Tumblr remains a notable player in the social media landscape, with a large base of creative bloggers and niche communities that defy its early 2010s reputation as a relic. While it doesn’t match giants like TikTok or Facebook in scale, Tumblr commands a loyal, engaged audience that continues to produce content and interact daily. Its impact is visible in grassroots creative movements and niche fandom cultures, and brands still turn to Tumblr to tap into its highly expressive, young user base. Explore how Tumblr’s ecosystem has evolved in the full article ahead.
Editor’s Choice
- 135 million monthly active users visit Tumblr globally in 2025.
- Tumblr ranks among the top 10 social platforms by active users in the US.
- About 618 million blogs are hosted across Tumblr’s network.
- Users publish roughly 8.6–12.8 million new posts daily.
- Gen Z and Millennials make up ~70% of Tumblr’s audience.
- Mobile devices account for a majority of visits, driving Tumblr’s accessibility.
- Tumblr communities show balanced gender engagement, with near parity between male and female users.
Recent Developments
- In 2024 and 2025, Tumblr underwent a backend migration to integrate more closely with WordPress technologies.
- Automattic announced plans to support ActivityPub, aiming to broaden interoperability with decentralized platforms.
- Layoffs affecting about 16% of staff were reported in early 2025, reflecting strategic restructuring.
- A data partnership to supply user information to AI services was introduced in 2024, with opt-out options for users.
- Tumblr discontinued its Post+ premium feature in early 2024 due to low usage.
- Tumblr Live, an earlier livestreaming service, was terminated in 2024, with migration paths offered to users.
- Community features and integrations are being updated incrementally as part of product evolution.
- Industry commentary highlights Tumblr’s role as a resurgent creative hub, amidst broader social platform shifts.
Key Motivations Behind Why Users Choose Tumblr
- Entertainment is the leading driver, with 60% of users visiting Tumblr mainly for fun, creativity, and leisure content.
- About 21% of users rely on Tumblr as a platform to consume and discover news updates.
- Nearly 17% of users engage with brands and companies they follow actively on Tumblr.
- Around 15% of users use Tumblr to support, showcase, or enhance professional work and projects.
- Approximately 12% of users turn to Tumblr to stay connected with family and friends.
- Another 12% of users utilize Tumblr for other varied purposes beyond entertainment, news, or networking.

Key user metrics on Tumblr
- 135 million people visit Tumblr monthly as of 2025.
- Tumblr is ranked around 221st globally by web traffic.
- The platform maintains over 600 million blogs worldwide.
- Users contribute an estimated 8.6–12.8 million posts every day.
- Tumblr’s user base saw fluctuations, with peak traffic above 200 million monthly visitors in 2023 and 2024 and lower trends more recently.
- Tumblr has held a consistent position among major social media sites with more than 100 million active users.
- The platform’s monthly active users remain flat to slightly rising despite historical declines after the 2018 policy changes.
- Tumblr claims a significant share of creative and niche communities compared with mainstream platforms.
Usage and activity trends across Tumblr
- Tumblr hosts 8.6–12.8 million new posts daily, equating to 2,000 posts per second.
- 72.3% of Tumblr users access via mobile, driving peak repost interactions.
- Average session duration reaches 13 minutes 37 seconds, reflecting longer visit durations.
- 135 million monthly active users, with 31% engaging daily.
- 86% of users engage at least weekly, the strongest among younger cohorts.
- 40% Gen Z and 30% Millennials dominate, focusing on fandoms, arts, and memes.
- 57.93% traffic from mobile navigation, with 4.51 pages viewed per visit.
- Activity peaks between 5 p.m. and 1 a.m., when 42% interactions occur.
- Niche tags sustain communities, with 88% monthly engagement via reblogs and likes.
Blogs and content volume hosted on Tumblr
- Tumblr hosts over 612–620 million blogs as of 2025.
- Blog count grew from 17.5 million in 2011 to 496 million by 2020.
- The platform saw 8.6–12.8 million new posts published daily.
- Total archived posts exceed hundreds of billions cumulatively.
- Blogs increased sharply, rebounding to 612–618 million in 2025.
- Daily posts equate to roughly 2,000 per second on average.
- Growth outpaced some platforms, from 76.4 million in 2012 to 441 million by 2018.
