Reddit's U.S. DAUs dipped for the first time as AI search summaries cut referral traffic

Reddit's U.S. daily active uniques fell from 53.5 million in Q1 2026 to 53.2 million in Q2 — the first quarterly decline investors have seen. CEO Steve Huffman called search referrals "choppy." The drop signals AI-powered search summaries may be answering queries without sending users to Reddit, compressing the logged-out ad-impression funnel. Worth flagging: this is one data point, not a trend — yet.