Tracking studies found a sharp fall in ChatGPT’s Reddit citations

What happened

• The drop. Promptwatch reported that Reddit’s share of ChatGPT’s citations averaged 3.83% from July 18 to August 7, and 0.52% from August 14 to 17. That is a fall of about 86%.
• A second count. Otterly.AI looked at 16 brands in 14 industries and found ChatGPT’s citations of Reddit down 73.4% between early and mid-August. It calls that a conservative figure.
• What replaced it. ChatGPT’s total number of citations went up slightly, by 3.5%. Otterly found official brand pages gaining in most of its reports.
• Only ChatGPT. The other assistants Otterly tracks barely moved, with Reddit citations down 0.6%.
• The caveats. OpenAI has not confirmed a change. Both firms sell AI tracking software, and Otterly’s sample is 16 brands.

Our take

A common piece of advice has been to get your brand talked about on Reddit, because ChatGPT cited it so often. These studies show that citation patterns can shift sharply. They do not measure the effect on a brand’s revenue or the return on its Reddit activity.

Check sources beyond Reddit. Assistants change how they search without telling anyone. A presence across relevant sources may reduce dependence on any one channel; these studies do not quantify that benefit.

Keep your own pages accurate. Official brand pages gained citation share in Otterly’s reports. That does not show which page qualities caused the change. Your own pages are still a source you can directly maintain.

What to do this week

1. If Reddit was most of your plan, widen it. Look at which other sites are cited for your category.
2. Make your own site the best source for your own facts: what you sell, who it is for, what it costs.
3. Check again next month to see whether the cited sites have changed.