Reddit experienced a widespread outage Tuesday afternoon, with more than 26,000 users reporting issues accessing the platform, according to Downdetector. The tracking site, which compiles reports from multiple sources, indicated that the outage peaked around 2:34 p.m. ET. The full extent of the disruption remains unclear.
At the time of writing, Reddit has not publicly commented on the outage.
Downdetector is an independent service that tracks outages and performance issues for websites and online platforms, such as Reddit. It compiles real-time reports from users to monitor disruptions, often visualizing spikes during widespread outages. This makes it a common reference point for users looking to confirm if an issue is widespread or isolated.
How Many Reddit Users Are There?
Reddit, a sprawling network of forums known as “subreddits,” has grown into one of the most influential platforms for online discussions since its launch in 2005.
In terms of daily active users, Reddit counts about 48.2 million United States-based users, and around 1.1 billion monthly unique visitors as of January 2025.
It began as a centralized message board organized by interest and has since grown into a global content-sharing ecosystem with over 100,000 active subreddits.
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Functioning as a hybrid between a social network and a message board, Reddit allows users to post content, share opinions, and vote on others’ contributions. The site became a public company in March 2024 and now competes for user attention with more traditional social media giants.
Typical content on Reddit varies widely by subreddit but often includes memes, personal stories, expert answers, and deep-dive discussions. Popular posts might feature a photo with a humorous caption, an anonymous confession, or a detailed technical answer to a complex question.
Recent Changes to Reddit
In June 2025, Reddit introduced a privacy feature allowing users to hide content from their public profiles. The new “Content and Activity” setting enables users to control whether their posts and comments appear on their profile pages.
By default, activity is still public, but users can now choose to display or hide posts on a per-community basis. This update was designed to provide more privacy while maintaining traceability within subreddits, where moderators still retain limited visibility of a user’s history for moderation purposes.
Update 6/3/25, 3:26 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
