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Reddit Reveals the Top Posts, AMA Sessions, Live-Streams and More in 2021


Reddit has revealed its top-performing posts, live-streams and AMA sessions of 2021, while it’s also shared new data on the overall growth in engagement across the app, as it continues to expand on its reach potential, and build out its ad offering.

First off, on overall growth – as of right now, Reddit is serving some 52 million daily active users, who are active in over 100k subreddit communities. Those communities can be very niche, and with its highly engaged user base, Reddit can be a powerful connector to some of the most passionate and interested people from across the web.

Indeed, in terms of direct engagement, Reddit reports that for the full year:

  • Total posts were up 19% to 366 million
  • Total comments were up 12% to 2.3 billion
  • Total upvotes were up 1% to 46 billion

Sometimes Reddit’s data points in this respect are a little iffy, with the platform choosing specific times and measures to highlight, as opposed to a broader, more comparative perspective.

For example, in its 2019 performance review, Reddit reported that it was serving 430 million monthly active users, then in its 2020 review, it changed its focus, reporting 52 million daily actives. Those two figures are not comparable, which makes it difficult to get a clear perspective as to if and how platform usage is actually growing.

The data here does provide a more direct, year-on-year comparison for engagement, which is a little more clear. And while the growth stats are not huge, Reddit’s engagement numbers have also been impacted by its subreddit cull in the middle of last year, which eventually lead to thousands of communities being erased from the platform.

With this in mind, Reddit’s growth is fairly solid, and as noted, the platform can provide valuable reach to highly engaged, focused communities, which could be very valuable for the right brand and campaign/s.

In terms of content, the Reddit posts that gained the most traction throughout 2021 were, unsurprisingly, from the now infamous r/wallstreetbets, which has been waging a war against stock market manipulation.

As you’ve likely read, a campaign organized via r/wallstreetbets saw investors buying up shares in Game Stop as part of an effort to punish hedge funds that had been seeking to short the stock. That push is still ongoing, and it’s drawn huge attention, both from Redditors and those outside the app, which is what’s seen the subreddit gain major attention and interest, even from financial regulators and authorities, and pushed these posts to the top of the engagement list.

In terms of Reddit’s ever-popular AMA sessions, this conversation with a lobster diver who survived being swallowed by a whale was the most upvoted AMA of the year:

A discussion with Bill Gates was the next most-popular AMA, where Gates was faced with many interesting questions.

Bill Gates AMA

Reddit’s also been seeking to make a bigger push on video, as it looks to move in line with broader industry trends, and as part of this, it’s been giving more presence to its RPAN live-streams, which have proven to be an engaging fixture for many users.

The most popular RPAN broadcasts of the year were a live view of a beehive in action, and a duck hatching eggs.

RPAN bees live-stream

There’s definitely something soothing about the beehive ones, worth a look if you have some time free, and you want to just let your mind run on auto.

In terms of general topics, Reddit says that cryptocurrency, gaming, sports, weddings and health and fitness were the top five most-viewed topics of the year.

That’s an interesting mix, which once again underlines the diversity of content on the platform, and could also highlight new opportunities for brands and marketers that may be looking to tap into these niche elements and interests.

On that front, as noted, Reddit has continued to expand its business operations, opening new offices in Canada, Australia, and Germany, while it’s aforementioned controversial content cull has also played a part in making the app a more brand-friendly space, even if it does appear to have had an impact on overall usage.

Which is really the main question not covered in Reddit’s stats. On the Reddit press page right now, it says that Reddit has 52 million daily active users, and it notes there that this figure was last updated in January 2021.

That could mean that we’ll see an update next month, which would be a more relevant measure of overall growth, through the noted engagement stats and topics could help provide more perspective on specific elements which may help you decide if the platform could be right for your outreach program.

You can check out Reddit’s full year in review here.



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