Reddit’s CEO says r/popular ‘sucks,’ and it’s going away
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. | Photo: Getty ImagesReddit is moving away" from r/popular, the default feed for new users, and plans to replace it with better, more relevant and personalized feeds," according to CEO Steve Huffman (aka Spez). Huffman also notes that r/popular sucks."
For a long while, we were known as the front page of the internet,' but we've outgrown a singular front page for everyone," Huffman says. You have different interests than I do, and your Reddit should look different from mine. And from your neighbor's, or your coworker's, or your best friend's."
Regarding r/popular, he says that in theory, it's what's most popular on Reddit, but it's actually what is liked by the most active users on Reddit-which is not the same thing. Having it as a default feed gives the false impression of a singular Reddit culture, one that is neither representative of Reddit nor appealing to new users (or anyone at all, IMO)." So, in the near future," Reddit is going to stop showing it to new users, and unless you read it regularly, we'll remove it from the core group of feeds in the app."
The changes to r/popular will start showing up to some users as early as this week, spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt tells The Verge. Reddit originally made r/popular the default for logged-out users in 2017.
Huffman didn't go into detail on what the improved feeds might look like, and Rathschmidt says that the company is still in early-stage testing and don't have more to share at the moment." However, Huffman did reply to a post asking for the return of News feed filters by saying that he's fully aligned here" and that when I talk about more personalized and relevant feeds, this sort of functionality is what I'm referring to."
Reddit is also in the process of changing its policies for moderators to prevent users from overseeing a large number of high-traffic communities, seemingly to reduce the number of so-called powermods." As announced in September, beginning March 31st, 2026, users will only be able to moderate up to five communities that have over 100K weekly visitors. The company says that the change will impact less than 0.1% of active mods."
Distinct communities require distinct leaders," Huffman says. A situation where someone moderates an unlimited number of massive communities is not that, which is why we're making a few changes."