TikTok US Traffic Rebounds to 90% Despite Recent App Store Ban and Shutdown

TikTok US Traffic Rebounds to 90% Despite Recent App Store Ban and Shutdown

By Alexander Mitchell

January 31, 2025 at 10:58 PM

TikTok's traffic has largely recovered in the United States, showing only a 10% decrease from pre-shutdown levels, despite recent app store removals and a temporary service interruption that caused an 85% usage drop.

Photo Credit: Alexander Shatov

Photo Credit: Alexander Shatov

According to Cloudflare Radar's head of data insight David Belson, DNS traffic for TikTok-related domains has nearly returned to normal following the brief shutdown. The platform maintained most of its user base despite being offline for approximately 14 hours and remaining unavailable on Google and Apple app stores.

While competing apps like RedNote experienced temporary traffic increases during TikTok's downtime, these spikes quickly subsided once TikTok resumed operations. Belson noted that competitor traffic "fell rapidly once the shutdown ended, and has continued to slowly decline."

The shutdown occurred after the Supreme Court upheld a law requiring ByteDance to sell its US TikTok operations or face a ban. However, President Trump postponed the ban's enforcement with an executive order extending the deadline to April 5.

Several prominent figures have expressed interest in acquiring TikTok's US operations:

  • Frank McCourt
  • Kevin O'Leary
  • MrBeast
  • Potential partial ownership by Elon Musk or Oracle's Larry Ellison

Meanwhile, content creators have adapted by:

  • Continuing to create content on TikTok
  • Diversifying to platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels
  • Responding to Meta's incentives for prioritizing Instagram content

Despite the ongoing app store restrictions, TikTok's resilience demonstrates its strong user loyalty and established position in the US social media landscape.

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