Britons are falling out of love with dating apps, a new report from Ofcom has found.
Tinder, Hinge, Bumbe and Grindr have all seen a drop in users with the first seeing a loss of 600,000 users, the equivalent of five per cent.
Meanwhile, Hinge dropped 131,000 users (three per cent), Bumbe lost 368,000 (2.3 per cent), while Grindr was down 1,000 (1.9 per cent).
The figures were published in the Online Nation annual report by the communications regulator which provides insights into internet usage in the UK.
It provides an overview of online behaviours including data on how they use it, their attitudes to platforms and potential concerns related to their online experience.
Splitting different age groups, for dating app Hinge, 31 per cent of those were 18-24, and 41 per cent were 25-34 while only 15 per cent were 34-44.
For Tinder, the most popular app, the picture is quite similar with only 29 per cent being 18-24, 37 per cent for 25-34 and 18 per cent for 35-44.
These two apps seem to be the most popular with younger adults, as their use appears to drop on other platforms.
What this shows is that across the board Gen Z seems to have given up on dating apps, Ofcom says.
The report said: ‘While this decline in UK online adult visitors since last year is only slight, some analysts speculate that for younger people, particularly Gen Z, the novelty of dating apps is wearing off.’
115 Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge, Plenty of Fish and OkCupid has reported declines in Tinder subscribers for several consecutive quarters.
It also says that Tinder has recognised this and says it will be ‘shaping an in-app experience that resonates better with today’s younger users’, having found Gen Z users were seeking ‘a lower pressure, more authentic way to find connections’.
LGBTQ+ apps like SCRUFF, Grindr, Sniffles, and Squirt have seen even lower engagement from the 18-24 age group.
Badoo has just 3 per cent, Sniffles 5 per cent, Grindr 7 per cent, and Squirt 11 per cent. SCRUFF performed the worst, with no users in the younger age category at all.
James Preece, a dating coach, told the Times: ‘Everyone that rings me up or speaks to me hates the dating apps. It’s a necessary evil. They feel they have to do them to meet people but they’re not getting the success that they should be.’
The report goes to show that the overall picture shows men still outnumber women in the dating app spaces.
The gender composition on the app is almost equal when it comes to Hinge but on most of the other platforms, men tend to make up the majority of users.
On the supposed most romantic day of the year, nearly two million people visited an online dating service.
The report said: ‘.Reach on Valentine’s Day was not markedly higher than usual, however; total online dating services’ adult audience exceeded 2 million per day on the weekend after Valentines Day.’
Data also shows that men remained far more likely to visit a pornographic website, and made up 72 per cent of the audience in May.
With blokes spending an average one hour and 44 minutes in May while women spent only an hour.
Pornhub continued to be the most visited porn site on the internet for both men and women with adults spending an average of 50 minutes on the website for the entire month.
During this, 25-34-year-olds made up the largest share of the website’s audience.
