Zwift Will Not Be Hosting an Elite Zwift World Series This Fall

July 8, 2025

LAST UPDATED July 7, 2025

Last week, Zwift sent the following email to elite racers:

Dear Elite Racers and teams,

We know you will be starting to make plans for your next indoor season and therefore we must inform you that Zwift will not be hosting an Elite Zwift World Series this fall.

We understand many of you will be disappointed to receive this news about the series, so please know that this was a hard, but necessary decision for us to make.

For many years Zwift has invested substantially in broadcast production, broadcast distribution partnerships (e.g. GCN), prize money, performance verification and independent governance for elite level regular season racing events like Zwift World Series. Regrettably, the current level of audience interest and viewership for these events makes continuing to support this investment unsustainable.

At this time, the Zwift World Series is the only impacted series but we are considering multiple options for elite racing on Zwift going forward, including partnership.

Regardless, there’s a lot to be excited about this season – with a thriving racing scene, 2025/6 promises to be our biggest community racing season on Zwift yet. You’ll be able to take part in a whole host of new community racing events, each with top racing score categories and there are a number of exciting product developments in the pipeline that will take your racing experience to the next level – stay tuned for further details.

We look forward to seeing you all there.

Best Wishes,
Sean Parry,
Zwift Director of Racing

A Brief History of Elite Racing on Zwift

Elite racing has been happening on Zwift since the early days, but the early efforts were all community-organized. First there were the Zwift Worlds events organized by Tam Burns and Team ODZ in 2015, 2016, and 2017. There was also the CVR World Cup, a massive undertaking by Frank Garcia that included cash prizes and IRL finals.

It wasn’t until KISS Super League in January 2019 that the platform hosted a dedicated competition sponsored by Zwift featuring pro-level esports riders. A year later, Zwift would host the Virtual Tour de France thanks to Covid. And as the crush of new indoor riders heard the news of the brand-new Zwift Racing League (ZRL) launching for the 2020/21 season, the ZRL Premier League was also announced for elite racers.

This ZRL Premier League provided the most structured and long-running elite racing calendar Zwift had ever hosted, and it ran again for the 2021/22 season before elite racing was separated from ZRL, replaced by the Zwift Grand Prix for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.

The 2024/25 season saw yet another shift, with the Zwift Grand Prix being replaced by the Zwift World Series.

Zwift hosted other elite races along the way, of course, including the first-ever UCI Esports Worlds races (2021, 2022, and 2023). But I did say this was a “brief” history, so we’ll leave it there.

ESports ROI

Zwift has poured more investment than anyone else into the broadcast/marketing side of cycling esports, but as the email clearly states, it’s this need for ongoing investment in “broadcast production, broadcast distribution partnerships (e.g. GCN), prize money, performance verification and independent governance for elite level regular season racing events” that has caused Zwift to drop the World Series for the upcoming season.

Showing a positive return on investment for elite-level cycling esports sponsorship has always been a challenge, in some of the same ways it proves challenging in outdoor cycling. Sponsorships of these sorts of events are often justified as a sort of “loss leader,” as the event loses money but brings exposure to the sport and (hopefully) new customers down the road.

But these sorts of investments play out over years, not days. And even if the ROI is positive (and that’s a big if), proving it precisely is difficult if not impossible. The result? Top-tier bike teams and major races may struggle to line up reliable sponsorship, and even Zwift may question ongoing investment in elite-level racing on their platform.

What’s Next?

A year ago at this time, Zwift was announcing the Elite Community Racing Calendar for the 2024-25 season. Zwift’s elite racing plans are much fuzzier today, as Zwift’s email above states, “We are considering multiple options for elite racing on Zwift going forward, including partnership.”

On the plus side, it sounds like new Zwift race features are coming, as Zwift states, “… there are a number of exciting product developments in the pipeline that will take your racing experience to the next level – stay tuned for further details.” Is this referring to in-game points or elimination racing? Automatic performance verification? The mythical velodrome? Your guess is as good as mine.

In the email, Zwift encourages elite racers to participate in community-level racing. Will Zwift’s features and robust community racing scene be enough to keep elite racers on the platform? Or will they move to alternatives that offer stronger performance verification (TrainingPeaks Virtual), big prize money (MyWhoosh), real-world race courses (Rouvy), or other benefits?

We will have to wait and see, but one thing is certain: in this next indoor season, more elite racers than ever will be taking a hard look at Zwift, TrainingPeaks Virtual, MyWhoosh, and Rouvy to decide where to best invest their time, money, and racing effort.