The 2026 marathon season has produced a run of record participation figures, with Chicago and London leading the way. According to figures compiled by Marathon Handbook, this year's Bank of America Chicago Marathon registered more than 55,000 runners, the largest entry in its history. The race's record for finishers, 52,150, was set in 2024.
London's April race was larger still. It recorded 59,830 finishers, the biggest marathon in history by that measure, from a ballot that attracted more than 1.1 million applications for a field of about 60,000. New York, which will be run on 1 November, had 59,226 finishers last year, so the three largest events are now clustered within a few thousand places of each other.
Demand is not confined to the established majors. Sydney, which joined the World Marathon Majors, saw applications for 2026 rise 56 per cent to more than 123,000, after about 33,000 runners finished in 2025. Chicago itself received a record 160,000 applications for roughly 50,000 places in 2025, according to the same figures.
The economic case is a significant driver for host cities. Chicago puts the race's annual economic impact at more than $756 million, with streets closed across 29 neighbourhoods. Those figures help explain why organisers continue to expand fields and why charity places have become an important route into oversubscribed events.
For recreational runners, the practical effect is that entry is ever harder to secure through the ballot alone, and increasingly depends on charity places, qualifying times or travel packages. For the sport, the numbers suggest that the post-pandemic recovery has given way to sustained growth, with elite performances and mass participation reinforcing each other.