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Growth of the Fediverse (20260222)

$$2486
https://piefed.zip/u/Vicinus posted on Feb 22, 2026 10:33

Monthly Active Users:
| Software | Current | Yesterday | Last Week | Last Month | 3 Months Ago | 6 Months Ago | 1 Year Ago |
| :——– | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: |
| Piefed | 5460 | 4923 | 4738 | 2041 | 1595 | 1666 | 260 |
| Lemmy | 40727 | 36996 | 36510 | 35385 | 35571 | 40133 | 47182 |
| Mbin | 822 | 811 | 795 | 749 | 753 | 906 | 860 |
| Threadiverse | 47009 | 42730 | 42043 | 38175 | 37919 | 42705 | 48302 |
| | | | | | | | |
| Mastodon | 1136727 | 741297 | 749916 | 729258 | 672733 | 690496 | 877236 |
| Pixelfed | 115634 | 100508 | 103924 | 114965 | 82325 | 96797 | 304563 |
| Peertube | 41313 | 28211 | 29431 | 27906 | 26560 | 23452 | 34627 |
| Loops | 8006 | 7961 | 7706 | 2613 | 1840 | 26939 | 26110 |
| Bookwyrm | 1616 | 1338 | 1460 | 3759 | 2846 | 3020 | 7005 |
| Friendica | 2627 | 1593 | 1578 | 1411 | 1353 | 1732 | 4279 |
| Forgejo | 121 | 86 | 501 | 507 | 419 | 327 | 644 |
| Funkwhale | 269 | 225 | 233 | 266 | 199 | 248 | 483 |
| Flohmarkt | 30 | 27 | 37 | 28 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| | | | | | | | |
| Fediverse | 1353352 | 923976 | 936829 | 918888 | 826201 | 885716 | 1303249 |

Difference:
| Software | -1 Day | -1 Week | -1 Month | -3 Months | -6 Months | -1 Year |
| :——– | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: |
| Piefed | 537 | 722 | 3419 | 3865 | 3794 | 5200 |
| Lemmy | 3731 | 4217 | 5342 | 5156 | 594 | -6455 |
| Mbin | 11 | 27 | 73 | 69 | -84 | -38 |
| Threadiverse | 4279 | 4966 | 8834 | 9090 | 4304 | -1293 |
| | | | | | | | |
| Mastodon | 395430 | 386811 | 407469 | 463994 | 446231 | 259491 |
| Pixelfed | 15126 | 11710 | 669 | 33309 | 18837 | -188929 |
| Peertube | 13102 | 11882 | 13407 | 14753 | 17861 | 6686 |
| Loops | 45 | 300 | 5393 | 6166 | -18933 | -18104 |
| Bookwyrm | 278 | 156 | -2143 | -1230 | -1404 | -5389 |
| Friendica | 1034 | 1049 | 1216 | 1274 | 895 | -1652 |
| Forgejo | 35 | -380 | -386 | -298 | -206 | -523 |
| Funkwhale | 44 | 36 | 3 | 70 | 21 | -214 |
| Flohmarkt | 3 | -7 | 4 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| | | | | | | | |
| Fediverse | 429373 | 416530 | 434462 | 527128 | 467606 | 50073 |

Change (%):
| Software | -1 Day | -1 Week | -1 Month | -3 Months | -6 Months | -1 Year |
| :——– | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: | ——-: |
| Piefed | 10.9% | 15.2% | 167.5% | 242.3% | 227.7% | 2000.0% |
| Lemmy | 10.1% | 11.6% | 15.1% | 14.5% | 1.5% | -13.7% |
| Mbin | 1.4% | 3.4% | 9.7% | 9.2% | -9.3% | -4.4% |
| Threadiverse | 22.3% | 30.2% | 192.4% | 266.0% | 219.9% | 1981.9% |
| | | | | | | | |
| Mastodon | 53.3% | 51.6% | 55.9% | 69.0% | 64.6% | 29.6% |
| Pixelfed | 15.0% | 11.3% | 0.6% | 40.5% | 19.5% | -62.0% |
| Peertube | 46.4% | 40.4% | 48.0% | 55.5% | 76.2% | 19.3% |
| Loops | 0.6% | 3.9% | 206.4% | 335.1% | -70.3% | -69.3% |
| Bookwyrm | 20.8% | 10.7% | -57.0% | -43.2% | -46.5% | -76.9% |
| Friendica | 64.9% | 66.5% | 86.2% | 94.2% | 51.7% | -38.6% |
| Forgejo | 40.7% | -75.8% | -76.1% | -71.1% | -63.0% | -81.2% |
| Funkwhale | 19.6% | 15.5% | 1.1% | 35.2% | 8.5% | -44.3% |
| Flohmarkt | 11.1% | -18.9% | 15.4% | 500% | % | % |
| | | | | | | | |
| Fediverse | 46.5% | 44.5% | 47.2% | 63.8% | 52.8% | 6.5% |

  • Note: Threadiverse is Piefed, Lemmy, and Mbin. Fediverse only accounts for listed software [12], not the other [117] software tracked by the website.
  • Source: Fediverse-Observer
  • Caveats: Only using 1 source, using two different sets of data within the same source (why 6 month and 1 year data seems off compared to the others, I didn’t dig through the code to figure out why that would be).

Takeaways:

  • Big growth in the Fediverse this week (ex. Mastodon >50%, Lemmy and Piefed >10%). Looks like the Fediverse-Observer software updated yesterday and found(?) a bunch of previously unknown servers (10-50%). Due to the change, my API code now works and made this post far easier :)
  • Piefed and Loops had positive growth each day last week
  • Congrats to Piefed (>5000 MAU) and PeerTube for reaching All-Time highs (>40,000 MAU)
  • Forgejo lost a server in the last week that had ~80% of its users (20260217)

Mods: Again, feel free to delete if its not appropriate in the community.

https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222
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$$2491
https://piefed.zip/u/Blaze posted on Feb 22, 2026 10:57
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222

Thank you for the post!

