X has slipped among U.S. users while Reddit soars in popularity, new research finds. [View all]

Source: Daily Beast

Updated Fri, November 28, 2025 at 11:53 a.m. EST


The percentage of Americans using X since Elon Musk bought it has slumped, with the controversial social media platform having been overtaken by Reddit, according to new research.

Musk, 54, bought X—then known as Twitter—for $44 billion in October 2022 when it was already declining in popularity, according to nonpartisan Pew Research Center, which examined trends between 2021 and 2025.

Despite making a raft of changes, including a new name and the introduction of AI bot Grok, the world’s richest man has been unable to stop the drop. Under the tech billionaire, X has also faced allegations that it promotes hateful and damaging content, which led some advertisers to walk away.

Over the same period, Reddit—where users known as “Redditors” share content, such as links, text, images, and videos, that the community votes up and down—has grown in popularity. The news aggregator site has jumped to 26 percent from 19 percent. Roughly half of 18–29 year-olds now say they use it.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/users-flee-musks-x-as-reddit-overtakes-platform-in-popularity/