 in this space.
The Zwift Hub trainer made waves when it was released in 2022, and it kept doing so in 2023 as Zwift updated firmware to enable premium features. First came auto calibration in April, then 10Hz “race mode” and virtual shifting in October.
The Hub One trainer was also released in October. This was the existing Zwift Hub trainer, but with the new Zwift Cog installed in place of the cassette, and a Zwift Click device for handling the virtual shifting from your bars (although you can also shift with Play controllers). The big news here was virtual shifting, which seems to have received positive reviews across the board. Smooth, quiet, accurate, and compatible across almost all bikes… what’s not to love? Once we used it, it was hard to go back to mechanical shifting.
The only big miss we can see in Zwift’s hardware moves for 2023 is their lack of availability outside of the USA, UK, and EU. Canada and Australia/New Zealand, both popular Zwift markets, can’t place orders on Zwift.com. Hopefully this changes soon.
Racing Score Reboot
Zwift soft-launched their new “Racing Score” metric in June with the goal of creating a new metric for racer capabilities to categorize riders based on race results instead of power numbers.
However, feedback from riders wasn’t very positive because riders had already experienced a much better alternative. Zwift’s new Racing Score was a simple metric that fell short of the more robust metrics developed by community sites like ZwiftRacing.app.
Eventually, the first version of Racing Score was taken offline (see forum post), and Zwift has been reworking it ever since. Word is we may see something in January/February 2024, and early indications are that they listened closely to feedback and riders will be happy with what they see! 2024 may very well be when Zwift racing categories see a big shakeup for the better.
New/Expanded Features
Along with everything listed above, Zwift rolled out additional new features in 2023 and improved existing features. Here’s the complete list in somewhat-chronological order:
- Added running levels 21-30 read more >
- HoloReplays expanded to support full routes read more >
- Pack Dynamics 4 released read more > followed by 4.1 read more >
- Power curve added to Zwifter web profiles read more >
- ZwiftPower categories replaced by Category Enforcement pace groups read more >
- Powerups rebalanced read more >
- Moved to Metal: the last of the Apple platforms (MacOS) moved to using Metal as its graphics API in May read more >
- Coffee Stop feature released read more >
- HoloReplays expanded to Leaderboards so you can compete against others’ times read more >
- Repack Rush opens read more >
- Action Bar refreshed read more >
- Teleporting enabled read more >
- Climb Portal released read more >
- Video screenshots enabled for Mac, iOS, AppleTV, and PC read more >
- New race results screen read more >
- Deferred updates allowed on Mac and PC read more >
- Native Apple silicon support released for Macs read more >
- New onboarding process goes live for new Zwift riders read more >
- Imperial XP upgrade read more >
- Workout library reorganized/simplified read more >
- Watopia refreshed read more >
- Gamified Crit City released read more >
- New workout startup screen read more >
- Annual memberships become available read more >
- Added cycling levels 61-100 read more >
- Ride streaks feature added read more >
- Climb portal scaling, completion tracking, and rankings read more >
- Companion update: “Keep Everyone Together” option added to Club rides read more >
- Companion update: guest map calendar now available read more >
- Companion update: route browser now available read more >
- Companion update: per-club notification settings read more >
- Companion update: personal leaderboards and route/badge info read more >
- Companion update: more workouts added to Club event templates read more >
Game Updates
Zwift started the year off a bit rough, with just three updates in the first four months. But starting in May, they began releasing updates every two weeks and stuck to that cadence for the rest of the year, which was refreshing. Cyclists like a high cadence!
Competitors
Wahoo shut down RGT in October (see the interview with DC Rainmaker above for details on that), taking what was once considered Zwift’s biggest competition out of the game. So who’s left?
This year we’ve seen big moves from two other competitors: MyWhoosh and Indievelo.
MyWhoosh surprised many by beating out Zwift in their bid to host the Esports World Championships for 2024/2025/2026. Indievelo, started by former ZADA head George Gilbert, has been making waves among Zwift racers since it’s being developed as competition-first platform. MyWhoosh has a lot of cash behind it, and the motivation to perform well on the big stage. Indievelo’s small team continues to release race-friendly updates at an impressive rate.
It’s fair to say neither MyWhoosh or Indievelo are close to Zwift in terms of user base size, but both platforms are keeping Zwift honest, holding their feet to the fire by releasing new features and hosting events Zwift would like to see on its own platform. Keep an eye one these platforms in 2024. You know Zwift will!
What’s Coming in 2024?
What’s coming soon to Zwift? Here are a few things we know… and a few things we’re guessing at:
- Zwift Games: a huge set of races for both elite and community riders at all levels
- Player Highlighting: this was supposed to be released last summer, so we assume it’ll show up soon
- New Frames/Wheels: Zwift hasn’t released anything new in over a year, so they’ve got to add some frames or wheels in 2024… right?
- KICKR Core virtual shifting: with this trainer replacing the Hub Classic, virtual shifting (and hopefully 10Hz race mode and auto calibration) must be added soon. Otherwise, it’s a step backward.
There’s more to come in addition to what’s listed above. Some things we’re not allowed to mention yet, but there are definitely other things Zwift simply hasn’t told us! We’re looking forward to 2024 and all the Zwifty upgrades it will bring. We hope you are, too.
Your Comments
What are your thoughts on Zwift’s 2023? Favorite new features, things you wish Zwift had released but didn’t? And what would you most like to see in 2024? Share below!
wpDiscuz
