Online yoga attendance varies substantially by population, class format and measurement method. Research from the early COVID-19 pandemic through 2025 reports live-class averages from 71.8% to 97.15%, while studies of self-guided sessions and prescribed home practice often show lower adherence.
Contents
- Online yoga participation during the pandemic
- Observed attendance in live online classes
- Attendance across remote yoga interventions
- Completion, retention and adherence
- Class design and weekly dosage
- Devices, interaction and class experience
Online yoga participation during the pandemic
The strongest broad participation figures in this set come from an international survey of yoga practitioners and teachers during the early COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. These are self-reported survey results from that period, not a current global estimate.
The survey found that 43% of respondents spent more time practicing yoga during the pandemic, while 35.2% spent about the same amount of time. Only 3.5% reported that they did not practice yoga during the pandemic period. The results indicate that online and home-based practice became important to many participants during lockdown, but they do not measure attendance in one standardized class system.
Different online formats were used by overlapping groups. Self-led practice was reported by 59.8% of participants. Live-stream classes were reported by 53.5%, and recorded online classes by 47.3%. Because respondents could report more than one format, these percentages should not be added together.
The same survey also measured intentions after lockdown. A total of 46.1% said they would probably or definitely continue taking recorded online yoga classes, while 45% said they would probably or definitely continue taking live-stream classes. These figures describe stated future intentions measured in 2020, rather than later behavior.
The survey source is “It is a lifeline”: International cross-sectional survey of benefits, barriers and acceptability of online yoga during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its findings are useful for understanding the expansion of online yoga during a specific disruption, but they should not be treated as a 2026 market forecast.
Observed attendance in live online classes
Tracked attendance gives a different view from survey participation. A virtual mind-body program operating from March to May 2020 recorded 5,948 unique class visits overall. Yoga accounted for 909 of those visits, or 15.3% of the total. The program averaged 26.7 participants per yoga class.
Those numbers describe class visits in one virtual program, not the number of people practicing online worldwide. They nevertheless show that live virtual yoga could attract a measurable recurring audience when included within a broader mind-body schedule. The results are reported in Rapid deployment of virtual mind-body interventions during the COVID-19 outbreak: feasibility, acceptability, and implications for future care.
A later teleyoga feasibility trial involving veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain tracked attendance across 12 weekly online classes during the 2020–2021 trial phase. Veterans attended an average of 8.62 classes, equivalent to 71.8% mean attendance. Individual attendance ranged from 2 to all 12 classes. Retention was 83%, and 75% met the study threshold of attending at least 65% of treatment classes.
The veteran results show why attendance and retention should be reported separately. Retention describes whether participants remained in the study, while attendance describes how many scheduled classes they attended. The Randomized Feasibility Trial of Teleyoga versus In-Person Yoga for Treating Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in Veterans reports both measures.
Attendance across remote yoga interventions
Attendance results differ across groups and delivery designs. The following comparison keeps each study’s own denominator and population visible.
| Population and intervention | Period or study design | Attendance result |
|---|---|---|
| Veterans using teleyoga | 12 weekly classes, 2020–2021 | 8.62 of 12 classes; 71.8% mean attendance |
| Québec resident physicians | 8-week program, January–June 2021 | 6.9 sessions on average; 91% of completers attended 6–8 sessions |
| Young adults affected by cancer | 8-week videoconference pilot | 6.40 of 8 classes; 80% average attendance |
| Rural older adults | 8-week telehealth intervention | 6.6 classes on average; 75% completed at least 6 of 8 |
| Women with chronic pelvic pain | 2-month remotely delivered intervention | 75% attended more than 85% of intervention classes |
| Working adults | 8-week remote intervention | 75.1% overall attendance |
Among Québec resident physicians who completed the virtual program from January through June 2021, 91% attended 6–8 sessions. The average was 6.9 virtual yoga sessions, with a median of 8 and a standard deviation of 1.7. Synchronous attendance averaged 4.9 sessions, with a median of 5 and a standard deviation of 2.4. Asynchronous attendance averaged 2 sessions, with a median of 1.0 and a standard deviation of 1.8. Nine residents attended all 8 sessions synchronously, while 17 attended all 8 through a synchronous/asynchronous hybrid option. These findings come from Online yoga programme for resident physicians in Québec.
