If you’ve searched “Is Beachbody going out of business,” you’ve probably seen something alarming — coaches losing income overnight, layoffs, entire markets shutting down. It sounds like a company in freefall.
The reality is more specific than that. Beachbody (now called BODi) is not shutting down entirely. But a major piece of how it operated for decades is gone. Understanding the difference matters, whether you’re a customer, a former coach, or just watching to see how this plays out.
This article breaks down exactly what ended, what stayed, and what the company looks like heading into 2025.
Beachbody Is Not Closing — But a Major Part of It Is Gone
Let’s get straight to the point: BODi, the company formerly known as Beachbody, still exists. The digital fitness platform is still running. The nutrition products, including Shakeology, are still being sold. The app still works.
What ended in 2024 is the MLM “coach” network — the multi-level structure that let people sell products, recruit others, and earn commissions across multiple levels. That entire model has been shut down.
The distinction is important. When coaches say their business was eliminated overnight, they’re right. But that’s not the same as the company closing. The product lives on. The controversial distribution model does not.
As one long-time coach put it plainly after the announcement: “No more Beachbody coaches. No more BODi partners.” The company, though, is still there.
What Beachbody Was Before the Overhaul
Beachbody was founded in 1998 and built its name on at-home fitness programs. P90X, Insanity, and 21 Day Fix became household names, especially during the 2000s and early 2010s when DVD workout programs were a serious market.
But the real engine of the business wasn’t just the workouts. It was “Team Beachbody” — a network marketing structure where coaches bought products, sold them to others, recruited new coaches, and earned commissions across multiple levels. Think Avon or Herbalife, but for fitness programs and protein shakes.
In 2022, the company rebranded to BODi, short for Beachbody On Demand Interactive. The stated goal was to move away from “beach body” aesthetics and toward broader health and wellness. It was also a signal that the business was pivoting toward streaming subscriptions.
But even after the rebrand, the MLM coach program kept running underneath it — until it was formally shut down in late 2024.
The 2024 Decision — Why Beachbody Ended Its MLM Model
In October 2024, Beachbody made it official. The company announced it was dissolving the MLM side of the business and moving to a standard affiliate referral model.
Executive Chairman Mark Goldston described the old MLM structure as “outdated and unsustainable” in the current market. That’s a direct quote from the company’s own leadership, and it’s a significant admission.
The business rationale behind the move is fairly straightforward:
- Simpler compensation: Affiliate programs are cheaper and easier to manage than a multi-tier commission structure with ranks and team bonuses.
- Lower regulatory and reputational risk: MLM companies face ongoing scrutiny from regulators and the public. The FTC has tightened its guidelines around income claims and recruitment-based models.
- Less overhead: Managing a large field organization with hundreds of thousands of coaches is expensive. Cutting that reduces costs significantly.
At the same time, the company laid off roughly a third of its workforce and cut tens of millions of dollars in operating costs, according to reporting by the New York Post. This wasn’t a quiet internal shuffle — it was a major restructuring.
The coach program had also faced persistent criticism. Many participants spent more on products than they ever earned. The model put heavy emphasis on recruiting rather than actual retail sales, which drew comparisons to pyramid structures in anti-MLM communities.
None of that criticism alone forced the change. The company framed this as a strategic decision. But market pressure, reputational damage, and financial strain clearly all played a role.
The New Affiliate Model — How It Differs From Being a Coach
The old coach model was multi-level. You sold products, built a team, and earned commissions not just on your own sales but on what your recruits sold too. Ranks and titles came with different payout percentages. Your income potential was tied directly to how many people you brought in.
The new model looks nothing like that.
It works more like Amazon Associates or a standard influencer affiliate program. You share a link. If someone buys through it, you earn a commission. That’s essentially it. No downlines, no ranks, no team-building, no recruiting.
Former coaches can apply to become affiliates, but the earning potential is structurally different. You’re not building a team — you’re just driving traffic. The ceiling is lower, and the path to high income through recruiting is gone entirely.
For consumers, this actually simplifies things. You’ll buy directly from BODi’s website or app, or through an affiliate link from a content creator or trainer. There’s no coach middleman trying to upsell you on a business opportunity.
What This Means for Coaches, Customers, and the Company
Former coaches and partners
This group got hit hardest. People who spent years building teams — sometimes a decade or more — had that income stream removed almost overnight. The company announced the shutdown, gave a wind-down timeline, and paid out commissions on ongoing subscription renewals through early 2025.
After that, the MLM business was over. Some coaches are transitioning to the affiliate model. Others are moving toward independent fitness coaching, using the audiences and experience they built on their own terms.
If you were a high-earning coach whose income depended heavily on team commissions, the affiliate model is not a direct replacement. That needs to be said clearly.
Customers and subscribers
If you’re a BODi subscriber worried about losing your workouts, the current picture is that the platform continues. Programs like P90X and Insanity remain available. The app still runs.
That said, the company did exit certain markets. Reports indicate BODi is pulling out of the UK and France entirely as part of the restructuring. If you’re in one of those markets, your options may change. For US-based subscribers, the service appears to be continuing.
Prices and packaging may shift as the company adjusts its model. Nothing in the available reporting suggests content will be yanked from subscribers without notice, but it’s worth keeping an eye on communications from the company directly.
The company’s financial position
Beachbody secured a $25 million loan and has described 2025 as a “transition year.” Industry outlet Athletech News reported that the company is focusing on nutrition, affiliate sales, and a limited set of flagship fitness programs going forward.
This is a company under real financial pressure — declining revenue, large layoffs, and a complete overhaul of its distribution model. But it’s restructuring, not dissolving. The $25 million loan suggests lenders believe there’s something worth saving.
Whether the pivot actually works is a different question. Competing in digital fitness is brutal right now. Peloton went through a similar reckoning after pandemic-era growth flatlined. BODi faces the same headwinds, plus the extra challenge of rebuilding a sales engine without its coach network.
For a broader look at how businesses handle pivots like this one, StartBizWire covers business strategy, restructuring, and what these kinds of transitions actually look like in practice.
The Bigger Picture
Beachbody’s situation is a useful case study in what happens when a business model outlives its era. The MLM coach structure worked well during a period when social selling was novel and before streaming fitness exploded with options. That window has closed.
The rebrand to BODi in 2022 was supposed to signal a new direction. In practice, the MLM structure stayed intact beneath the new branding. The 2024 overhaul was the more honest break — acknowledging that the old model wasn’t going to carry the company forward.
Whether the leaner, affiliate-driven version of the business can compete is genuinely uncertain. The company has real assets: recognizable programs, an existing subscriber base, and nutrition products with brand loyalty. But it also has a smaller team, less sales infrastructure, and a reputation that will take time to rebuild.
What’s clear is this: Beachbody is not going out of business. But the version of Beachbody that hundreds of thousands of coaches built their livelihoods around is gone. Those are two separate things worth understanding before you make any decisions based on the headlines.
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