Research Summary. Founded in 2005, Reddit is one of the oldest social media platforms on the internet. Despite that, many people still access their favorite forums on the site to this day. With that in mind, here are some incredible facts about Reddit. According to our extensive research:
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As of 2022, Reddit has 430 million global monthly active users (MAUs).
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There are currently 2.8 million subreddits on Reddit, but only around 130,000 of those communities are active.
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Worldwide, Reddit currently has 52 million daily active users (DAUs)
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42% of Internet users aged 18-24 use Reddit.
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As of 2021, Reddit was valued at over $10 billion.
For further analysis, we broke down the data in the following ways:
General | Users | Content | Trends and Projections
General Reddit Statistics
While Reddit’s general mission has ebbed and flowed along with changing leadership; it’s clear that the platform still continues to be successful today. In researching the facts about this long-lasting platform, here are some general insights our research uncovered:
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As of 2021, Reddit has had 1.68 billion visits.
Reddit’s been around for a long time, and that equates to billions of visits. In fact, even though Reddit has 430 million MAUs, there are also many people who visit the platform without an account.
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Reddit is the 16th largest social media platform in the world by MAUs.
With 430 million MAUs, Reddit is similar in size to social media platforms like Pinterest (444 million) and Twitter (436 million). However, Reddit lags far behind Facebook, which has 2.91 MAUs.
Network Number of Users Facebook 2.91B YouTube 2.29B WhatsApp 2.00B Instagram 1.39B Facebook Messenger 1.30B WeChat 1.25B TikTok 1.00B Douyin 600M QQ 591M Sina Weibo 566M Telegram 550M Snapchat 538M Kuaishou 506M Pinterest 454M Twitter 436M Reddit 430M -
There are 48 million Americans who use Reddit monthly.
That’s only 11.2% of the total number of MAUs who currently use Reddit, which is a testament to how the platform has turned into a more global user base in recent years.
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As of 2020, 51.5% of all Reddit traffic came from the U.S.
Despite Reddit’s interest in global users, most of the people who visit the platform are still Americans. In fact, no other country among the top five even breaks over 10% of all traffic. For instance, 8.4% of Reddit traffic comes from the U.K., 8.3% comes from Canada, 4.5% comes from Australia, and 2.1% comes from Germany.
Country % of Total Traffic United States 51.5% United Kingdom 8.4% Canada 8.3% Australia 4.5% Germany 2.1% India 1.3% France 0.9% Netherlands 0.7% Brazil 0.7% Philippines 0.7% -
As of 2020, Reddit had annual revenue of $170 million.
That’s a 240% increase from 2017, when the platform’s revenue was only $50, meaning that revenue grew by an average of 50-60% per year in less than five years.
Reddit Statistics by Users
With a less broad reach compared to social media platforms like Facebook, Reddit has an interesting user base. Though there are many communities on the platform, here are some insights our research uncovered about Reddit’s 430 million MAUs:
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Reddit has roughly 130 million active communities.
These communities, otherwise known as subreddits, cover a wide range of topics. Despite there being an estimated 2.8 million subreddits, only around 5% of those are considered active.
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The average Reddit user spends ten minutes and 23 seconds on the site per visit.
That’s more than double the average time Facebook users spend per visit, which is only just under five minutes. However, Reddit’s average time spent per visit is just under TikTok’s, which is nearly 11 minutes.
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44% of Reddit’s MAUs access the site via mobile.
Compared to other social media platforms, Reddit still has one of the largest Desktop user bases. For instance, as of 2022, only 49% of Reddit users use the mobile app to access the site, compared to a whopping 98.3% of Facebook users.
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Up to 69% of all U.S. Reddit users are male.
While the U.S. population is fairly evenly split (49% male to 51% female), Reddit is dominated by male users. While estimates vary, Reddit’s user base is as little as 31% female.
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36% of all U.S. Reddit users are between the ages of 18-29.
In general, Reddit is more popular with younger demographics. For example, 58% of users are under 49, compared to only 13% of users being 50+.
Age % of U.S. Reddit Users 18-29 36% 30-49 22% 50-64 10% 65+ 3%
Reddit Statistics by Content
As a collection of forums, Reddit operates differently from other social sites like Facebook or Twitter. In fact, Reddit’s content is fairly unique when compared to other platforms. According to our research:
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50% of the content on top subreddits are links.
Reddit is a great platform for finding resources, and users often provide those resources to others on the subreddit. That’s because users will access specific subreddits to find content, websites, and other external sources similar to their interests.
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/r/announcements is the largest active subreddit on Reddit, with 117.14 million members.
Others among the top five largest subreddits include: /r/funny (37.51 million), /r/AskReddit (33.73 million members), /r/gaming (30.66 million), /r/aww (29.43 million).
Subreddit Number of Members (in millions) /r/announcements 117.14M /r/funny 37.51M /r/AskReddit 33.73M /r/gaming 30.66M /r/aww 29.43M /r/Music 28.10M /r/pics 28.08M /r/worldnews 26.99M /r/science 26.73M /r/todayilearned 26.18M -
There are roughly 11 million posts made on Reddit each month.
