We’ve all seen running explode with apps like Strava and Nike Run Club.
This social walking app could be the next big thing.
Stompers turned daily walking into a friends game, driving over 500,000 downloads with a 2 person team and a wave of UGC.
This social step-tracking game for iOS turns your daily walk into a race against friends, complete with power-ups and sabotage.
If you’ve seen videos of people getting weirdly competitive about their daily step count, you’ve probably seen them on your FYP without even realizing.
Stompers was created by co-founders Soren Iverson (Designer) and Josh Rozin (Developer) in May 2024.
The founders like to describe their app as “Mario Kart, but for walking.”
Users can hit their friends with virtual bats or banana peels to knock their step count back while they walk to the top of the daily leaderboard.
The core game is completely free.
Users can subscribe to “Super Stompers” for cosmetic perks like custom themes and profile badges.
The Monthly Subscription costs $9.99, and the annual subscription costs $39.99.
They have done more than 500K downloads, and 20K last month, but are still stuck in low revenue (<$5K/month).
The app is also only available on iOS, potentially breaking a lot of friend groups if hey include Android users.
Stompers is a purely social app.
You play the game with friends, which makes every new player a recruiter.
To grow fast, you have to win over whole friend groups.
Stompers is running a total of 39 accounts across Tiktok and Instagram.
They have made a total 63.8M views, although some videos seem to include paid views.
52M out of the 63M views come from their official TikTok page.
The account is now inactive, but reached virality through trendy food skits.
Format 1 is the “spaghetti stress test”: how many noodles can hold me?
He stacks different piles, walks across them, and ends with a payoff shot of his Stompers steps.
Then he spins the same idea with twists like “how many steps can I take on 10 sheets of aluminum foil” and “beating my friends’ steps on Stompers by only walking on spaghetti.
Format 2 is the “calories vs. steps” vlog.
He eats high calorie cookies in the car, and then vlogs himself walking to burn all calories he just ingested.
He also adds app progress on screen, plus punchy hooks like “bro regret so bad, wait for it” and “this went so wrong.”
Outside of the official page, tt@sonnystomps had a 3.2M video promoting Stompers.
“If you’re trying to lose weight you need this new app”
Although it seems that the views are not fully organic.
Recently they have started an UGC wave, with creators trying different formats.
For example:
jtt@ocelynwalking with outdoors walking selfies and short hooks.
And tt@gswalking with the same strategy but indoors
This seems to be their main UGC strategy. Attractive female creators entering SkinnyTok in a subtle way and positioning the app as a fitness helper more than a silly game.
In the beginning of September, one ambassador made a skit that managed to get several “what’s the app” reactions:
She recorded her sister walking, and added the hook for context:
“almond sistered too hard this is my sister tring to get more steps than me“
This is a different approach that brings more authenticity and interest to the app. The content works when it blends “real” storytelling with playful app features.
That UGC push gave them free reach, but can reach exponentially more people with the right strategy.
They should test stronger formats and reduce the repetitive UGC that is not delivering.
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