2019 brought more than 199 million posts to Reddit, ranging from the phenomena of bread stapled to trees to the death of internet icon Grumpy Cat. But as media giants like Facebook see slowed growth, the Front Page of the Internet saw a surprising 30% jump in monthly active users compared to 2018.
The data, compiled through October 2019, highlights growth in the online community, including a 37% increase in monthly comments and a 53% jump in monthly views. The platform saw 1.7 billion comments and 32 billion upvotes this year.
Ironically, the post with the most upvotes is one that criticizes Reddit. The post, which includes the Tank Man picture at Tiananmen Square, raises concern over potential censorship after the platform received a $150 investment from Tencent, a platform based in China.
“Given that reddit [sic] just took a $150 million investment from a Chinese censorship powerhouse, I thought it would be nice to post this picture of ‘Tank Man’ at Tienanmen Square before our new glorious overlords decide we cannot post it anymore,” the post, which has more than 228,000 upvotes, reads. Reddit kept a sense of humor, sharing the most upvoted post with a note that it’s “presented below uncensored by us overlords.”
The second most upvoted post with 225,000 upvotes is in the r/gaming thread, an illustration about sharing a favorite game with a loved one. That’s followed by an r/askreddit post on “people who haven’t pooped in 2019 yet” and praise for whoever created the tradition of not seeing the bride’s dress and saved countless grooms from dress shopping trips. The fifth most popular post is a thank you note from an 86-year-old who bought a VCR on eBay and could then watch old home videos.
While those were the posts with the most upvotes, Reddit also noted several trends from the year, including stapling bread on trees, honoring the late Grumpy Cat, and the #trashtag challenge. Discussion on environmental issues and climate change, and politics were also big topics on the platform. China was the most discussed news topic on the platform, while articles on the Hong Kong protest were among the most shared.
Reddit also identified several other trends in the report, including a jump in followers for beauty-related communities, a spike in conversations on fast food and recipe sharing, an 87% jump in subscribers for parenting communities, the most discussed entertainment and sports, and growing conversation in gaming communities.