Reddit is an active platform with a massive number of new posts every single month. By the end of the year, there can be as many as 200 million posts made.
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As of 2022, the most upvoted Reddit post is “Times Square right now,” with over 451,000 upvotes.
This post was made in 2021 by u/SomeGuyInDeutschland. Meanwhile, the most downvoted post was in the /r/StarwarsBattlefront subreddit by EA’s official account and wracked up over -667,000 downvotes.
Reddit Trends and Projections
Reddit has been growing steadily for well over a decade now, but will this trend continue. To understand where Reddit is today and where the platform might be heading, we’ve gathered some interesting facts about important trends and projections:
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Between 2012-2019, Reddit’s MAUs increased by a whopping 834.8%.
Growing over 8X larger in less than ten years, Reddit has seen a boom in monthly active users. In 2012, the site only had 46 million MAUs, but today that number is over 430 million.
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Between 2014-2020, Reddit’s annual revenue grew 20X larger.
In 2014, Reddit had a meager (at least compared to other social media platforms) revenue of $8 million. However, as of 2020, that number grew to a significant $170 million.
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Between 2018 and 2020, the number of posts and comments on Reddit has nearly doubled.
In 2018, there were around 153 million posts made on Reddit, and by 2020 that number reached 303.4 million. Similarly, the number of comments made on these posts increased from 1.2 billion to at least 2 billion within the same time frame.
Reddit Statistics FAQ
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How many Reddit users are there?
Worldwide, there are around 430 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Reddit. Monthly active users make up the majority of Reddit users, but there are also 52 million daily active users (DAUs) who regularly access the site.
Overall, this is a significant increase from 2012, when there were only 46 million MAUs.
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Is Reddit getting more popular?
Yes, Reddit continues to gain popularity over time. For instance, between 2012-2019, Reddit’s MAUs increased by a whopping 834.8%, from 46 million to 430 million.
Further, between 2018 and 2020, the number of posts and comments on Reddit has nearly doubled. In 2018, there were around 153 million posts made on Reddit, and by 2020, that number reached 303.4 million. Similarly, the number of comments made on these posts increased from 1.2 billion to at least 2 billion within the same time frame.
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Is Reddit profitable?
Yes and no. While Reddit’s revenue has increased from $8 million in 2014 to $170 million in 2020 (20X larger), this increase in revenue isn’t necessarily indicative of profit. In fact, the platform has never recorded a real profit, being in favor of prioritizing growth instead.
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How does Reddit make money?
Reddit mainly makes money through two major methods. The first is through advertising, which is scattered throughout the site and works similarly as it would on YouTube or Facebook. And second, Reddit also makes money by offering premium accounts that remove the ads from the site for the users willing to pay for that perk.
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Who uses Reddit the most?
U.S. males under 49 years old make up the largest demographic of Reddit users. Here are some examples of why this demographic is so popular:
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Reddit is split between being 69% male and only 31% female, meaning that men dominate the site.
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Those 49 and under make up 58% of Reddit’s entire U.S. user base.
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U.S. users account for 51.5% of all Reddit traffic.
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Conclusion
As the 16th largest social media platform in the world, Reddit is an important internet icon. The site is home to over 130,000 active communities and 430 monthly active users.
Further, these numbers only continue to increase, meaning that Reddit’s lifespan is far from its end. Overall, considering the fact that Reddit’s MAUs increased by 834.8% in less than ten years, we can expect the platform to continue seeing healthy growth.
Sources:
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BackLinko. “Reddit User and Growth Stats (Updated Oct 2021).” Accessed on May 7th, 2022.
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Oberlo. “10 Reddit Statistics Every Marketer Should Know in 2021 [Infographic].” Accessed on May 7th, 2022.
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CNBC. “Reddit, fresh off a $10 billion valuation, plans a strong international push, CEO says.” Accessed on May 7th, 2022.
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Statista. “Most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2021, ranked by number of active users.” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
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Statista. “Worldwide visits to Reddit.com from September 2021 to February 2022.” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
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BusinessofApps. “Reddit Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022).” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
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Giraffe. “Essential Reddit Statistics That All Digital Marketers Should Know in 2022 [INFOGRAPHIC].” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
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Statista. “Distribution of Reddit app users in the United States as of March 2021, by age group.” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
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Alphr. “The Demographics Of Reddit: Who Uses The Site?” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
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Foundation Labs. “The State Of Reddit Marketing In 2021.” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
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OneUp Blog. “This is the most upvoted post ever on Reddit (2022 update).” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
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Soar. “10 most downvoted Reddit comments.” Accessed on May 9th, 2022.
Author
Jack Flynn is a writer for Zippia. In his professional career he’s written over 100 research papers, articles and blog posts. Some of his most popular published works include his writing about economic terms and research into job classifications. Jack received his BS from Hampshire College.
