About r/gamedev
In its own words:
The subreddit covers various game development aspects, including programming, design, writing, art, game jams, postmortems, and marketing. It serves as a hub for game creators to discuss and share their insights, experiences, and expertise in the industry.
The community was created on May 19, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 2,183 subscribers (+0.11%).
What sets r/gamedev apart
Compared with other large communities, r/gamedev leans heavily on text posts (89% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 34%). For its size it is unusually busy: about 27.2 new posts a day per million members, more than 82% of the Top 100. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 0.75% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 94% of the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (16:00 UTC) sees about 6.4× as many posts as the quietest (02:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/gamedev grew from 2,064,094 to 2,079,546 subscribers (+15.5K, +0.75%). That is about 351 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/gamedev talks about
Looking at the titles of 53 recent posts (Nov 3–Nov 4), the words that come up most are “game”, “games”, “llm”, “indie” and “good”. Other frequent themes are developers, point, feedback, player, npcs and devs. By format, 89% are text posts, 8% are links and 4% are videos.
Activity and best time to post
r/gamedev gets about 57 new posts a day. The public archive holds 411,326 posts and 4,685,603 comments in total, about 11.4 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Thursday (69 posts) and the quietest was Saturday (40). Posting peaks around 16:00 UTC and is lowest around 02:00 UTC.
Rules of r/gamedev
The moderators of r/gamedev list 8 rules. In short:
- Be Respectful
- Relevant Content
- No Showcasing Projects
- No Blatant Self Promotion - Context-Driven Link Sharing Only
- No Soliciting Employment or Collaboration
- No Paid, Pirated or Unlicensed Assets/Content
- Use Reports Responsibly
- English-Only Communication
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/gamedev 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 subscribers does r/gamedev have?
r/gamedev has 2,079,546 subscribers, which makes it the #533 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 15,452 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
How old is r/gamedev?
r/gamedev was created on May 19, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years. The oldest post in the public archive is from Oct 11, 2008.
How active is r/gamedev?
Very active: r/gamedev gets about 57 new posts a day (average of the last week). Over its lifetime the archive counts 411,326 posts and 4,685,603 comments. In a sample of 53 recent posts we counted 51 different authors.
When is r/gamedev most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Thursday and the quietest Saturday, and most posts arrive around 16:00 UTC, with the fewest around 02:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/gamedev about?
The community describes itself as: “The subreddit covers various game development aspects, including programming, design, writing, art, game jams, postmortems, and marketing. It serves as a hub for game creators to discuss and share their insights, experi…” Recent post titles often mention game, games, llm, indie and good. Most posts are text posts (89%).
Is r/gamedev safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/gamedev as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/gamedev?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/gamedev accepts both text and link posts. It has 8 posted rules, starting with: “Be Respectful”; “Relevant Content”; “No Showcasing Projects”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/gamedev?
Communities with similar topics include r/writing (3.4M), r/Design (4.5M), r/programming (6.9M), r/ProgrammerHumor (4.8M) and r/webdev (3.3M).
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/gamedev.