In an 8-week videoconference pilot for young adults affected by cancer, attendance ranged from 3 of 8 classes, or 38%, to all 8 classes, or 100%. Average attendance was 6.40 of 8 classes, or 80%. Twenty-four of 30 participants, also 80%, attended at least 75% of the eight classes. The study is described in Exploring feasibility, perceptions of acceptability, and potential benefits of an 8-week yoga intervention delivered by videoconference.
In a rural older-adult telehealth yoga trial, 75% completed at least 6 of 8 classes and average attendance was 6.6 classes. A separate remotely delivered pelvic-yoga trial found that 27 participants, or 75% of the randomized sample, attended more than 85% of intervention classes. The sources are Effect of telehealth yoga on loneliness and social isolation among rural older adults and A Multisite Randomized Feasibility Trial of a Remotely Delivered Pelvic Yoga Program.
Completion, retention and adherence
A scoping review of remote yoga interventions through 2021 found that only 5 of 12 included studies, about 42%, reported intervention adherence using practice or class-attendance measures. Two of the 12 studies, about 17%, used web analytics to monitor time spent viewing online yoga videos. The review, Remote Delivery of Yoga Interventions Through Technology: Scoping Review, therefore highlights a measurement gap as well as attendance results.
One synchronous videoconference study summarized in the review reported mean attendance of 90%, or 14.5 of 16 required classes. Results were lower in some web-video designs. In one low-dose group, 44%, or 8 of 18 participants, met a benchmark requiring 90% of the prescribed yoga dose in 9 of 12 weeks. In the moderate-dose group, 6%, or 1 of 16 participants, met that same benchmark. Another online yoga study classified 39%, or 7 of 18 participants, as compliant when compliance meant exercising more than 3 times per week for at least 7 weeks.
Recorded minutes also varied depending on how practice was measured. Software recorded mean online yoga participation of 40.8 minutes per week in one study, while participants self-reported 56 minutes per week. In another web-video study, only 15%, or 4 of 27 participants, completed the required dose of at least 60 minutes per week. A separate low-dose group self-reported 44 of 60 target minutes per week, or 73% of target. The moderate-dose group self-reported 77 of 150 target minutes, or 49% of target.
One additional online-yoga study summarized by the review reported mean participation of 11.48 sessions, with a standard deviation of 7.55 sessions. These study-level figures should not be pooled because the underlying programs used different durations, dose requirements, populations and adherence definitions.
Class design and weekly dosage
The schedule attached to an online yoga program can shape what “attendance” means. The veteran teleyoga protocol scheduled 12 weekly online classes, each lasting 75 minutes, and prescribed home practice on 5 non-class days per week. A participant could therefore attend the scheduled video classes while completing a separate, less visible part of the program at home.
The Québec virtual yoga program lasted 8 weeks. The working-adult remote yoga trial prescribed 3 sessions per week for 8 weeks, with each session designed for 50 minutes. Its source is Feasibility and impact of a remote moderate-intensity yoga intervention on stress and executive functioning in working adults.
The pelvic-yoga trial delivered group videoconference classes twice weekly for 2 months. A teleyoga feasibility study involving patients with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers measured a 12-week acute treatment phase. The online yoga pilot for people with myeloproliferative neoplasms prescribed 60 minutes per week for 12 weeks.
The differences matter when comparing attendance percentages. A 75% result from twice-weekly group classes represents a different number of attended sessions and total minutes than 75% in a once-weekly program. Likewise, a self-guided minute target is not interchangeable with attendance in a supervised live class.
Devices, interaction and class experience
Attendance is also connected to how participants access and experience a class. In the rural older-adult telehealth yoga group, 57.1% connected by computer, 42.9% by smartphone and 28.6% by tablet. Participants could report more than one device, so these percentages describe device use rather than mutually exclusive user categories.
Nearly all participants in that group, 92.9%, usually or always kept their camera on during class. One-third, or 32.1%, often or always used the online chat function. Sound quality was rated good or better by 78.6% of participants. The ability to see other participants by video was rated good or better by 57.1%.
Good, very good or excellent connection with the instructor was reported by 67.8% of rural older-adult participants. At the same time, 67.8% rated their connection with other veterans as poor or fair. The paired results show that instructor access and peer connection are separate parts of the online class experience.
The working-adult trial provides a direct comparison between supervised and self-guided participation. Supervised synchronous-session attendance was 97.15%, compared with 63.50% for self-guided sessions. Overall attendance in that 8-week remote intervention was 75.1%. These results suggest that “online yoga attendance” is not one uniform behavior: live supervision, self-guided access, class schedule and participant context can produce very different measured rates.