Takeaways:

  • All-Time MAU Peak (in last 7 Days): Piefed(6753), Writefreely(233609), Vernissage(205)
  • Positive Daily Growth (6+ of last 7 Days): Piefed(7/7), Pixelfed(7/7), Writefreely(7/7), Vernissage(6/7)
  • Weekly Growth (>5%, >500 MAU): Piefed(+5.9%), Pixelfed(+18.5%), Writefreely(+192.3%)

High-Level Notes:

  • Writefreely is absolutely exploding right now (3x last week, 23x last month, 100x 3-months ago)
  • Piefed is still likely under-counted by a few hundred MAU (due to an activity error, corrected in v1.7) and missing piefed.zip (not counted by fediverse.observer). I’d estimate piefed is at ~7200 right now.
  • Vernissage recent growth seems to be just natural (not new update causing people to check it out or a big server being recently found)

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 6753 6701 6377 4109 4815 2064 1690 6753
Lemmy 35197 35233 35061 35078 36369 35644 41403 72618
Mbin 1050 1052 1084 1066 728 751 914 3967
Threadiverse 43000 42986 42522 40253 41912 38459 44007
Mastodon 837570 838538 839406 816202 742727 734447 761222 2737163
NodeBB 62266 62736 61659 60716 70992 48425 47249 76801
Pixelfed 105382 105376 88923 96112 104501 117256 122559 338813
Peertube 46376 46536 46973 47206 43367 28285 25770 53333
Writefreely 233609 221092 79931 10734 2428 1570 11219 233609
Loops 3963 3996 4147 4420 3991 3021 28471 29821
Bookwyrm 1208 1206 1178 1206 2206 3752 3056 9429
NeoDB 1731 1730 1759 1776 1813 1977 1722 2025
Friendica 2451 2437 2417 2432 2400 1448 1814 4734
Forgejo 102 101 116 138 109 498 271 1168
Catodon 97 95 100 113 118 0 0 128
Funkwhale 151 155 156 192 241 266 299 1114
Vernissage 205 185 163 137 147 141 97 205
Flohmarkt 14 12 18 10 28 21 0 40
Fediverse 1338125 1327181 1169468 1081647 1016980 979566 1047756

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 52 376 2644 1938 4689 5063 0
Lemmy -36 136 119 -1172 -447 -6206 -37421
Mbin -2 -34 -16 322 299 136 -2917
Threadiverse 14 478 2747 1088 4541 -1007
Mastodon -968 -1836 21368 94843 103123 76348 -1899593
NodeBB -470 607 1550 -8726 13841 15017 -14535
Pixelfed 6 16459 9270 881 -11874 -17177 -233431
Peertube -160 -597 -830 3009 18091 20606 -6957
Writefreely 12517 153678 222875 231181 232039 222390 0
Loops -33 -184 -457 -28 942 -24508 -25858
Bookwyrm 2 30 2 -998 -2544 -1848 -8221
NeoDB 1 -28 -45 -82 -246 9 -294
Friendica 14 34 19 51 1003 637 -2283
Forgejo 1 -14 -36 -7 -396 -169 -1066
Catodon 2 -3 -16 -21 0 0 -31
Funkwhale -4 -5 -41 -90 -115 -148 -963
Vernissage 20 42 68 58 64 108 0
Flohmarkt 2 -4 4 -14 -7 0 -26
Fediverse 10944 168657 256478 321145 358559 290369

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 0.8% 5.9% 64.3% 40.2% 227.2% 299.6% 0.0%
Lemmy -0.1% 0.4% 0.3% -3.2% -1.3% -15.0% -51.5%
Mbin -0.2% -3.1% -1.5% 44.2% 39.8% 14.9% -73.5%
Threadiverse 0.0% 1.1% 6.8% 2.6% 11.8% -2.3%
Mastodon -0.1% -0.2% 2.6% 12.8% 14.0% 10.0% -69.4%
NodeBB -0.7% 1.0% 2.6% -12.3% 28.6% 31.8% -18.9%
Pixelfed 0.0% 18.5% 9.6% 0.8% -10.1% -14.0% -68.9%
Peertube -0.3% -1.3% -1.8% 6.9% 64.0% 80.0% -13.0%
Writefreely 5.7% 192.3% 2076.3% 9521.5% 14779.6% 1982.3% 0.0%
Loops -0.8% -4.4% -10.3% -0.7% 31.2% -86.1% -86.7%
Bookwyrm 0.2% 2.5% 0.2% -45.2% -67.8% -60.5% -87.2%
NeoDB 0.1% -1.6% -2.5% -4.5% -12.4% 0.5% -14.5%
Friendica 0.6% 1.4% 0.8% 2.1% 69.3% 35.1% -48.2%
Forgejo 1.0% -12.1% -26.1% -6.4% -79.5% -62.4% -91.3%
Catodon 2.1% -3.0% -14.2% -17.8% 0.0% 0.0% -24.2%
Funkwhale -2.6% -3.2% -21.4% -37.3% -43.2% -49.5% -86.4%
Vernissage 10.8% 25.8% 49.6% 39.5% 45.4% 111.3% 0.0%
Flohmarkt 16.7% -22.2% 40.0% -50.0% -33.3% 0.0% -65.0%
Fediverse 0.8% 14.4% 23.7% 31.6% 36.6% 27.7%

Tracker Comparison[1,2]:

Software Fediverse-Observer[1] FediDB [2]
Piefed 6753 7454
Lemmy 35197 44970
Mbin 1050 1298
Threadiverse 43000 53722
Mastodon 837570 965045
NodeBB 62266 16655
Pixelfed 105382 106203
Peertube 46376 43747
Writefreely 233609 112801
Loops 3963 4071
Bookwyrm 1208 3428
NeoDB 1731 1763
Friendica 2451 3123
Forgejo 102 1672
Catodon 97 0
Funkwhale 151 717
Vernissage 205 214
Flohmarkt 14 0
Fediverse 1338125 1313161

Notes:

  1. Threadiverse is Piefed, Lemmy, and Mbin. Fediverse only accounts for listed software [17], not the other [112] software tracked by Fediverse-Observer.
  2. 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].
  3. 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: Added the “High-Level Notes” header, removed excess period punctuation, and add piefed estimate sentence.

  • Zedstrian
    2·
    2 days ago

    I wonder how Writefreely is spreading so quickly; now Fediverse Observer lists nearly 275,000 MAU.

    If it’s anything like other federated platforms, I expect most users will leave after the hype wears off, but it’s still impressive.

    • Vicinus@piefed.zipOPMEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      It does seem like there was a die off, after an introduction/hype peak (introduction: 2022-11, local/previous maximum: 2024-08, new maximum: this month).

      I don’t follow the software closely so tough for me to say why they are growing so fast.

      I think it might have been partially an activity bug (like piefed). Checking through some writefreely servers, it seems they had negligible activity until June and then they exploded.

      But the biggest server (paper.wf) had regular users and user growth. Then user growth exploded in July (~2.5x).

      So possibly a combination of factors.