Instances Come and Go

A surge in Mastodon instances (servers) was seen from Mon Jan 19th, to Sun Jan 25th, 2026. Many instances "gave up again" - some 200 instances (those are servers, not users) would have been nice to come online, and stay online.

See the reddish-orange portions of this chart:

Note: the hump-shaped reddish-orange regions on the lower graph, noting "Active Instances" over time. Doubtless, some were possibly just "testing the waters", but how many just found it too difficult or annoying to persist. This trend is concerning, and powerfully reinforces this project's reason for existence.

Also: more Mastodon-related stats can be seen here.