Reddit has begun phasing out the long-standing Member Count feature on communities, replacing it with two new statistics: Visitors and Contributions.
Visitors uses a 28-day rolling average to display how many unique people viewed posts or community pages over the past seven days. Contributions tracks all non-removed posts and comments made during the same period, combining them into a single number.
According to Reddit, these changes are meant to show “how many people are actively participating in communities and how much content is being created,” instead of reflecting passive membership totals.
Member Count Restricted
While member counts still technically exist, they are now hidden from public view and accessible only to moderators. A Reddit admin posting in r/modnews confirmed plans to remove member counts entirely, though no timeline has been set.
Reddit also announced new restrictions on how many large communities a single person can moderate. Starting in December 2025, users will be limited to moderating a maximum of five communities with over 100,000 visitors. The rule will be phased in and fully implemented by March 2026.
Community Reactions
The rollout has stirred debate. Some users welcome the emphasis on active participation, while others dislike losing the historical membership numbers that gave a sense of scale. The sudden shift has caused confusion in communities with customized labels for member counts, leading to odd or misleading displays.
For example, the Half Life subreddit had labeled its “Online” metric as “Killing Headcrabs in Vents.” With the new Contributions stat, it suddenly appeared as if far more people were “online,” leaving some visitors puzzled.
What The Author Thinks
While Reddit’s push to highlight active participation makes sense, the removal of member counts risks alienating long-time users. Numbers like membership totals were not only part of a subreddit’s identity but also helped new users quickly gauge community size and credibility. By taking that away, Reddit could unintentionally weaken the sense of belonging that made its communities thrive in the first place.
Featured image credit: Ralph Olazo via Unsplash
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