Clubhouse has its worst month since release

Remember the audio-first (or audio-only) social network Clubhouse? And no one remembers anymore. A year ago, Clubhouse was on everyone’s lips, but now the number of downloads shows that the hype is almost completely gone.

AppFigures estimates that Clubhouse had the most downloads in June 2021 with 8.7 million new iOS and Android app users. This wasn’t Clubhouse’s first surge of interest, but it was the biggest due to the release of the long-awaited Android app a month earlier.

In June 2022, just twelve months later, downloads are estimated to have dropped by as much as 95% to just 332,000.

Interestingly, the demise of Clubhouse doesn’t necessarily mean that interest in this type of social media has faded. At least that’s not entirely true. While Clubhouse has been raising money rather than expanding offerings, the big players have been busy cloning features into their existing platforms.

These platforms already have users with their own audience, who do not have to wait for Clubhouse to do something. Spaces on Twitter is now gaining momentum, Reddit Talk is getting a lot of updates, and almost every other platform now has some sort of mode for audio + some kind of monetization for creators, greatly diminishing Clubhouse’s first-mover advantage.

Now the platforms are fighting for the creators. The platforms that offer the best opportunities – the audience and monetization tools – will win.