By Sheharyar Twitter has made a significant change, leaving behind its iconic branding in favor of Elon Musk’s beloved letter “X.” Coinciding with this shift, its open-source competitor Mastodon is witnessing a surge in usage numbers. According to Eugen Rochko, the founder and CEO of Mastodon, the monthly active user count for this Twitter alternative has been steadily climbing over the last couple of months, reaching an impressive 2.1 million users. Rochko remarks that this number is “not far off from our last peak.”
Previously, Mastodon had experienced a peak of 2.5 million monthly active users between October and November, shortly after Elon Musk officially took ownership of Twitter. Prior to that, Mastodon had been a much smaller network, boasting approximately 300,000 monthly active users, as stated by the founder.
Interestingly, Mastodon’s growth seems closely tied to Twitter’s actions or missteps. For instance, after Twitter’s acquisition, there was a notable exodus of longtime users who rebelled against the changes introduced by Musk to their beloved microblogging site. These changes included widespread layoffs and erratic moves that impacted Twitter’s platform, policies, and product strategies. One particularly mishandled move was the relaunch of Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, which devalued verification by making it available to anyone with a credit card. As a consequence, the Twitter experience suffered, and the company acknowledged having a Verified spammer problem, necessitating adjustments to Twitter DMs.
Some users who fled Twitter did experiment with Mastodon after Musk’s takeover. However, not all stuck with it, resulting in Mastodon’s monthly active users dropping from the high of 2.5 million to 1.7 million at the beginning of this month. Some users might have shifted to other emerging Twitter alternatives like Bluesky, T2, Spill, Post, and more. Additionally, others may have abandoned Twitter altogether or significantly reduced their posting, leading to a decline in Twitter traffic.
It remains uncertain whether Mastodon is once again benefiting from Musk’s missteps with Twitter or if it’s being propelled by the renewed interest in ActivityPub, the decentralized social networking protocol that powers Mastodon and other apps. Meta’s recently launched Twitter rival, Instagram Threads, has committed to integrating with ActivityPub, potentially raising awareness about Mastodon and decentralized social networking as a whole.
Alternatively, Twitter users may be frustrated by Musk’s recent implementation of rate limiting, which reduces the number of tweets that users and subscribers can view. This peculiar product decision essentially restricts users from accessing content on the platform, now rebranded as X. Musk claims this measure is necessary to combat a significant increase in bots and spam. While most social networks have rate limits for the same reason, they typically don’t extend these limits to end users, preventing them from viewing site content and ads.
This factor could also be contributing to Mastodon’s renewed growth in active users.
Or perhaps, it’s a combination of various factors, including the momentum generated by the launch of polished third-party Mastodon clients that make using the social network more straightforward and enjoyable. Notable examples include apps developed by former Twitter third-party app makers, such as Tapbots’ Mastodon client Ivory, the TweetDeck-inspired Woolly, and Mammoth, a Mastodon client from the developer who previously made the Twitter app Aviary (now led by a new developer following Mozilla’s investment).
Furthermore, other Mastodon apps like Ice Cubes and the no-frills client Radiant have made their debuts. Mastodon’s official mobile app also received a refreshing update earlier this month, aimed at addressing various pain points and offering more customization options. At the time of its launch, Mastodon already had 1.4 million monthly active users, and Rochko noted a threefold increase in posting activity over the weekend—likely a result of Twitter’s new limits on viewable tweets.
Mastodon is drawing interest from other tech companies as well, including WordPress, which acquired a plug-in enabling WordPress blogs to feed into Mastodon. Medium has launched its own Mastodon server, and Flipboard has integrated with the network in its social reading app, also working towards ActivityPub integration.