The League of Legends subreddit has been named the second most popular gaming subreddit this year, according to new data from official Reddit Recap 2021 data.
The r/leagueoflegends LoL subreddit was pipped to the post by r/genshinimpact, which took the number one spot, while r/gaming, r/rpclipsgta and r/ffxiv were the third, fourth and fifth most popular gaming subreddits this year.
The most upvoted posts in the LoL subreddit were the Worlds prediction tournament and AOC’s Baron snipe (see the top five gaming posts below).
r/nopixel was one of the most standout GTA RP (Grand Theft Auto roleplay) services, with a 267% increase in views year-on-year.
Gaming was also the second most popular theme on Reddit in 2021, ahead of sport and behind cryptocurrency.
Elsewhere, new gaming releases pushed the growth in a number of communities – r/pokemonunite increased 8.6K% in subscribers YoY, while both r/deltarune and r/biomutant showed big spikes in engagement – with a 328K% increase and 9.5K% increase in subscribers, respectively, from last year.
In terms of the most upvoted posts in gaming communities on Reddit in 2021, here are the top five:
- r/gaming: boy gamer (220K upvotes)
- r/gaming: EA will no longer have exclusive rights of the Star Wars games (173K upvotes)
- r/leagueoflegends: Worlds 2021 Prediction Tournament (83.2K upvotes)
- r/leagueoflegends: AOC featuring her clutch Baron snipe on IG (48.6K upvotes)
- r/ffxiv: Times change (20.2K upvotes)
“What I found most interesting this past year was how many people banded together and went from URL to IRL; people rallied online and redditors positively impacted their own – and others’ – physical communities.”
Laura Nestler, Reddit
Looking at other global data and the most popular pieces of content on Reddit this year, the most upvoted post of 2021 was on r/wallstreetbets – Times Square right now – with 431K upvotes.
The Most Upvoted AMAs was ‘I’m a lobster diver who recently survived being inside of a whale. AMA!’ with 90.9K upvotes.
And the most upvoted Reddit Public Access Network (RPAN) livestream was M to the B (22.8K upvotes) on r/animalsonreddit.
Redditors created more than 366m posts in 2021, a 19% increase year-on-year. As of November 9th 2021, Reddit has seen 2.3bn total comments, a 12% increase year-on-year and nearly 46bn total upvotes, a 1% increase year-on-year.
Reddit now now home to more than 100,000 active communities globally.
Looking at UK-specific data on Reddit, UK redditors mainly used the service to participate in finance discussions this year. In 2021, r/ukpersonalfinance, a community where UK redditors can ‘discuss, learn and request help on how to obtain, budget, protect, save and invest money’, had a 75% increase in views.
In 2021, two other popular UK communities (both of which were featured in Reddit’s London Calling: One Year On report) were r/askuk and r/casualuk – places where UK (and non-UK) redditors can go to complain about the metric system and confuse the crap out of Americans. Over the last year, while r/casualuk grew by 43% in views, r/askuk increased 70% in views, showing that many people have a lot of unanswered questions about the UK and its citizens.
Reddit as company continued its global expansion in 2021. It announced new offices in Canada, Australia, and Germany, reaching new redditors around the globe, and aired its first ever five-second Super Bowl ad. Reddit also shipped new features – Reddit Talk, Predictions, and CryptoSnoos – and brought back Community Reflections.
In terms of the Reddit Recap 2021 methodology, all data was pulled from January 1st to November 9th 2021. It took into account posts and comments (activity), community screenviews (views) and select lists, like gaming, were ranked by the year-on-year percentage changes in views.
Reddit’s VP of community, Laura Nestler, said: “Our mission is to bring community and belonging to everyone around the world. Most of our work to achieve that mission happens online, so what I found most interesting this past year was how many people banded together and went from URL to IRL; people rallied online and redditors positively impacted their own – and others’ – physical communities.
“The first-movers and people who will and are shaping the future of the internet are using Reddit as a place to connect, discuss, debate and build. You can see that from all the crypto and NFT communities skyrocketing in popularity and engagement.”
Related article: Reddit announces first avatar partnership with Riot Games, with League of Legends Arcane-themed Jinx and Vi available to redditors
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