- 135 million monthly active users engage across 618 million blogs.
Age demographics of Tumblr users
- Around 40% of Tumblr users are Gen Z, roughly ages 16 to 25, making it heavily youth-skewed.
- 30% of users are Millennials, showing strong appeal among young adults.
- Combined, 70% of the user base is under age 35, highlighting a young demographic core.
- A breakdown shows 38.99% aged 18 to 24, the largest single age group.
- Ages 25 to 34 account for around 28%, while older age brackets form smaller shares.
- Age groups 35 to 44 represent around 13.66%, showing moderate engagement from older adults.
- Users aged 45 to 54 make up about 8.54%, indicating some midlife adoption.
- Smaller segments include ages 55 and older at around 10.68% combined, showing limited older audience reach.

Traffic and website visits related to Tumblr
- In 2025, Tumblr records around 160.85 million monthly visits, down 5% from July.
- Global rank stands at #221, with the US rank at #125 for site traffic.
- Average session duration reaches 13 minutes 37 seconds, indicating strong engagement.
- Bounce rate averages 55.22%, blending quick exits with deeper exploration.
- Users view 4.51 pages per visit on average across sessions.
- Direct traffic dominates at 66.64%, followed by organic search sources.
- The US contributes 45.2% of the total traffic, leading regional shares.
- Mobile accounts for 72.3% of visits, desktop at 27.7%.
- Referring domains total 204,170, supporting 285 million backlinks.
Gender distribution among Tumblr users
- Tumblr’s audience is 51.79% female and 48.21% male, indicating an almost perfectly balanced gender split.
- Several independent reports describe Tumblr’s gender mix as 50% female and 50% male, highlighting rare parity among major social platforms.
- One demographic study notes approximately 50% of Tumblr users identify as women, reinforcing the platform’s near‑equal gender representation.
- Traffic analytics from multiple sources show female share ranging from 50% to 51.79%, while male share stays around 48–50%, underscoring stable gender balance over time.
- Earlier analytics sometimes showed a slightly higher female share on Tumblr, but more recent datasets converge around a near‑even split between genders.
- This almost 50/50 gender distribution is described as “exceptionally rare” compared with other social networks that tend to skew more strongly male or female.
- Balanced gender participation on Tumblr helps sustain diverse content categories, from art and fandoms to social issues, supported by its roughly equal male–female user base.
- Web traffic data indicating 51.17% female and 48.83% male aligns closely with internal and survey‑based descriptions of Tumblr’s user gender patterns.
Mobile and Desktop Traffic Distribution
- 57.93% of Tumblr’s overall traffic is generated from mobile devices, highlighting a clear preference for on-the-go access.
- 42.07% of total traffic originates from desktop platforms, showing a substantial share of users still rely on larger screens.
- 72.3% of users access Tumblr via mobile, while 27.7% continue to use the platform through desktop devices.
- Tumblr mobile and desktop usage patterns reflect traffic and engagement differences across devices.
- These varying figures suggest differences by region, session behavior, or measurement methodology.
- Mobile-first dominance closely aligns with broader trends across social media and content-driven platforms.
- Desktop usage remains significant, especially for longer browsing sessions and advanced content creation tools.
- Tumblr’s comparatively strong desktop share points to a hybrid usage model, combining content consumption and blogging on larger screens.
- The mobile–desktop usage split is likely to shift further toward mobile over time as apps improve and user demographics evolve.

Engagement metrics observed on Tumblr
- About 31% of Tumblr users engage with the platform daily.
- 86% of users engage weekly, indicating strong recurring usage.
- A total of 88% engage at least monthly, showing broad audience activity.
- Average session durations often exceed 7 to 13 minutes, depending on the measurement source.
- Bounce rates around 43 to 53% suggest a mix of quick skimming and longer engagement.
- Pages per visit metrics vary, but indicate users commonly explore several pieces of content per session.
- Engagement is fueled by reblogs, likes, and comment interactions within niche communities.
- Creative content categories such as art, music, and fandom discussions see particularly high engagement.
Average session duration and time spent on Tumblr
- Tumblr users average a 20 minutes 46 seconds session duration monthly.
- The average session reached 13 minutes 37 seconds in August 2025.
