Research:Investigating the 2021–present registration decline
Duration: 2024-11 – 2025-01
Abstract
editRegistrations have declined by 35% since 2019, causing a similar decline in new active editors. This trend started at some point between mid-2020 and mid-2021 and continues to the present.
The decline is seen across wikis and across interfaces and among users with verified email addresses. It does not match the timing of any major software or configuration change (including Vector 2022). It closely matches a decline in IP edits.
It seems likely that the cause is some broad, global trend external to the Wikimedia movement, like a decline in authentic readership (masked in our metrics by unidentified bots and data issues) or interest in contributing.