Reddit Users Are Growing Fast: How Does It Compare To Facebook And Twitter?

Reddit says its monthly active users grew by 30% this year to 430 million, still a fraction of what Facebook Inc. FB claims, but possibly increasing its lead over rival Twitter Inc. TWTR.

In a "2019 Year in Review" blog post, Reddit took stock of a year that so far this year has seen 199 million posts in its forums and subforums, and 1.7 billion comments, a number that has grown 37% since last year.

Reddit Users By The Numbers

Reddit’s 430 million monthly active users is still way below Facebook, which claimed 2.45 billion monthly active users at the end of October, and 1.62 billion daily active users, both up nearly 10% year-over-year.

Comparing Reddit and Twitter on the measurement of monthly active users is no longer possible because Twitter stopped reporting that figure after coming in at 330 million in the first quarter of 2019. Now, the company reports “monetizable daily active users,” which is touted as a more accurate reading of who actually sees ads on Twitter every day – a figure Twitter reported at 145 million in the third quarter of this year.

Among the most popular communities on Reddit were those having to do with weddings, including r/bridezillas, which grew by more than 850%, and fast food, which was boosted by the battle over spicy chicken sandwiches and saw r/popeyes grow by nearly 400%. Beauty-related communities are popular on Reddit, and the most popular in the category was r/skincareaddiction, which passed 1 million subscribers in 2019.

Good News For News

Subscribers in Reddit's top 50 news communities increased by 17% year-over-year.

China, including the Hong Kong protests, was the most discussed "news topic" on Reddit this year, followed by Russia, police and law enforcement, health care and climate change.

The most discussed events in 2019 on Reddit were:

• The Mueller hearings
• The announcement of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump
• Brexit
• Events relate to the ongoing impeachment inquiry
• Events related to Jeffrey Epstein

Top Brands

Reddit said the top two restaurant brands in terms of discussion on the platform were Starbucks Corporation SBUX and Yum! Brands, Inc.'s YUM Taco Bell.

The top brands in fitness and wellness were Fitbit Inc FIT and Nike Inc NKE, while the top TV discussion communities were r/freefolk, r/gameofthrones and r/thebachelor.

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