Home › Muay thai stats › Muay thai capitals

America's Muay Thai Capitals (2026)

Every "best fight cities" list is vibes. This one is a gym count. We mapped 3,149 US muay thai gyms, rolled them up by city, and ranked the results two ways — raw count, and gyms per resident. Updated 2026-07-18.

The most muay thai gyms, period

By raw count the biggest markets win, as you'd expect — San Diego leads with 24 gyms. The interesting rows are further down: mid-size combat-sports cities sit shoulder to shoulder with metros several times their size.

#CityMuay thai gymsPopulationPer 100k
1 San Diego, CA 24 1,404,452 1.7
2 Austin, TX 22 993,588 2.2
3 Houston, TX 21 2,390,125 0.9
4 Philadelphia, PA 21 1,573,916 1.3
5 San Antonio, TX 20 1,526,656 1.3
6 New York, NY 19 8,478,072 0.2
7 Chicago, IL 19 2,721,308 0.7
8 Los Angeles, CA 19 3,878,704 0.5
9 Brooklyn, NY 18 — —
10 Seattle, WA 18 780,995 2.3
11 Las Vegas, NV 18 678,922 2.7
12 Miami, FL 17 487,014 3.5
13 Arlington, TX 14 403,672 3.5
14 Denver, CO 12 729,019 1.6
15 Virginia Beach, VA 12 454,808 2.6

New York's boroughs are listed the way gyms list themselves — a borough sits in its own row (census population isn't tracked at borough level in our source, hence any dash).

Major cities (500k+), per resident

Divide by population and the story changes. Among big cities, Las Vegas, Nevada is America's muay thai capital per resident at 2.7 gyms per 100k. A big metro doesn't have to have the most gyms in America; the per-resident leaders are the cities where the muay thai habit runs deepest.

#CityMuay thai gymsPopulationPer 100k
1 Las Vegas, NV 18 678,922 2.7
2 Seattle, WA 18 780,995 2.3
3 Austin, TX 22 993,588 2.2
4 Sacramento, CA 12 535,798 2.2
5 Atlanta, GA 11 520,070 2.1
6 Tucson, AZ 11 554,013 2
7 San Diego, CA 24 1,404,452 1.7
8 Denver, CO 12 729,019 1.6
9 Nashville, TN 10 729,505 1.4
10 Portland, OR 9 635,749 1.4
11 Albuquerque, NM 8 560,326 1.4
12 Mesa, AZ 7 517,151 1.4

Mid-size muay thai towns (100k+), per resident

Open the field to every city of 100,000+ with at least 5 gyms and the mid-size cities take over — Boca Raton, Florida tops the country at 6.8 gyms per 100k residents.

#CityMuay thai gymsPopulationPer 100k
1 Boca Raton, FL 7 102,238 6.8
2 Conroe, TX 6 114,581 5.2
3 St. George, UT 5 106,288 4.7
4 Murrieta, CA 5 112,539 4.4
5 Frisco, TX 9 235,208 3.8
6 Dayton, OH 5 136,346 3.7
7 Carrollton, TX 5 135,456 3.7
8 Fargo, ND 5 136,285 3.7
9 Miami, FL 17 487,014 3.5
10 Arlington, TX 14 403,672 3.5
11 Oceanside, CA 6 170,941 3.5
12 Waco, TX 5 146,608 3.4
13 Tempe, AZ 6 190,114 3.2
14 Plano, TX 9 293,286 3.1
15 Corona, CA 5 161,540 3.1

Cite this data

Suggested attribution: “America's Muay Thai Capitals” — MuayThaiClasses.net, 2026, linked to https://www.muaythaiclasses.net/muay-thai-stats/muay-thai-capitals/. The tables are CC BY 4.0: chart them, quote them, publish them — just link back. Want a custom cut (by state, metro, or discipline)? Email us.

Download the full CSV Data updated 2026-07-18

Methodology: gym counts come from our continuously maintained national directory of 3,149 muay thai gyms (public business listings, filtered to genuine muay thai gyms with a muay thai class on the schedule). Cities are rolled up by the city name on each gym's address, so suburbs count separately from their metro anchor. Population = US Census 2024 city estimates (consolidated-government names normalized, e.g. Nashville-Davidson → Nashville). Per-100k = gyms ÷ population × 100,000. The CSV covers every US city with 5+ gyms. More lenses: the state-by-state stats hub, the best-cities ranking (density × rating), and the best gyms by state.