Thousands and thousands view Reddit content material day by day. The problem for Reddit? A lot of them are seeing it on different platforms.
On TikTok, robo-voices narrate scary, story posts originating on Reddit’s boards. On YouTube, creators movie their reactions to studying Reddit “Am I The Asshole?” stories. Even on Instagram and X, Reddit posts are incessantly screenshotted and reposted. The off-platform content material is nice for Reddit’s visibility, although capturing these uncovered customers could show tougher.
“It turns into an consciousness driver for Reddit,” says Jeremy Goldman, a senior director of briefings at eMarketer who analyzes social media firms. “Lots of people who see that stuff received’t essentially go on Reddit, however it makes it somewhat bit extra mainstream.”
Reddit content material is flooding TikTok, YouTube, and X
Within the final yr, Reddit’s site visitors has skyrocketed. Between Q2 of 2023 and 2024, Reddit added just below 10 million logged-in daily users, leaping from 32.1 to 42 million. The corporate’s inventory worth has mirrored this: After going public in March, the inventory has usually coasted above their opening worth of $47 with some minor dips, reaching a height of $78.08 in July. However with this development comes content material leakage—which Reddit has seen in boatloads. (Reddit declined to remark for this story.)
TikTok is a main level of Reddit republishing. One in style style finds tales initially posted to Reddit learn over a video of somebody enjoying a online game, usually Minecraft. The clips seize the fragmented consideration spans of TikTok customers: Whereas studying a full-length Reddit story could show tiresome, a narration coupled with some gameplay is definitely consumable. These movies now crop up day by day, amassing millions and millions of views.
In the meantime, YouTube creators are additionally changing Reddit tales into video type. On Reddit’s “Am I The Asshole?” discussion board, customers recite lengthy tales to ask fellow Redditors whether or not they had been within the unsuitable. The tales usually show controversial—and YouTubers have exploited that controversy by reacting to them reside on digicam. Now, creators like Charlotte Dobre and Two Hot Takes keep their multi-million followers via Reddit response clips, whereas the long-popular channel Smosh has even dipped into the style.
(Whereas a pivot to video and audio on Reddit’s behalf might try and seize this misplaced site visitors, eMarketer’s Goldman finds the chance unlikely. “Each platform has a model and a sure mechanic that feels native to it,” he says.)
Blatant Reddit screenshots have additionally blown up on platforms like Instagram and X. There are complete Instagram accounts dedicated to reposting Reddit tales: @darkthemereddit received over 300,000 followers for reposting spooky Reddit content material, whereas @toxicreddit received over 200,000 followers for displaying Reddit posts “that make you go ‘YIKES.’” The identical is true for X: @GoodReddit received 1.2 million followers for merely reposting humorous Reddit tales.
Reddit is aware of that cross-platform sharing is sure to happen. Again in 2023, it tried to make that course of simpler, permitting particular person posts to be shared in a preview link between social media accounts. However the bulk of viral Reddit reposts don’t use this perform: They merely screenshot or narrate the tales, leaving Reddit with out the site visitors.
Are nameless boards formally mainstream?
Whereas republished content material could not essentially deliver Reddit extra site visitors, it does certify the app’s place among the many social media titans. Whether or not or not customers are consuming it throughout the app’s bounds, they’re seeing Reddit content material in every single place. Goldman compares it to the presence of watermarked TikTok videos on Instagram Reels.
“Individuals watching Reels are being instructed, ‘trace, trace, you’re lacking one thing by not being on Tiktok,’” Goldman says. “Who received in that dialog: Instagram, as a result of it received further engagement, or the unique platform whose caché was enhanced?”
That legitimacy push could possibly be essential for Reddit, whose IPO got here regardless of many arguing the corporate was too fringe. An nameless on-line discussion board, Reddit can simply be aligned with less-beloved platforms like 4chan. However the final yr has confirmed Reddit’s standing. First the location ate up Google Search, taking a prized place among the many engine’s question responses. And now, it’s flourishing throughout the social media spectrum.
“I wouldn’t say it’s mainstream, however I’d say it’s definitely approaching there,” Goldman says. “You can nearly typify who was a Reddit person, and now I feel it’s turning into somewhat bit extra amorphous.”