Broken bones, soft-tissue damage and lacerations were the most common injuries sustained, Accident Compensation Corporation figures released to the Otago Daily Times show.
Nationally, sporting injuries cost New Zealand taxpayers $218 million last year.
Registered claims have been rising for the past five years, with national figures jumping from 250,000 claims in 2004 to 430,000 in 2009.
Rugby played a starring role in the region's top 10 sports list, with 3500 players claiming for injuries and costing $1.7 million to be patched up.
Compared with the rest of the nation, proximity to skifields meant snow-sports injuries also dominated ACC payouts in Otago.
A spike in claims occurred during the peak of the snow season between July and September.
Skiing accounted for 3400 injuries, costing $2 million, while the 3300 people injured while snowboarding cost the taxpayer $1.8 million.
Other sports to make the top-10 list in Otago were football, cycling, netball, jogging, fitness training, basketball and hockey.
Nationally, the injury list was also ruled by rugby union, while rugby league and touch replaced both snow sports.
The nation's adventurous spirit was highlighted by the number of injuries sustained while taking part in daring activities.
Hang-gliding was implicated in 41 injuries, parachuting in 109, and bungy-jumping in 52.
Those who preferred to play bowls were not exempt from injury, with 1100 people hurting themselves while participating last year.
ACC injury prevention consultant Andy Redfearn could not isolate a single reason for the increase, but said one factor might be the improved systems ACC used to track data and report injuries.
Before embarking on a new fitness regime or beginning training for a seasonal sport, Mr Redfearn encouraged people to "ease yourself into things".
While it was "easy to run out there and pound the pavement", it was important to find a sport which suited, and to gradually build up fitness.
Alexandra Physiotherapy Ltd and Fitness Centre physiotherapist Pip Nicolson agreed, and advised people to work on strengthening their core muscles as part of a training regime.
The most common sports injuries she saw were sprained knee ligaments from rugby and skiing.
Other common skiing and snowboarding injuries were to wrists, but those were more often seen in Queenstown and Wanaka, she said.
