The recent protest on Reddit, where over 8,000 subreddits went dark for 48 hours to express their discontent with the platform’s upcoming API changes, appears to have had a tangible effect. During the protest, Reddit experienced a “major outage” that affected its desktop and mobile websites, as well as mobile apps. CEO Steve Huffman’s subsequent media offensive attempting to dismiss the concerns of users and moderators, who dedicate their time to make Reddit a vibrant platform, further escalated tensions.
While it was initially unclear how much impact the protest had on Reddit’s traffic, new data from internet analytics firm Similarweb provides insights. According to Similarweb, there was a small but noticeable decrease in daily visits to Reddit during the protest. On the day before the blackout began, Reddit had logged over 57 million daily visits across desktop and mobile web clients. However, by the end of the first day of the protest, daily visits dropped to below 55 million. On June 13th, Similarweb recorded fewer than 53 million daily visits, representing a 6.6 percent drop compared to the website’s average daily volume over the past month.
Notably, Similarweb also observed a more significant decline in the amount of time users spent on the platform during the protest. Average session duration on Reddit decreased from eight minutes and 31 seconds to seven minutes and 17 seconds, marking the lowest figure in the past three years.
While a temporary drop in daily traffic may not significantly impact Reddit’s immediate prospects, the continued protest and potential policy changes that alter the platform’s relationship with moderators could lead to a gradual decline in daily active users. Such a decline would have implications for Reddit’s planned IPO and its long-term success.
