Subreddit health
Reddit was always showing the total amount of people in a particular subreddit. However, many joined Redditors stopped visiting over the years. This made judging the health of particular Reddit communities hard to do. But not anymore.
Now if you open a subreddit you'll see weekly visitors and weekly contributions paitining much more realistic picture. I was always interested in comparing the programming language communities sizes, so let's do that.
Community strength
Let's have a brief look on community strengh on Reddit for the main programming languages and their main frameworks, ranking from top to bottom. Please note that this is still not a good rating for the size of a particular community, but it does help with the overall comparison.
I ranked them by current weekly visitors followed by contributions when tied. The other metrics are important as well. How many people contribute? How big a post can get regarding upvotes and comments? And as a fun factor, what have the best posts in common?
0. Programming
331k weekly visitors, 4k weekly contributions
The parent of all programming subreddits is certainly the /r/programming. The best posts get to 8000+ likes and 600+ comments. The popular posts are more high level news across languages, stacks, and tech which will be no surprise to anyone. And yes, it's kind of cheating to put this subreddit on the first position, but I think it would be wrong to omit it.
1. Python
236k weekly visitors, 1.6k weekly contributions
Nobody is blinking an eye while I tell you the most popular programming language of Reddit is Python. The best posts reach 1000+ lines and 300+ comments. Popular posts are mix of news, concerns about the language, and questions. It certainly benefits from being present in many areas including machine learning and web. Python is also the top language on TIOBE's November 2025 list.
2. C#
187k weekly visitors, 2.2k weekly contributions
Python is number one as a programming language but C# is not that far behind and takes a second place. Impressive subreddit numbers especially considering contributors. The post popular posts get 2000+ upvotes and 400+ comments and are usually mix of fun posts, announcements, questions, news, and love letters.
3. Rust
184k weekly visitors, 3.7k weekly contributions
Rusts posts reach to 2000+ upvotes and 500+ comments. One successful post is a rant for leaving to C++, the others being mostly news and releases. I also found a couple of warning posts to others about buying certain books blamed to be AI slop. That's quite interesting to me as an author. Very interesting mix indeed.
4. .NET
171k weekly visitors, 3k weekly contributions
.NET is very popular subreddit even though is placed behind C#. The most popular posts are memes, announcements, case studies, and love letters reaching 1500+ upvotes and 700+ comments. I always considered .NET to be way too corporate, but maybe there is a cool factor to it?
5. Next.js
142k weekly visitors, 1.4k weekly contributions
I wouldn't personally guessed that Next will take the 5th spot. Seems way more popular on the outskirt. The popular posts are a mix of memes and cool projects but also posts on leaving Next.js for greener pastures. They reach to 1000+ upvotes and 200+ comments.
6. Go
142k weekly visitors, 1.3k weekly contributions
Go is basically neck to neck with Next.js and some posts are certainly overtaking the JavaScript counterpart with 2000+ upvotes and 300+ comments. The mix of posts are lessons learned and love letters which to be is the best outcome for a programming language community.
7. SQL
121k weekly visitors, 799k weekly contributions
SQL is not your typical programming language but can serve as a nice devider for seing what languages are above and which are below. Certainly way more people actually use SQL than those that participate in the subreddit. The best posts are cheatsheets, memes and fun stuff with up to 3000+ upvotes and 200+ comments.
8. Node.js
118k weekly visitors, 943k weekly contributions
A little behind Next.js is a pure backend JavaScript runtime with still more than 100k visitors in a week and almost 1000 people contributing. The best posts are memes, questions, and hot takes reaching 2000+ upvotes and 200+ comments. Node is the platform that stole devs from Ruby back in the day and a favourite backend for beginners (if they even use a backend).
9. C
107k weekly visitors, 1.4k weekly contributions
The old and mighty C still gets traction on Reddit with numbers above the 100k fold. One interesting thing that differenciate C subreddit is that popular posts are about sharing cool projects reaching 3000+ upvotes and 300+ comments. Similar to the Go mix, this feels right.
10. C++
97k weekly visitors, 2.1k weekly contributions
The C successor enjoys a little bit less popularity than C itself – but not by much and with more weekly contributions. Yearly top posts include news, lessons learned, and questions. They can get to 1000+ upvotes and 300+ comments. Fun fact, I read a book on C++ once but never used the language.
11. Java
85k weekly visitors, 1k weekly contributions
I'll admit I expected Java's numbers higher. I would even expected a proper JVM subreddit. Seems that .NET takes all the spotlight when it comes to Reddit. Top posts are a mix of releases, knowledge sharing, and questions going up to 2000+ upvotes and 300+ comments. The only saving grace for Java is that it's still higher than pure JavaScript sub.
12. React
79k weekly visitors, 676 weekly contributions
The biggest and most popular JavaScript front-end library is React. When you compare it to Next.js numbers, it's clear that React is now becoming an invisible rendering part of frameworks. I would expect a bit higher numbers but here we are. Cool projects, memes, interesting facts, knowledge sharing and cheatsheets all made it to the most popular posts this year with up to 2000+ upvotes and 200+ comments.
13. JavaScript
61k weekly visitors, 600 weekly contributions
JavaScript, linga franca of the web, enjoys over 60k weekly visitors. Seems like the victim of its generality, people join directly Next.js, React, and other smaller subreddits. Top posts were about security, releases, and news with up to 1000+ upvotes and 100+ comments.