- Users spend about 8 minutes 46 seconds per visit on Tumblr.
- Pages per session average 4.51 pages in late 2025.
- Bounce rate stands at 55.22% for Tumblr in August 2025.
- 43.6% bounce rate accompanies 20+ minute average sessions.
- Visitors view 6.47 pages per session on average.
- 42.17% of visitors leave after one page only.
Geographic and country-wise breakdown of Tumblr’s audience
- The United States accounts for 44–48.61% of Tumblr’s total traffic.
- The United Kingdom contributes 3.46–5.86% of global visits.
- Canada represents 2.88–4.89% of Tumblr’s audience traffic.
- India drives 3.4–4.12% of total visits.
- Germany makes up about 3.0–3.24% of the traffic share.
- Brazil accounts for 3.73–3.93% of global traffic.
- On desktop, the U.S. share rises to 70.77% of visits.
- Australia contributes around 3.05% of Tumblr traffic.
- The remaining ~34% of traffic diversifies across Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
- Tumblr holds 0.36% worldwide market share, the highest in North America at 0.55%.

Referral channels and traffic sources for Tumblr
- Direct traffic drives 66.95% of Tumblr’s desktop visits, highlighting strong brand recall.
- Organic search accounts for 15.17% of total traffic, mainly from Google.
- Paid search contributes under 0.05%, indicating minimal ad spend reliance.
- Social media referrals make up 7.63% of web traffic, led by Twitter at 25.6%.
- YouTube generates 19.9% of Tumblr’s social media referral traffic.
- Referrals overall comprise 2.9% of traffic, with Archiveofourown.com at 13.81%.
- AI platforms like ChatGPT drive just 0.052% (74K visits) of total traffic.
- Internal reblogs amplify visibility, with 95% of 50 billion posts being re-shared.
- Ecommerce referrals from Tumblr average $1.10 per visit, up 340% year-over-year.
Revenue and monetization strategies involving Tumblr
- Tumblr’s annual revenue stands at approximately $65 million.
- Post+ feature enables creators to charge $3.99–$9.99 monthly, with Tumblr taking a 5% cut.
- iOS in-app revenue surged 125% since the parody verification launch, reaching $263,000 net.
- 380 million monthly visits generate a potential 2.47 billion pageviews, implying $2.4 million at $1 RPM.
- Manscaped achieved 524% more revenue on Tumblr with 50% fewer ad dollars versus other platforms.
- Sponsored posts and branded content form the core of Tumblr’s advertising model.
- Automattic pursues data partnerships with OpenAI and Midjourney for AI training revenue.
- Referral traffic drives indirect earnings via affiliate links to Etsy and eBay.
Tumblr Employee Retention and Turnover Overview
- Approximately 29% of Tumblr’s workforce stays with the company for only 1 year, highlighting a high short-term employee turnover rate.
- Just 14% of Tumblr employees continue working at the company for 5 years, indicating limited long-term staff retention.

Advertising and marketing approaches on Tumblr
- Brands leverage Tumblr’s visual focus with sponsored posts averaging 10,000 reblogs.
- 70% of Tumblr users under 35 years drive lifestyle campaigns.
- Sponsored posts achieve 2.8% engagement rate, 32% above the industry average.
- The FX campaign gained 86% follower increase via creative GIFs.
- SweeTARTS ads delivered 9.8 million impressions and 410% follower growth.
- Visit Britain saw 200% blog impressions from paid ads.
- 95% of brand posts are photos, earning 98% of reblogs.
- Clinique’s millennial campaign lifted brand trust by 15% among 18-24-year-old females.
- Average Tumblr session lasts 13 minutes 37 seconds, aiding organic reach.
- 31% of users engage daily, fueling fandom advocacy.
Influencer and creator presence on Tumblr
- Tumblr hosts around 135 million monthly active users, with 70% under 35, giving creators a large young audience for art, music, and fandom content.
- Roughly 40% Gen Z and 30% Millennials on Tumblr make it a prime portfolio space for emerging creators alongside platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
- Tumblr users spend an average of 20 minutes 46 seconds per session, supporting long-form, serialized creative work rather than short-form video clips.
- About 31% of Tumblr users engage daily, and 86% weekly, providing consistent interaction for ongoing creative series and fandom posts.
