Reddit just printed a monster quarter and still watched investors freak out. The beat was real. The scare was Google’s AI Overviews, and CEO Steve Huffman spent earnings week saying the quiet part out loud: the old “10 blue links” economy built the open web. The summary box has not replaced that value exchange.
The beat, then the bruise
Per Reddit’s Q2 2026 results release:
| Metric | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | **$805M** (+61% YoY) |
| Daily active uniques | **130.3M** (+18%) |
| Net income | **$253M** |
| Diluted EPS | **$1.25** |
| Q3 revenue guide | **$860M–$870M** |
Huffman’s on-record framing in that release:
In an increasingly automated web, the value of real human perspective has never been higher. Reddit’s commercial momentum reflects that.
The market heard a different sentence from the shareholder letter and call chatter: search referrals were choppy, and later in the quarter traffic got more volatile. Shares sold off hard after the print anyway. Strong ads, soft discovery story.
Huffman’s charge against AI Overviews
On the earnings circuit, Huffman drew a straight line from product design to publisher economics:
If we look at the Google ecosystem, the 10 blue links have driven a tremendous amount of value for the whole ecosystem. AI Overviews has yet to make a similar level of positive impact, and that seems consistent across the broader landscape.
And the line that will get screenshot forever:
Some of the tension is that people want Reddit, they don’t necessarily want a summary of Reddit. They want the human perspective, the multiple perspectives, the lived experience that we provide.
He also said Reddit is “still just looking for that win-win” while Google is mid-product transition, and that there is no simple binary decision on the Google relationship. Translation for operators: licensing money and referral traffic are no longer the same conversation.
Reddit already sells data access into the AI stack (OpenAI and Google show up in “other revenue,” $43M in Q2, +24% YoY). That is not the same as getting the click when someone Googles a messy human question.
What the independent click data says
Pew Research tracked browsing from 900 U.S. adults in March 2025:
| Behavior | With AI summary | Without |
|---|---|---|
| Click a traditional result link | **8%** of visits | **15%** |
| Click a link inside the summary | **1%** | n/a |
| End browsing session after the SERP | **26%** | **16%** |
Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit were among the most cited sources in both summaries and classic results. Being cited is not the same as being clicked. That is the entire Huffman complaint in a table.
Google’s counter
Google Search head Liz Reid, in the company’s official Search blog, argues aggregate organic click volume to websites is “relatively stable” year over year, that “quality clicks” (no quick bounce-back) are slightly up, and that third-party decline narratives often use flawed methods. Google’s pitch: more queries, more links on the page, deeper clicks when people do leave.
Both stories can be “true” in different frames. Google can ship stable total clicks while individual publishers watching logged-out SEO funnels feel the floor move. Huffman is speaking from that publisher seat, even while Reddit books AI licensing checks.
Confirmed vs still fuzzy
| Claim | Status |
|---|---|
| Q2 beat + choppy search referrals commentary | Confirmed via Reddit IR / Huffman remarks |
| AI Overviews not a “win-win” yet for Reddit | Huffman on the record |
| Reddit ending Google licensing tomorrow | **Not** announced; Huffman says options open, maximize long-term value |
| Pew: fewer clicks when summaries appear | Confirmed in Pew’s study design |
| Google: aggregate organic clicks stable YoY | Confirmed in Google’s Search blog |
What this means if you publish for a living
Treat AI Overviews as a distribution tax on informational queries, not a vibes debate.
Build direct traffic and community loops the way Huffman says Reddit is: retention over rented SERP luck.
Do not confuse being cited in a summary with being paid or visited.
Watch the Google licensing renegotiation as a precedent fight for every mid-size publisher sitting on a data deal.
Huffman’s “win-win” line is the cleanest publisher ask of 2026: either AI Overviews send real, durable traffic again, or the old licensing-plus-referrals bundle stops looking like a partnership.
Follow the AI feed for the next Google Search blog update or Reddit IR letter.