It has been difficult to quantify how many new riders we’ve had here as normal events haven’t been happening and people haven’t been travelling, but I’ve still met more new riders in the last two years than the 5 or 6 years before.
Clearly stock has limited what unicycles people could buy, but I wonder whether @rogeratunicycledotcom could provide any kind of stats on sales percentages compared to normal?
It’s hard to tell whether there is more unicyclists than before the pandemic. However, I know a few things that applies to France:
So I think that there are some new riders - or, at least, people who have tried unicycling over the past 18 months -, but some older riders may have stop riding as often as they used to. We’ll keep an eye on it at the French Unicycle Society 
Before Covid I have virtually seen zero unicyclists in town since I moved here 10 years ago. I first rode the uni in the beginning of March 2020, but I started pandemic-independent, just to start a new hobby. I had it in my mind for a year before. After promoting this sport for some weeks by clinging to lamp posts and later muniing in woods I spotted two more unicycles this year! Both were pushed but not ridden, however. So afaik during pandemic the numbers in Koblenz increased from 0 to 1 at least, maybe even to 3. Try to beat that in percentage 
I want to see someone else riding that thing and I will call it a boom, instantly. The conditions are not easy here: no clubs and active scene in town, quite hilly terrain, not a really big city… On the other hand we have a very active mtb scene here, I am going to try recruiting people from there. Also a large number of mtb trails here 
I bought my first unicycle in late februrary 2020, when COVID didn’t seem like a problem here in Perth, Western Australia. I was inspired after watching Ed Pratt videos for a few months.
I wouldn’t say I started riding due to COVID, but COVID hitting directly after i made my purchase, gave me a lot of time to devote to learning. I may not have actually followed through with learning if COVID hadn’t forced me to work from home, making me see learning the unicycle as an outlet when i finished work. Unicycling was a fun and diverting excercise after work.
So yeah, COVID didn’t cause me to purchase a unicycle, but it did give me the time and motivation to learn.
Covid was likely the reason my daughter got into unicycling. She had found an old unicycle in our garage and she had little else to do since the schools and all activities were shut down.
For real? Haven’t witnessed a big boom around here, but it could just be me. 
Yeah there’s definitely been an big increase of new riders here in the UK over the last two years.
Some of that has been down to the dedication of riders like @Eddbmxdude with STFU London, but the pandemic definitely helped, and the scene has been in a decade of decline so it’s about time!
I’d like to know the recipe to have the same in France!
In italy it had exploded too. I never met other unicyclist till 2019, than we now are about 10-12 people at max 50km from each other (speaking about my own group, if you consider a 100km radius I can meet people from another uni group)
Talking about new riders in France, there is an extra one… my italian neighbor who asked me if he could try after seeing me several times going on a ride. And he’s now become a riding companion.
It’s true that there’s been a little bit more people on the french forum, but it could also be because it’s been updated to a more recent software (like here), so it’s more pleasant to use. And sometimes it takes only one or two very active posters to boost the energy of a forum - we had one like that, posting so much that you would wonder when he had time to ride!
Good question! For me the pandemic boredom was the reason I started unicycling, but I haven’t yet spotted any other unicyclist “in the wild”. So no signs of a boom in my town at least…
There’s perhaps a tiny boom in my Boston-area neighborhood. I started at the height of the pandemic, my partner joined me for emotional support, then I found another local here on the forum who also started during the pandemic. I posted to the Boston Muni facebook group to see if there’s a larger community local to me, but no luck so far; seems like many has moved away from Boston. So I still only know two locals.
I can’t speak for others but I bought a cheap 20" a few years back and ended up selling it to a friend after 3 hours of practice. I wanted to get exercise during covid as I usually bike to work each morning and I wasn’t able to as we had to stay within 5km of my home in March 2020. I bought the old uni back from him and kept at it every day. I ended up finding a used 24" as my in-between uni and sold the 20".
Fast forward to today I have sold my bike and have a 29" and a fat 27.5" uni, both Isis hub and it’s my main way to get around town now. All of the stores near me have no issues with me bringing in the uni.
I’m most likely be building myself a 24" or 20" later this year for a smaller travel uni but it’s a really fun sport to get into and has become a big part of my exercise routine.
Before the pandemic, I had been riding for a decade and had only met two or three other unicyclists. This year, I met multiple unicyclists in one month, started a club, and now enjoy a social circle of about a dozen unicyclists. Certainly anecdotal, but I’ve met 5x more unicyclists this year than I did in my previous 10 years.
I have never met a unicyclist in my area, neither before or after the pandemic (I have had mine since august 2018). However, many people notice me when I cycle around the surrounding areas, especially teenagers and children. Who knows what the future will bring. Maybe I have helped to build interest in the long run and that they will start pushing to get a unicycle for Christmas or birthday.
Not near me (Berlin), but I’ve heard of a few new riders during covid in other parts of Germany. Here, the essentially 1 year break in group rides and gym trainings hasn’t exactly helped to keep people going, I hope that will change again.
I reckon the unicycling boom in covid times only applies to people who can’t work and to kids who can’t go to school? I have just been working from home and certainly not had more time on my hands to learn different things.
Loads of other activities went out the window, eg. Organised Volleyball, aerial tissue and pole… but unicycling is still an option. I’ve been really busy with work though and probably riding less than if I was working in the office because I would always ride to the train station to go to work. Anyway, now we are having longer days, sun still out after work (barely right now, but getting longer every day), so I should be able to do evening rides with daylight soon!
Working or otherwise I think it was primarily the inability to fill free time with normal social activities.
An hour or two to play with most evenings is plenty of time to learn.
mhm you live in the south of Australia? I once was in Queensland for 4 months and dusk was around the same time every night. On this side of the globe, the days are now getting shorter, so when everybody’s gone to bed (my wife turns in early with the baby), at 9PM I now only have maybe 30 mins where I can do some unicycling. Before I would have 1.5 hours to ride, which is good for a 12kms ride.
Like you say, with the working from home, there is no riding to the office anymore.
This week my daughter got new roller blades that roll very smoothly and I got out with her every evening to practice. That doesn’t leave much time for unicycling.