Reddit Traffic Falls 13% as Google AI Overviews Replace Search Links

Reddit's global visits fell 13% year over year from October 2025 to October 2026, according to analytics firm Similarweb. CEO Steve Huffman has confirmed the cause: Google's AI Overviews, which he said in the company's Q3 earnings "are not traffic drivers." The decline in Google-referred traffic has pushed Reddit to move its web experience mostly behind a login.

The drop marks a sharp reversal from 2024, when Reddit's traffic surged 39% between May 2023 and May 2024 on the back of Google search referrals. That same year, Reddit signed a deal licensing its content to Google for AI training. As AI Overviews became more frequent and more useful, they increasingly answered queries directly instead of sending users to a list of links, and Reddit's referral stream thinned out.

What does the 13% figure actually measure?

Similarweb's number covers total visits, and Reddit disputes it as a measure of health. In a recent letter to shareholders, the company reported that weekly active uniques were up 16% year over year in October. A Reddit spokesperson said the company's reporting is based on daily and weekly active uniques rather than total visits, a different methodology from Similarweb's estimate.

Huffman put the official position plainly in the investor letter: Google search traffic was "down meaningfully," and if the trend continued it could produce a low double-digit drop in unique visits. He framed the strategy around that risk in a direct statement: "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."

What does this change for marketers and publishers?

For practitioners, the shift carries three practical implications:

• Logged-out web traffic, historically Reddit's most lucrative non-logged-in audience segment, is the slice that declined, and the planned logged-in-only experience will likely cut web visits further as some visitors get shut out.
• Anonymous, search-driven discovery of Reddit threads through Google is no longer a reliable growth channel, a signal relevant to any publisher dependent on informational queries that AI Overviews now absorb.
• Reddit is concentrating investment on logged-in and app users, where it says its value is highest.

The company is also building products for that core audience. This week it announced Reddit Reviews, a feature that organizes user recommendations for products.

Reddit is effectively trading reach for engagement depth. Whether a 16% rise in weekly active uniques can sustain advertising value while total visits shrink will define the platform's next earnings cycle.