Stack Overflow is now seeing question activity levels not seen since 2009. The site that once defined developer Q&A is facing a steep and possibly terminal decline.
Marc Gravell, a top 10 all-time contributor at Stack Overflow, shared a worrying graph showing the decline of the platform:
Stack Overflow was growing steadily from 2009 to 2014, with its first decline in 2014-2020 coinciding with stricter moderation and faster question closures. A sudden spike in 2020 during COVID lockdowns accelerated further after ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Now in 2025, the site is down to its launch-era activity levels.
Moderation friction may have started Stack Overflow’s fall, but LLMs like ChatGPT are finishing the job. Why wait for peer review and potential hostility when an AI assistant answers instantly and politely?
Will Stack Overflow recover? Only time can tell.
Read more on Marc Gravell’s X profile.
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