Ofcom: 22.9M UK adults visited Reddit in May 2024, up 47% YoY, making it the fifth biggest social media platform in the UK, above X's 22.1M and LinkedIn's 18.3M
Discussion platform takes fifth place in rankings and is the fastest growing large social media platform in the UK Bluesky: @mattnavarra.com . X: @jim_edwards . LinkedIn: Ollie Wrighton . Forums: r/technology , r/CasualUK , r/EnoughMuskSpam , r/europe , and r/unitedkingdom Bluesky: Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra.com : Reddit overtakes Elon Musk's X in popularity of social media platforms in UK — Reddit is now takes 5th place in rankings + is the fastest growing large social media platform in the UK — The leap took Reddit above LinkedIn and X — YouTube has overtaken Facebook to be the most popular social platform X: Jim Edwards / @jim_edwards : X is losing ground to Reddit in the UK, per latest Ofcom data. [image] LinkedIn: Ollie Wrighton : A proud moment for Reddit in the UK! — According to Ofcom, Reddit has grown to become the 5th most popular social media platform in the UK … Forums: r/technology : Reddit overtakes X in popularity of social media platforms in UK r/CasualUK : Reddit overtakes X in popularity of social media platforms in UK | Reddit r/EnoughMuskSpam : Reddit overtakes X in popularity of social media platforms in UK | Reddit r/europe : Reddit overtakes X in popularity of social media platforms in UK | Reddit - The Guardian r/unitedkingdom : Reddit overtakes X in popularity of social media platforms in UK Expand More For Next Unexpand More For Next
Context & Ripple Effects
Ofcom’s ranking adds a broad-reach measure to an already weakening UK usage picture for X: Similarweb reported a decline in X’s UK daily users earlier in 2024. Reddit’s rise therefore reflects both its own growth and a reshuffling among established social platforms.
The result was an early marker of Reddit’s continued UK ascent; later coverage placed it ahead of TikTok as the country’s fourth most-visited social service as Reddit moved into the next tier of UK audience reach.
First-order effects
- Reddit gains a materially stronger UK audience-reach credential after reaching 22.9 million adults and moving ahead of X and LinkedIn in Ofcom’s May ranking.
- X and LinkedIn lose relative standing in a prominent national comparison, while YouTube’s lead over Facebook underscores that the top of the UK social hierarchy is also changing.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers, publishers and creators evaluating UK distribution have a clearer reason to treat Reddit as a major-reach channel rather than a specialist discussion destination.
- X faces added pressure to arrest audience erosion: the Ofcom result follows reported declines in its UK daily usage, making a reach comparison harder to dismiss as a short-term shift.
Third-order effects
- If Reddit sustains this trajectory, UK social competition will be shaped less by a fixed set of legacy feeds and more by platforms that combine community discussion with broad discovery traffic.
- The later move past TikTok in UK visitation suggests this may be a durable reordering of audience attention, though rankings can still vary with measurement method and time period.
The trend: UK social-media attention is reallocating toward Reddit while X and other established platforms face a more fluid audience hierarchy.