38
Growth of the Fediverse (20260329)
(piefed.zip)
Takeaways:
- All-Time MAU Peak (in last 7 Days): Peertube
- Funkwhale 2.0 doesn't appear to be having a significant impact boosting their MAU
- Loops continues to decline (4.8k MAU), now less than 2x their pre-January boost numbers (2.6k MAU)
- Piefed may be stabilizing at ~2.5x (5.3k MAU) their pre-January boost numbers (2.1k MAU)
- Middling negative week for the threadiverse
- Middling positive week overall for the Fediverse (bolstered by Mastodon and Peertube)
Monthly Active Users^[1]^:
| Software | Current | Yesterday[1D] | Last Week[7D] | Last Month[30D] | 3 Months Ago[90D] | 6 Months Ago[180D] | 1 Year Ago[365D] | All-Time Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piefed | 5285 | 5284 | 5796 | 5931 | 1937 | 1791 | 352 | 6179 |
| Lemmy | 36803 | 36817 | 37098 | 39104 | 34989 | 37490 | 54994 | 72618 |
| Mbin | 740 | 740 | 756 | 823 | 704 | 819 | 879 | 3967 |
| Threadiverse | 42828 | 42841 | 43650 | 45858 | 37630 | 40100 | 56225 | |
| Mastodon | 761307 | 723429 | 757827 | 791555 | 684378 | 697388 | 875239 | 2737163 |
| Pixelfed | 106671 | 106552 | 106764 | 114921 | 69962 | 114027 | 139474 | 338813 |
| Peertube | 45477 | 45513 | 43799 | 41296 | 27589 | 24608 | 35279 | 45513 |
| Loops | 4769 | 4854 | 5701 | 8658 | 2206 | 26575 | 0 | 29821 |
| Bookwyrm | 1706 | 1695 | 1733 | 1619 | 2908 | 2919 | 8747 | 9429 |
| Friendica | 2502 | 2509 | 2469 | 2660 | 1296 | 1691 | 3454 | 4734 |
| Forgejo | 131 | 133 | 115 | 122 | 539 | 390 | 489 | 1168 |
| Funkwhale | 290 | 290 | 302 | 270 | 191 | 238 | 429 | 1114 |
| Flohmarkt | 26 | 23 | 20 | 24 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| Fediverse | 965707 | 927839 | 962380 | 1006983 | 826717 | 907936 | 1119336 |
Difference^[1]^:
| Software | -1 Day[1D] | -1 Week[7D] | -1 Month[30D] | -3 Months[90D] | -6 Months[180D] | -1 Year[365D] | -All-Time Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piefed | 1 | -511 | -646 | 3348 | 3494 | 4933 | -894 |
| Lemmy | -14 | -295 | -2301 | 1814 | -687 | -18191 | -35815 |
| Mbin | 0 | -16 | -83 | 36 | -79 | -139 | -3227 |
| Threadiverse | -13 | -822 | -3030 | 5198 | 2728 | -13397 | |
| Mastodon | 37878 | 3480 | -30248 | 76929 | 63919 | -113932 | -1975856 |
| Pixelfed | 119 | -93 | -8250 | 36709 | -7356 | -32803 | -232142 |
| Peertube | -36 | 1678 | 4181 | 17888 | 20869 | 10198 | -36 |
| Loops | -85 | -932 | -3889 | 2563 | -21806 | 0 | -25052 |
| Bookwyrm | 11 | -27 | 87 | -1202 | -1213 | -7041 | -7723 |
| Friendica | -7 | 33 | -158 | 1206 | 811 | -952 | -2232 |
| Forgejo | -2 | 16 | 9 | -408 | -259 | -358 | -1037 |
| Funkwhale | 0 | -12 | 20 | 99 | 52 | -139 | -824 |
| Flohmarkt | 3 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | -14 |
| Fediverse | 37868 | 3327 | -41276 | 138990 | 57771 | -153629 |
Change (%)^[1]^:
| Software | -1 Day[1D] | -1 Week[7D] | -1 Month[30D] | -3 Months[90D] | -6 Months[180D] | -1 Year[365D] | -All-Time Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piefed | 0.0% | -8.8% | -10.9% | 172.8% | 195.1% | 1401.4% | -14.5% |
