With the implementation of the paid API, developers now face the cost of making requests on a per-request basis. The more popular an app becomes, the more requests it needs to make, resulting in higher expenses.
One prominent example is Apollo, a popular Reddit app for Apple products. According to a developer, Apollo could end up paying nearly $2 million per month. And over $20 million per year under the new API pricing.
This substantial cost has forced Apollo and several other third-party apps, including ReddPlanet, Sync, and Reddit is Fun (RIF), to shut down their services.
In response to the API changes and the adverse effects on third-party apps, thousands of subreddits joined a protest called Reddark, announcing a 48-hour blackout. These subreddits, including some of the most popular ones like r/gaming, r/food, r/funny, and r/aww, restricted access to their content by setting themselves to private.
This meant that users could neither visit nor engage with these subreddits until they were made public again. The blackout initially aimed to last for 48 hours, but even after the planned end date, over 6,000 subreddits remained private.
