About r/worldbuilding
In its own words:
For artists, writers, gamemasters, musicians, programmers, philosophers and scientists alike! The creation of new worlds and new universes has long been a key element of speculative fiction, from the fantasy works of Tolkien and Le Guin, to the science-fiction universes of Delany and Asimov, to the tabletop realm of Gygax and Barker, and beyond. This subreddit is about sharing your worlds, discovering the creations of others, and discussing the many aspects of creating new universes.
Community guide
r/worldbuilding (#571, about 1.9 million subscribers) is oriented around: For artists, writers, gamemasters, musicians, programmers, philosophers and scientists alike! The creation of new worlds and new universes has long been a key element of speculative fiction, from the fantasy works of… Recent activity samples show 95 posts/day in recent samples (~52% text, ~21% image, ~18% gallery). Public rules we collected include: Be kind to others and respect our purpose.; All posts should include worldbuilding context.; Put in some effort.; This is a DIY community.; NSFW content requires special care..
What belongs here
Stay inside the room’s stated scope rather than adjacent fandoms or general off-topic dumps. Self-promotion and advertising are tightly limited—read those rules before linking your own channel, shop, or site. Civility and anti-harassment rules are explicit; personal attacks get you removed regardless of how right you think you are.
How it differs from lookalikes
Focused worldbuilding craft usually differs from freeform writing-prompt dumps or pure lore-quiz threads elsewhere. The length of the public rule list is itself a signal: skim all of them once before assuming defaults from similar communities.
Practical pointers
Read the current sidebar/rules on Reddit before posting; collected rules can lag. Common flairs in samples include: Lore, Question, Discussion, Visual.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Nov 23, 2009, which makes it 16 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 1,833 subscribers (+0.10%). It sits just behind r/ThatsInsane (#570) and ahead of r/linux (#572) in our ranking.
What sets r/worldbuilding apart
For its size it is unusually busy: about 49.1 new posts a day per million members, more than 87% of the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (23:00 UTC) sees about 4.3× as many posts as the quietest (04:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/worldbuilding climbed from 1,923,209 to 1,933,549 subscribers (+10.3K, +0.54%). That is about 235 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/worldbuilding talks about
We read the titles of 629 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “world”, “fantasy”, “fictional”, “project” and “magic”. Other frequent themes are lore, building, map, species, story and idea. Recurring phrases include “fantasy world”, “world building”, “valdevian chronicles” and “magic system”. By format, 52% are text posts, 21% are images and 18% are galleries.
Popular post flairs: Lore (194), Question (127), Discussion (120), Visual (94), Map (44), Prompt (19).
Activity and best time to post
r/worldbuilding gets about 95 new posts a day. The public archive holds 371,636 posts and 5,828,963 comments in total, about 15.7 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Monday (116 posts) and the quietest was Wednesday (83). Posting peaks around 23:00 UTC and is lowest around 04:00 UTC.
Rules of r/worldbuilding
The moderators of r/worldbuilding list 7 rules. In short:
- Be kind to others and respect our purpose.
- All posts should include worldbuilding context.
- Put in some effort.
- This is a DIY community.
- NSFW content requires special care.
- We allow non-disruptive advertising.
- The Full and Comprehensive List of Rules
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/worldbuilding and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many members does r/worldbuilding have?
r/worldbuilding has 1,933,549 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #571 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 10,340 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
When was r/worldbuilding created?
r/worldbuilding was created on Nov 23, 2009, so it has been around for 16 years.
Is r/worldbuilding still active?
Yes. r/worldbuilding gets about 95 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 371,636 posts and 5,828,963 comments. In a sample of 629 recent posts we counted 490 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/worldbuilding?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Monday and the quietest Wednesday, and most posts arrive around 23:00 UTC, with the fewest around 04:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/worldbuilding?
The community describes itself as: “For artists, writers, gamemasters, musicians, programmers, philosophers and scientists alike! The creation of new worlds and new universes has long been a key element of speculative fiction, from the fantasy works of To…” Recent post titles often mention world, fantasy, fictional, project and magic. Most posts are text posts (52%).
Is r/worldbuilding SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/worldbuilding as an 18+ (NSFW) community, and its own rules forbid NSFW content. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/worldbuilding?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/worldbuilding accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos, galleries and polls enabled. It has 7 posted rules, starting with: “Be kind to others and respect our purpose.”; “All posts should include worldbuilding context.”; “Put in some effort.”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/worldbuilding?
Communities with similar topics include r/scifi (4.5M), r/Fantasy (4M), r/SpecArt (1.5M), r/lotrmemes (3.1M) and r/4chan (1.4M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/worldbuilding.