| Lemmy | -0.0% | -0.8% | -5.9% | 5.2% | -1.8% | -33.1% | -49.3% |
| Mbin | 0.0% | -2.1% | -10.1% | 5.1% | -9.6% | -15.8% | -81.3% |
| Threadiverse | -0.0% | -1.9% | -6.6% | 13.8% | 6.8% | -23.8% | |
| Mastodon | 5.2% | 0.5% | -3.8% | 11.2% | 9.2% | -13.0% | -72.2% |
| Pixelfed | 0.1% | -0.1% | -7.2% | 52.5% | -6.5% | -23.5% | -68.5% |
| Peertube | -0.1% | 3.8% | 10.1% | 64.8% | 84.8% | 28.9% | -0.1% |
| Loops | -1.8% | -16.3% | -44.9% | 116.2% | -82.1% | 0.0% | -84.0% |
| Bookwyrm | 0.6% | -1.6% | 5.4% | -41.3% | -41.6% | -80.5% | -81.9% |
| Friendica | -0.3% | 1.3% | -5.9% | 93.1% | 48.0% | -27.6% | -47.1% |
| Forgejo | -1.5% | 13.9% | 7.4% | -75.7% | -66.4% | -73.2% | -88.8% |
| Funkwhale | 0.0% | -4.0% | 7.4% | 51.8% | 21.8% | -32.4% | -74.0% |
| Flohmarkt | 13.0% | 30.0% | 8.3% | 44.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% | -35.0% |
| Fediverse | 4.1% | 0.3% | -4.1% | 16.8% | 6.4% | -13.7% |
Tracker Comparison^[1,2]^:
| Software | Fediverse-Observer^[1]^ | FediDB ^[2]^ |
|---|---|---|
| Piefed | 5285 | 5591 |
| Lemmy | 36803 | 47763 |
| Mbin | 740 | 1349 |
| Threadiverse | 42828 | 54703 |
| Mastodon | 761307 | 1002327 |
| Pixelfed | 106671 | 111005 |
| Peertube | 45477 | 41263 |
| Loops | 4769 | 4844 |
| Bookwyrm | 1706 | 3922 |
| Friendica | 2502 | 3244 |
| Forgejo | 131 | 1414 |
| Funkwhale | 290 | 757 |
| Fediverse | 965707 | 1223479 |
- Source: [1] Fediverse-Observer, [2] FediDB
Notes:
- Threadiverse is Piefed, Lemmy, and Mbin. Fediverse only accounts for listed software [12], not the other [117] software tracked by Fediverse-Observer.
- Fediverse-Observer provides daily MAU back to 20221130. FediDB only provides a current snapshot (snapshot within the last 15 minutes, no time series data) and only tracks some of the software [67].
- FediDB seems to use unclear math to get there counts and overestimate the MAU on most software (see previous post, if interested in learning more).
Edit:
- In previous posts I said there was a 3 week gap in the Loops data about a year ago. Looks like I was confus~~ed~~ing data from a following variable as continuation of the previous Loops data. Apologizes for any confusion. Loops data starts 20250522.
- Added a comment about potential Piefed stabilization.
Having looked at these numbers regularly I would say there is a natural ebb and flow to the services.
Certainly some of the services are having significant struggles (ex. Bookwym), but overall the fediverse seems to be getting stronger.
Where I get that from is that most of the services had huge initial spikes when they were announced. Unfortunately, they do not appear to have had feature parity with proprietary options and quickly lost their huge spikes. After their massive drops after release, they appear to be working on improving their service and (generally) have steadily been gaining users back.
TLDR: if you ignore the initial release growth spike and subsequent drops, most of the services have been improving their features and growing back their userbase.
Edit: To your mastodon point, its down year-over-year but has gained ~60k MAU in the last 6 months.