Discussion platform Reddit has released its 2021 Recap, highlighting some of the key figures from the year and showing how it continues to be a significant part of the wider Internet Experience.
The platform says it is home to more than 100,000 communities around the world, with its members (known as Redditors) creating 366 million posts from January 1 to November 9 this year, representing a 19% increase on last year. As at November 9th, 2021, there have been a total of 2.3 billion comments and 46 billion votes on the platform since its launch in 2005.
Unsurprisingly, gaming is a popular discussion topic on Reddit, and features prominently in the 2021 Recap. According to the official announcement from Reddit:
“Gaming
Reddit has always been a gathering place for gamers and gaming fans. With long-anticipated releases, sequel games, and fan favorites that finally got console support, this year redditors relished in and celebrated some of the biggest moments of 2021.
By the numbers:
- The top-five most viewed communities in 2021 were r/genshinimpact, r/leagueoflegends, r/gaming, r/rpclipsgta, and r/ffxiv;
- r/nopixel was one of the most standout GTA RP (Grand Theft Auto Roleplay) services, with 267% increase in views YoY; and
- New gaming releases pushed the growth in a number of communities – r/pokemonunite increased 8.6K% in subscribers YoY, while both r/deltarune and r/biomutant showed big spikes in engagement – with a 328K% increase and 9.5K% increase in subscribers, respectively, from last year.
Most upvoted posts in gaming communities:
- r/gaming: boy gamer (220K upvotes)
- r/gaming: EA will no longer have exclusive rights of the Star Wars games (173K upvotes)
- r/leagueoflegends: Worlds 2021 Prediction Tournament (83.2K upvotes)
- r/leagueoflegends: AOC featuring her clutch Baron snipe on IG (48.6K upvotes)
- r/ffxiv: Times change (20.2K upvotes)“
Australia is well represented on the platform too – according to Reddit, we have the fourth largest userbase on the site after the US, Canada and UK, and the number of Australian redditors continues to grow at 40% year on year.
Reddit have also said Australian-based redditors contribute 158 million posts, comments and votes on the site each month, and they spend an average of 31 minutes per day on the Reddit app.
Interestingly, the report also notes there’s not a lot of crossover between Australian Reddit and other social media platforms – 40% of Australian redditors are not on Twitter, 70% are not on TikTok, 51% are not on Snapchat; 20% of them aren’t on Facebook either and 23% aren’t using Instagram.
Per Reddit:
“Popular communities:
- r/australia (701K members)
- r/ausfinance (210K members)
- r/asx_bets (72.7K members)
- r/afl (131K members)
- r/nrl (66K members)
Fastest growing communities in 2021:
- r/askanaustralian (21.8K members)
- r/australianteachers (6K members)
- r/ausproperty (7.8K members)
For Australian redditors, while finance was still a hot topic — r/ausstocks increased 94% in views YoY and r/fiaustralia increased 83% — COVID-19 related restrictions drove Aussies to r/coronavirusdownunder, which had a 175% increase in views from last year. In this community, redditors discussed intense, albeit important, topics including the recent protests and various lockdown restrictions. But, amidst all of the chaos and frustration that came with the implications of coronavirus, Aussie redditors still found a way to have a laugh (even if it was unironic).
Whether Australians were in search of ways to track and manage stocks or make memes apologising to one another, they did it together.“