14. Django
42k weekly visitors, 423 weekly contributions
The most successful Python framework for the web is more popular then en entire PHP sub. Perhaps the landscape is changing. Top Django posts include knowledge sharing and news and enjoys up to 1000+ upvotes and 100+ comments. Django might not be the sexiest backend framework but still get more attention on Reddit today than Rails and Laravel counterparts.
15. PHP
38k weekly visitors, 469 weekly contributions
PHP is supposedly running internet, however, that doesn't really shows up on Reddit. PHP as a whole goes after Django web framework in popularity. The most popular posts are news, love letters, and knowledge sharing. They go up to 800+ upvotes and over 100 comments.
16. Vue
37k weekly visitors, 267 weekly contributions
Vue is almost twice as less active as React, but on the other hand still more active than the OG of the MVC frameworks Ruby on Rails. Popular posts are mostly memes and fun stuff going for 1000+ upvotes and 200+ comments.
17. Rails
26k weekly visitors, 410 weekly contributions
Ruby on Rails is what I call the OG of modern web frameworks. It had its era and its peak, but we are far from the golden age. The subreddit isn't among the most active both for /r/ruby to exist and a simple slow growth of the community. Best posts get 200+ upvotes and 100+ comments. Announcements and knowledge sharing seems to drive the most engagement.
18. Kotlin
25k weekly visitors, 302 weekly contributions
Smaller brother of Java enjoys a decent 25k weekly visitors. If it was supposed to replace Java, it didn't happen. Some announcements, hot takes and tips can go for 500+ upvotes and 50+ comments which is decent and way above Scala which you'll find a little bit down the line.
19. Laravel
25k weekly visitors, 218 weekly contributions
I always thought Laravel is getting more spotlight than Rails these days. And it's very likely still true. However, Laravel redditors seems to be a bit less active overall despite some successful posts going for 1000+ upvotes and 400+ comments. Cool project sharing and discussion posts are doing well there.
20. Ruby
22k weekly visitors, 538 weekly contributions
Ruby language is not the sugar high it once was. I remember the subreddit having a decent number of people but the new statistics puts it even behind /r/rails (which had like half of the numbers). This might be connected to constant drama, political fights, and community split. Top posts this year went for 400+ upvotes and 300+ comments, but it pains me to say that those were political witch hunt posts among some announcements. Many people left.
21. Elixir
10k weekly visitors, 216 weekly contributions
Elixir is a modern language for ErlangVM. It certainly stole some numbers from Rails (I myself worked for an Elixir startup for 3 years) and Erlang and now sits on 10k weekly visitors while Erlang which I haven't put on this list goes for 913 weekly visitors (so 10x less). Releases and celebration posts did well with some getting almost 400 upvotes and over 50 comments.
releases and love letters
22. Scala
8.6k weekly visitors, 70 weekly contributions
The last JVM language on the list is Scala. Way behind both Java and Kotlin, but present and active. News, releases and job posts did well but only going for 50+ upvotes and less than 50 comments which is the worst kind of engagement after the last place on this list, Crystal.
23. Visual Basic
5.4k weekly visitors, 66 weekly contributions
I included Visual Basic because TIOBE puts it relatively high on 7th position, but it's strange isn't it? Well it's still 5.4k people weekly on Reddit reading about it. The main posts doing well seems to be questions, but only with up to 50+ upvotes and 150+ comments.
24. Perl
3.7k weekly visitors, 80 weekly contributions
TIOBE is currently putting Perl on 9th position but it's far behind in Reddit activity. Still the best posts can go for 300+ upvotes and 70+ comments, which isn't bad at all. Questions and announcements are driving most of contributions. A post about interview flustraction got the most engagement.
25. Crystal
456 weekly visitors, 2 weekly contributions
This one is personal. I love the design of the language – a Ruby built for modern times from scratch if you will. But despite the beautiful syntax and type system it didn't win in popularity. Some core team announcements and questions get a little bit of engagement.
Surprises
They are 4 big surprises out of this, at least from me (and from the old total numbers):
-
I think it's very interesting to see a strong activity in .NET and C#. I mean they both surpassed Java, Node.js, and Rust. Perhaps the enterprises are where the money are printed after all. Perhaps the corporate programmers have more free time to browse Reddit during work hours. Especially when they are full of memes.
-
I am surprised that Rails did better Ruby ever so slightly since the total numbers were way more in favour or /r/ruby. Rails even outranked Laravel which is another suprised to me. And while we are at it Django outranked them both. Django is really benefiting from Python even tho it's a framework with almost stale development compared to these two.
-
Go community is very popular and active and neck to neck with Next.js. It also seems to be very much liked since a lot of posts are the success post kind of stories. It's certainly well above both C and C++ which it tries to replace (but to be fair it tries to also replace the others). Still behind .NET and Rust.
-
Visual Basic and Perl are still in top 10 for November 2025 TIOBE index, yet their activity is quite low. I know very well from working at Red Hat that Perl has invisible presence (like being a dependency for lots of system stuff) but Visual Basic? The thing I learned programming with while in basic school? Alive and kicking.
Conclusion
People usually judge language popularity based on TIOBE index. It's a strong indicator of language usage even if it's not fully accurate. Looking at Reddit stats alone is certainly not better in any way, but it's kind of interesting, isn't it. Reddit moved on from showing total number of people joining subreddits so we finally compare the activity more accurately.
As any metric, Reddit one is flawed. The obvious one being that not every programmer is a user of Reddit. Reddit being very left leaning in general also alienates a lot of people that would otherwise participate, which is especially the case of /r/ruby. So looking at Reddit alone won't ever be sufficient.