- Posts with more hashtags reach wider audiences, and Tumblr’s tag system helps creators tap into specific subcultures and interest groups.
- Engagement is heavily driven by reblogs, with viral posts reaching thousands of users as creative reblogs amplify influencer visibility.
- The average regular Tumblr post is reblogged about 14 times, while sponsored or brand-aligned posts can average 10,000 reblogs, showing strong brand–creator potential.
- Over 220 million total monthly visits and 72.3% mobile usage make Tumblr effective for authentic, high-engagement influencer activity rather than pure follower-count chasing.
- Many Tumblr users are deeply involved in fandoms, with nearly 48–70% of active users identified as Gen Z, a group highly likely to support creators on platforms like Patreon or Etsy.
Comparison of Tumblr with other social platforms
- Instagram garners 5.57 billion monthly visits, vastly outpacing Tumblr‘s 220 million.
- Facebook boasts 11.4 billion monthly visits, towering over Tumblr‘s traffic scale.
- TikTok attracts 2.1 billion monthly visits, emphasizing short-form video unlike Tumblr‘s niche blogs.
- X (Twitter) records 3.6 billion monthly visits, yet Tumblr edges ahead in some engagement metrics.
- Patreon sees 97.5 million monthly visits, closely matching Tumblr‘s 160-220 million range.
- Tumblr users spend an average of 20 minutes 46 seconds per session, favoring deep creative browsing over quick scrolls.
- Instagram and Facebook skew with 67% male and mixed demographics, while Tumblr achieves near gender parity at 51.79% female.
- 70% of Tumblr‘s audience is under 35, contrasting with older-skewing platforms like Facebook.

Impact of policy changes on Tumblr usage
- The 2018 adult content ban caused Tumblr traffic to drop 30% from 521 million to 370 million monthly visits.
- Traffic plummeted 29% overall, losing 151 million page views by February 2019 post-ban.
- Yearly visits declined from 521 million in 2018 to 213 million by 2023 due to policy impact.
- Early 2024 saw peak recovery at 376 million monthly visits before further drops.
- By mid-2025, monthly traffic stabilized around 160-220 million visits amid ongoing shifts.
- Daily posts fell from 84 million in 2014 to 30 million by 2018, worsening with the ban.
- 17% traffic drop immediately after the ban erased over 100 million page views in one month.
- 63% visits declined over 1.5 years post-ban reshaped user engagement patterns.
- 55.22% bounce rate in August 2025 reflects sustained moderation effects on behavior.
Growth projections and future outlook for Tumblr
- Tumblr projects 135 million monthly active users in 2025, reflecting modest stability amid slower growth.
- 612–620 million blogs hosted in 2025, up from 519 million in 2024, signaling niche creator resilience.
- Monthly visits dipped 5% to 160.85 million in August 2025, versus faster-growing platforms’ surges.
- 31% of users engage daily and 86% weekly, sustaining loyalty in art and fandom communities.
- 72.3% mobile access highlights backend enhancements for seamless interoperability potential.
- Post+ monetization takes 5% cut from creator subs at $3.99–$9.99/month, evolving revenue streams.
- Annual revenue steady at ~$65 million, balancing innovation with user experience for viability.
- ActivityPub support positions Tumblr for decentralized fediverse integration, attracting niche networks.
- 0.36% global social share underscores niche stability as broader trends shift.
- 70% under-35 users preserve cultural relevance in creative subcultures.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Tumblr had about 135 million monthly active users globally in 2025.
Tumblr hosts around 618 million blogs in 2025.
About 40 % of users are Gen Z and 30 % are Millennials, meaning 70 % of the user base is under age 35.
The tumblr.com site receives approximately 148 million visits per month as of late 2025.
Conclusion
Tumblr remains a vibrant hub for creative expression and niche community engagement, even as it operates on a smaller scale than mainstream networks. Session durations and referral behaviors indicate that users value in-depth content interaction. Tumblr’s monetization and marketing use cases continue to evolve, with influencer and brand strategies adapting to its unique audience. Policy shifts and comparisons with other platforms highlight both challenges and opportunities.
Looking ahead, Tumblr’s future will likely hinge on innovation and its ability to nurture the communities that define its distinct place on the web.