Regarding your last sentence, it is fine to post it here. We’ll keep you posted in things change

https://piefed.zip/comment/3910389
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$$2494
https://piefed.zip/u/Vicinus posted on Feb 22, 2026 11:00
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/comment/3910389

Good to know.

Felt it could go in the Fediverse communities, but thought this would be a calmer spot for it.

https://piefed.zip/comment/3910403
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$$2499
https://piefed.zip/u/Blaze posted on Feb 22, 2026 11:02
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/comment/3910403

Yes that makes sense. We also have !fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com where this could fit, but we’re discussing potentially renaming it “Fedipromo” or something to make it more clear, and move it to Piefed.zip or other instances with very short defederation lists

https://piefed.zip/comment/3910425
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$$2510
https://piefed.kobel.fyi/u/squirrel posted on Feb 22, 2026 11:27
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222

Thank you for the stats. The changes in users and servers look crazy on the fediverse observer graphs, especially for Lemmy and Mastodon

https://piefed.kobel.fyi/comment/687161
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$$2512
https://nord.pub/u/Vesiiiii posted on Feb 22, 2026 11:32
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222

that’s a good thing. remember to invite and spread awareness Among your friends - it really helps and works. there re many reasons to join us - from privacy, Federation to anti-corporationalism and #buyfromeu

https://nord.pub/comment/203238
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$$2515
https://piefed.zip/u/Vicinus posted on Feb 22, 2026 11:39
In reply to: https://piefed.kobel.fyi/comment/687161

No problem :)

Yeah, I find the mastodon one kind of funny. Slight increase and then plus 50%(!). Makes all the previous slight increase days look insignificant.

https://piefed.zip/comment/3910669
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$$2519
https://piefed.social/u/Libb posted on Feb 22, 2026 11:52
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222

Great to see new users joining (welcome, guys).

https://piefed.social/comment/10243327
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$$2544
https://piefed.zip/u/Vicinus posted on Feb 22, 2026 13:13
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/comment/3910425

Yeah, that sounds like it would be a good option. Maybe when the change happens I’ll post there instead.

https://piefed.zip/comment/3911593
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$$2549
https://belgae.social/u/myrmidex posted on Feb 22, 2026 13:26
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222

whoo 1M monthly actives for mastodon, we should have a party

https://belgae.social/comment/2319394
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$$2586
https://lemmy.zip/u/jaybone posted on Feb 22, 2026 14:51
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222

How did mastodon jump by nearly 400k users in one day?

https://lemmy.zip/comment/24808425
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$$2591
https://lemmy.zip/u/jaybone posted on Feb 22, 2026 15:01
In reply to: https://piefed.kobel.fyi/comment/687161

This shows Lemmy monthly total users over 1m.

OP shows Lemmy monthly active users at 40k.

Why such a big difference?

https://lemmy.zip/comment/24808560
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$$2595
https://piefed.zip/u/Vicinus posted on Feb 22, 2026 15:11
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/comment/24808425

Looks to be the monitoring site (fediverse-observer) updated their server list of the fediverse softwares, giving most of the listed softwares significant increases.

https://piefed.zip/comment/3912926
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$$2597
https://piefed.kobel.fyi/u/squirrel posted on Feb 22, 2026 15:14
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/comment/24808560

The first graph shows 40k MAU, the second graph shows total users over 1m. There’s no difference, it’s the same source.

https://piefed.kobel.fyi/comment/688516
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$$2636
https://slrpnk.net/u/LibertyLizard posted on Feb 22, 2026 16:35
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222

Should I be on Mastodon? I never used Twitter so the idea of an alternative never was appealing. But it does seem to be the biggest most active place on the fediverse.

https://slrpnk.net/comment/20875983
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$$2640
https://piefed.zip/u/Vicinus posted on Feb 22, 2026 16:46
In reply to: https://slrpnk.net/comment/20875983

Never had twitter, but recently made a mastodon account to contact the fediverse-observer developer about a bug.

I played around with it a bit the few times I used it, but I don’t think I really gave it a good shot to know if it was worthwhile.

I feel like short blog form is for following people and there’s not really anyone I want to follow on any social media. So, if you want to follow people it may be worth it.

Also, you should probably get another opinion from someone who actually uses mastodon regularly.

https://piefed.zip/comment/3914270
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$$2738
https://piefed.social/u/rimu posted on Feb 22, 2026 20:30
In reply to: https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1122722/growth-of-the-fediverse-20260222

fediverse.observer seems to have trouble with duplicates:

image

https://piefed.social/comment/10249167
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$$2812
https://slrpnk.net/u/hanrahan posted on Feb 23, 2026 00:28
In reply to: https://slrpnk.net/comment/20875983

Mastodon is for following people, Lemmy etal are for being involved in and with like minded things.

https://slrpnk.net/comment/20882934
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$$2910
https://piefed.zip/u/Vicinus posted on Feb 23, 2026 06:03
In reply to: https://piefed.social/comment/10249167

Thanks for finding that and pointed it out.

I looked through the lists of servers for most of the listed software and found a couple more examples. I wasn’t able to find duplicates in some of the software, and the few I did find, wouldn’t account for the entire update induced MAU increase:

  • Mastodon (625k of 395k)
  • Lemmy (4.5k of 3.7k)
  • Pixelfed (5k of 15k)
  • Peertube (4k of 13k)

Either way, I’ll reach out to the Fediverse-Observer dev and let him know of the issue.

https://piefed.zip/comment/3923228
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