Hey there! Have you ever wondered how long Discord has been around and how it became so popular? As an avid Discord user myself, I‘ve enjoyed watching Discord grow from a scrappy start-up to a vital social platform over the past 7+ years.
In this post, I‘ll take you on a journey through Discord‘s origin story, key milestones, and evolution into the thriving community hub it is today. Let‘s dive in!
Contents
Discord‘s Humble Beginnings
It all started in 2015 when three gamers – Jason Citron, Stan Vishnevskiy, and Jiho Lee – got together to create a better voice chat app for games.
Jason and Stan had deep experience in gaming and mobile tech and saw an opportunity to build something new. At the time, gamers relied on clunky apps like Skype or TeamSpeak for communication and coordination while playing together online. These apps had big limitations like latency issues, confusing interfaces, and no customization for gaming needs.
So Jason, Stan, and Jiho started Discord to provide the seamless voice chat that gamers wanted. After months of hard work, the very first version of Discord launched in May 2015 as a closed beta test.
Early adoption was swift – the app immediately resonated with gamers who were seeking an easier way to chat with their teammates. By September 2015, Discord opened up to the public and officially came out of beta.
Explosive Growth Among Gamers (2015-2018)
In its first year after launch, Discord gained impressive traction in the gaming world:
- 1+ million users by January 2016
- 5+ million users by May 2016
Gamers loved how Discord provided easy "push-to-talk" channels, minimal latency, and custom emojis/nicknames for their squad. Server owners appreciated the free channel creation and invite link features too.
Between 2015-2018, Discord relentlessly refined the app around gamers‘ needs. Here are some of the key gaming-focused features added during this period:
- Screen sharing to coordinate gameplay
- Video chat and Go Live streaming
- Robust community moderation tools
- Game integrations and bots for titles like League of Legends
- Friends list and direct messaging for building player networks
This laser focus on serving gamers helped Discord lock down significant market share. By early 2018, Discord had over 90 million users registered.
Branching Out Beyond Gaming (2017-2020)
In 2017, the Discord team realized their technology could improve communication for all types of communities – not just gamers. To signal this broader vision, they unveiled a new slogan: "Chat for Communities and Friends."
This kicked off a period of exponential growth as all sorts of groups migrated to Discord:
- Students formed study groups and class servers to collaborate more easily.
- Remote workers created "virtual office" spaces to stay connected with remote teams.
- Artists + musicians shared works-in-progress and gathered feedback from fans.
- Local groups from gaming clubs to gardening circles started local Discord servers.
By early 2020, Discord hit 100 million users – doubling its user base in under 2 years thanks to this expansion beyond gaming. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, adoption of Discord skyrocketed as people sought ways to stay social online while in lockdown.
To support these new use cases, Discord rolled out features like:
- Online stage channels and webinars for events
- Screen reader improvements for accessibility
- Server discovery tools to help people find communities
Discord as a Social Hub Today (2020s)
Today, Discord stands tall as a vibrant social hub welcoming over 150 million active users. Daily active users spend an average of 96 minutes chatting on the platform!
Roughly 50% of current users are part of non-gaming communities spanning all sorts of topics like photography, music, finance, and more. This reflects Discord‘s expansion beyond its gaming roots.
However, Discord hasn‘t forgotten its original community. Gamers still make up a substantial chunk of users, taking advantage of rock-solid voice chat and community building tools.
As Discord enters its second decade, the team is focused on bolstering community management and trust/safety features. Initiatives like blocklists, stronger mod tools, and boosted privacy controls aim to protect users as the platform grows.
The Discord Journey: From Scrappy Start-up to Social Giant
Looking back, Discord‘s journey has been remarkable. It started as a solution to a simple problem – lack of good voice chat for gamers. But the app quickly took on a life of its own.
Discord‘s appeal lies in fulfilling people‘s fundamental human need for community and belonging. The platform makes it effortless to hang out with others who share your passions and interests.
The founders‘ commitment to users – designing features based on user feedback – enabled this viral growth. Today, Discord stands not just as a communication tool but as a digital home for over 150 million thriving communities.
So in summary: Discord has been around for over 7 years since first launching in May 2015. In that time, it has evolved from a gaming chat app into an indispensable social platform at the heart of online community building.
I hope you enjoyed this walk down memory lane! Let me know if you have any other questions about Discord‘s backstory.
