Mastodon traffic exploded nearly 600% in November

Mastodon, the social media platform that has emerged as a popular alternative to Twitter, is flying high. A quick search on Similarweb shows that traffic to Mastodon exploded a staggering 588.5% in November. Similarweb reports 9.5 million total visits to the platform last month, up from 1.4 million in October.

A decentralized platform founded back in 2016, Mastodon has benefitted the most from Eon Musk’s Twitter takeover. Unhappy with Musk’s proposed changes for Twitter, users have been switching to the relatively new platform. It reportedly gained 70,000 new users on the very first day Musk completed the high-profile privatization of Twitter. A week later, Mastodon had added nearly half a million new users, almost doubling its monthly active users.

The latest data now shows how people have been flocking to Mastodon in recent weeks. The platform had a nearly seven-fold increase in traffic last month. A quarter (25.50%) of its 9.5 million visits came from the US. Germany, the UK, Ireland, and Spain were the other four countries sending the most traffic to Mastodon.social in November, in that order. And tell you what, the service gets more than 90% of its social media traffic from Twitter. People are directly jumping from Twitter to its rival.

Social media traffic only accounts for about 11% of total Mastodon visits, though. Most people search for it or directly visit the website. These two traffic channels respectively contribute 35% and 46% of total visits. An analysis by Financial World reveals that search interest for “Mastodon” peaked on November 18. The interest has been growing since October 26, when Musk’s Twitter takeover was almost complete. Search queries for “Twitter alternative” also soared 504% in November to an all-time high.

Mastodon is not suitable for everyone yet

Over a month into the Elon Musk era on Twitter, people aren’t done quitting the platform yet. Many more users are still on the fence. Search queries for “Delete Twitter” reportedly surged by 205% in the US and 117% worldwide in November when compared to the previous five years. 178,000 searches were made in just over a month, more than 26% of the average annual total in recent years.

Unfortunately, many people are not in a position to quit Twitter just yet. Alternatives like Mastodon are still too small. People who have established themselves on Twitter are worried that they may not be able to replicate that fan following on other platforms. Time will tell if Mastodon continues to attract Twitter users in scale in the coming months.

“Twitter’s huge numbers mean it’s unlikely that Mastodon will become a serious competitor until it cements itself into the mainstream social networking space,” said a spokesperson at Financial World. However, the platform is still “one to watch for the future” as “users intend to look for new social media platforms to set up homes in.”