Reddit recap 2021: what marketers need to know
Reddit has furnished an expectant world with its quick take on 2021’s conversations and moments that captivated its community of social newshounds, from the Wall Street Bets phenomenon to the tale of a lobster diver who survived being eaten by a whale. We dug out everything a marketer needs to know from the report.
Reddit has been seeking to convince brands that it is their natural home on the internet
The main takeaway is a mounting sense of activism among Redditors keen to apply their online strength in numbers to promote a fairer world.
Redditors scale Wall Street
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While the rest of the world concerned itself with the pandemic, Reddit users were busy challenging the established financial order, with a post on r/wallstreetbets exploding to become the most upvoted of the year.
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The colorful and profane subreddit broke out into the mainstream this year with an aggressive collective trading strategy that saw GameStop shares briefly soar into the stratosphere as Redditors scrambled to purchase stock in an effort to incur losses on short-sellers betting that the price would fall.
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This clamor for financial security is reflected in Reddit’s top five most-viewed topics, with cryptocurrency posts gaining traction as the principal theme of 2021.
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Courting a reputation as a home for renegade opinions, Reddit hosts over 500 cryptocurrency communities, dominated by the top five; r/dogecoin, r/superstonk, r/cryptocurrency, r/amcstock and r/bitcoin.
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One of the beneficiaries of a mania for virtual currencies was r/superstonk, whose community grew 917k% year-on-year courtesy of Elon Musk’s infamous GameStop tweet.
Gaming holds sway
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When not trading stocks and shares Redditors are busy trading their thoughts on the latest video games, with new releases driving excitement – notably the r/nopixel Grand Theft Auto Replay service, whose views increased 267% year-on-year.
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Greater time spent at home has seen the gaming sector enter a new golden age, with communities centered on Final Fantasy, League of Legends and Genshin Impact all flourishing during the lockdown.
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Other titles pushing big numbers Reddit’s way include Pokemon Unite, with an 8.6k% increase in subscribers, and Delta Rune and BioMutant, which saw their subreddits explode by 328k% and 9.5k% respectively.
Other popular themes
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Away from gaming and high finance, sport continues to command attention, with basketball, football, wrestling and mixed martial arts communities proving the most popular.
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More surprisingly, wedding-related communities have witnessed a resurgence as partners mull tying the knot now that social distancing restrictions are being relaxed.
Reddit is the real winner
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Relishing its position as a conduit for change-makers, Reddit has focused on its ability to connect people’s opinions, experiences and stories with others – a successful strategy that has seen it grow to host over 100,000 active communities worldwide.
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Throughout the year Redditors penned a mountain of 366m posts – a healthy 19% year-on-year increase.
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At the time of compilation in November, Reddit had amassed 2.3m comments in total (up 12%), which generated 46m upvotes (a 1% increase) led by ‘Times Square right now’ (431k).
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Reddit has been busy expanding in non-English regions, including a new office in Germany, as it seeks to convince brands that it is their natural home on the internet.
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