To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing tech highlights from 2015 that still resonate 10 years later. This update was for the week ending May 16, 2015.
Discord's logo, nicknamed Clyde, is a cute game controller.
Why Discord? Founder and CEO Jason Citron said:
We picked the name because at the end of the day it just sounds cool and has to do with talking. …
You want a name that is easy to say, spell, remember, related to the function of the product, available for ™, and has a website you can get. …
Discord met all the criteria that we had and we fell in love with the name.
You can create public or private servers, which can have multiple channels or chat rooms. And in addition to text, you can have voice or video chats.
In the first year Discord
gained 11 million users
and were growing at 33% per month.
They also needed some sort of income (nothing is free!).
In 2017 Discord launched Nitro, a subscription option with perks like an animated avatar, a higher upload limit, and using a server’s custom emojis anywhere.
Nitro is what funds the platform.
In 2020 Discord promoted the platform to everyone, not just gamers.
By 2020 Discord had 100 million monthly active users. With people at home due to COVID restrictions, lots of people in 2020 were spending more time chatting online.
Discord really wanted to expand beyond gaming, so they launched a new landing page with the tagline “Your place to talk”. It emphasized it was a friendly place for everyone to hang out.
Discord Celebrates 10 Years
Today Discord is one of the top sites on the web (as of this writing
it is #43 globally) with 200 million monthly active users.
You can connect your social profiles, gaming profiles, and music streaming profiles in your Discord Settings under Connections. If you are a YouTube Partner with Memberships you can even create a Discord server for your Members.
Discord Blog, 23 January 2017: Boost Your Account and Support Us with Discord Nitro
10 years ago this week Discord launched to the public.
It was designed as a chat platform for gamers. Founder Jason Citron started in the gaming industry and launched Discord when gamers were more interested in the chat features of his company's latest game than the actual game play.
It was designed as a chat platform for gamers. Founder Jason Citron started in the gaming industry and launched Discord when gamers were more interested in the chat features of his company's latest game than the actual game play.
Discord's logo, nicknamed Clyde, is a cute game controller.
Why Discord? Founder and CEO Jason Citron said:
We picked the name because at the end of the day it just sounds cool and has to do with talking. …
You want a name that is easy to say, spell, remember, related to the function of the product, available for ™, and has a website you can get. …
Discord met all the criteria that we had and we fell in love with the name.
You can create public or private servers, which can have multiple channels or chat rooms. And in addition to text, you can have voice or video chats.
Steady Growth and Monetization
They also needed some sort of income (nothing is free!).
In 2017 Discord launched Nitro, a subscription option with perks like an animated avatar, a higher upload limit, and using a server’s custom emojis anywhere.
Nitro is what funds the platform.
In 2020 Discord promoted the platform to everyone, not just gamers.
By 2020 Discord had 100 million monthly active users. With people at home due to COVID restrictions, lots of people in 2020 were spending more time chatting online.
Discord really wanted to expand beyond gaming, so they launched a new landing page with the tagline “Your place to talk”. It emphasized it was a friendly place for everyone to hang out.
The view from 2025
Discord Celebrates 10 Years
You can connect your social profiles, gaming profiles, and music streaming profiles in your Discord Settings under Connections. If you are a YouTube Partner with Memberships you can even create a Discord server for your Members.
It's still mostly gamers, with 90% of members having played a PC, console
or mobile game in the past 30 days.
It also has lots of tech and nerdy communities. Those are the kinds of Discord servers I belong to.
Connect your social, game and music profiles to your Discord account.
It also has lots of tech and nerdy communities. Those are the kinds of Discord servers I belong to.
Connect your social, game and music profiles to your Discord account.
It clearly hasn't become the spot for everyone to hang out, in part because it
has a bit of a learning curve. I feel like it also has an "old school IRC"
vibe.
Discord is still pretty niche, but I think that's part of the appeal. It's not
part of an existing platform, it doesn't require revealing your phone number
or email, and the folks who join tend to be fellow gaming and tech fans.
Instead of doomscrolling an infinity-long feed, you’re jumping into small
voice chats and conversations to spend quality time, hang out, and have fun
with your crew. Over the last ten years, these sorts of friend groups have
become the heart of Discord.
Discord is
asking people for their favorite memories
and are celebrating their birthday with sweepstakes (through May 19, 2025).
References
Discord Blog, 22 May 2015: 2015-015-21 AMA Transcript
Discord Blog, 26 January 2016:
What's Going Down in Discord Town
Discord Blog, 7 July 2016:
11 Million Players in One Year
Discord Blog, 23 January 2017: Boost Your Account and Support Us with Discord Nitro
Jason Citron, Discord Blog, 30 June 2020:
Your Place to Talk and the
2020 Discord Landing Page (Internet Archive Links)
Jason Citron, Discord Blog, 12 May 2021:
How We're Making Discord More Welcoming for Everyone
(updated brand identity)
Discord Blog, 13 May 2025:
Thank you for Ten Years
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