Reddit visits fall 13% as Google AI Overviews reshape search

By Rebecca Stone

Reddit's global visits fell 13% year over year between October 2025 and October 2026, according to Similarweb, as CEO Steve Huffman said Google's AI Overviews are reducing search referrals to the platform.

Reddit's response is to protect its most valuable users, even if that means accepting fewer anonymous visits. The company is moving toward a mostly logged-in-only web experience.

The two traffic numbers tell different stories

• Similarweb measured total global visits, which fell 13% year over year in the 12 months ending October 2026.
• Reddit's shareholder letter reported weekly active uniques up 16% year over year in October 2026.

A Reddit spokesperson told Business Insider that Reddit reports daily and weekly active uniques rather than total visits. The distinction matters because the datasets measure different forms of activity.

Reddit can have more active users while recording fewer visits through Google, which makes a decline in total traffic and growth in active users possible at the same time. Any marketer treating visits and active users as interchangeable will misread the platform's reach.

Google changed the path to Reddit

Two forces are reducing search referrals: people are increasingly asking chatbots for answers, and Google increasingly shows AI Overviews instead of a list of links. The second matters because Reddit's anonymous web traffic depends heavily on search.

At Reddit's recent third-quarter earnings, CEO Steve Huffman said Google AI Overviews "are not traffic drivers" and had led to a drop in search traffic to the site. In his letter to investors, he said Google search traffic was down meaningfully.

Huffman warned that if the trend continued, it could lead to a low double-digit drop in unique visits. That mechanism is straightforward: Reddit historically supplied Google with pages that could rank in search, while Google now often puts an AI-generated answer above the links.

Fewer search users therefore open Reddit's pages, even when signed-in Reddit users remain active. The decline does not show that fewer people use Reddit; it shows that fewer arrive through one of its former growth channels.

Search growth reversed after a 2024 surge

The reversal is recent. In 2024, Reddit struck a deal with Google to license its content for AI training. At the time, Reddit's search traffic was surging.

Similarweb measured a 39% traffic increase from May 2023 to May 2024. As AI Overviews became more frequent and more useful, Reddit's traffic began to dip.

The Google deal gave Google licensed content for AI training, while Reddit now receives fewer referrals from the AI-led search results that Google increasingly displays in front of users. What helped Reddit's search audience grow in 2024 now contributes to a weaker referral stream.

Why Reddit is choosing sign-in over traffic

Reddit has moved toward a mostly logged-in-only experience after Google-sent traffic fell. Huffman said the non-logged-in web segment hit by the decline had produced Reddit's most lucrative traffic.

Huffman put the priority plainly:

Search referral trends do not determine our relevancy, and they do not define our future. Logged-in and app DAUq are our most valuable users, and they are our primary focus.

The trade-off is direct: some anonymous visitors will lose access, so web traffic could fall further as Reddit concentrates on logged-in and app users instead. Reddit is betting that its highest-value audience will stay engaged even if fewer anonymous visitors click through.

Reddit is adding a product recommendation layer

Reddit also announced this week that it will launch Reddit Reviews. The feature will organize user recommendations for products, adding a more structured product-discovery surface as Reddit changes how people arrive.

The launch gives Reddit a product-led feature beyond discussions. It also creates another route for marketing teams to assess as the platform prioritizes members and app users over anonymous search traffic.

What does this change for marketing teams?

For marketing teams measuring Reddit through referral traffic, the answer is simple: track more than Google-sent clicks. Reddit's weekly active uniques rose 16% while Similarweb measured a 13% decline in total visits, so the measures now show different growth patterns.

Use weekly and daily active uniques alongside total visits, and separate logged-in and app audiences from anonymous web traffic. Expect organic search visibility to carry less referral weight as Google and chatbots answer more queries without sending users to Reddit.

The launch of Reddit Reviews adds a product-recommendation surface to monitor. The numbers alone do not establish weaker demand for Reddit. They establish a shift in distribution, and the platform is prioritizing the audience it says matters most.