New York City is the most competitive rideshare market in the world — and the balance of power may be shifting.
According to new data from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), Lyft’s market share jumped to 30.6% in May 2026 — up from 26.75% in April and 27.66% in March. That’s nearly a 4 percentage point gain in just two months, representing hundreds of thousands of additional trips per day.
At the same time, Uber’s share slipped from 73.25% in April to 69.4% in May — the lowest level we’ve seen in recent months. Uber still dominates, but the gap is narrowing.
And behind the headline numbers, two new challengers are quietly entering the arena.
In raw terms, the swing is significant. Lyft averaged 218,417 trips per day in May 2026 — up 31,180 from March. Uber, meanwhile, dropped from 514,715 daily trips in March to 495,317 in May, shedding nearly 20,000 trips per day in just two months.
Total passenger fares tell the same story. Lyft collected $227.7 million in passenger fares in May — up from $200.8 million in March, a gain of $26.9 million. Uber’s fare revenue also grew over the same period, from $560.4M to $567.6M, but the proportional gains were far more modest.
Obi’s exclusive data tracked average ride prices in New York City across both platforms during the same March–May period. Uber’s average fare per ride was $47.18 in March, $46.85 in April and $49.15 in May. Lyft tracked closely at $45.50, $46.51 and $46.09 over the same months. The two providers were broadly comparable in March and April — with Lyft marginally cheaper — before the gap widened slightly in May as Uber fares climbed while Lyft’s held relatively flat.
The takeaway isn’t that Lyft is dramatically cheaper across the board. It’s that on comparable routes at comparable times, the difference is real but modest — and on higher-demand nights, Obi’s surge pricing data consistently shows Lyft surging less aggressively than Uber, where the savings can be more significant.
While Uber and Lyft dominate the TLC data, two newer platforms are quietly building a foothold in New York — and neither shows up fully in official statistics yet.
Empower has steadily grown in popularity in the Obi app to challenge the existing NYC incumbents. It is consistently booked by users for 30+% of NYC rides within the Obi app. Our full report on Empower can be accessed here.
Because it is not officially licensed by the TLC, Empower data is not reported publicly but independent estimates put Empower’s NYC volume at around 100,000 rides per month — a meaningful number for a platform competing without significant marketing budgets.
The latest entrant is Throo, which officially launched in New York City on June 29, 2026. Powered by Singapore-based mobility company TADA — which has completed more than 150 million rides across Asia since 2018 — Throo is TLC-licensed and operating across all five boroughs.
Throo’s model is built around zero driver commission. Rather than taking a percentage of every fare, Throo charges a fixed fee per ride. The company says this allows drivers to keep significantly more of their earnings and enables more predictable fares for riders, with “controlled surge pricing” that operates within pre-defined limits rather than the uncapped surges riders experience on Uber and Lyft.
Because Throo only launched at the end of June, it won’t appear in TLC data for several months.
New York is no longer a two-horse race. Lyft is gaining ground on Uber in the official TLC data. Empower is growing in the gaps the data doesn’t capture. And Throo has just entered with a model that could appeal strongly to both the driver community and cost-conscious riders.
The next TLC data release covering June and July will be the real test — if Lyft’s gains hold through the summer, and new entrants start registering meaningful volume, the NYC rideshare landscape will look very different by the end of 2026.
We’ll be watching closely. And so should you.
Data sources: NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) — market share, daily trips and total passenger fares, March–May 2026. Obi — average fare per ride tracked in-app, New York City, March–May 2026. TLC data typically lags approximately 6-8 weeks. Empower trip volume based on independent estimates. Throo launch details via company announcement, July 2026.
Compare Uber, Lyft, Empower, Curb and more in real time on the Obi app – rideobi.com
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