r/cats on SubMouse

About r/cats

In its own words:

Pictures, videos, questions, and articles featuring/about cats.

The community was created on Apr 14, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 19, 2026, it has gained 14,580 subscribers (+0.15%). Among the 17 communities on our cats list it is the largest. It sits just behind r/BeAmazed (#81) and ahead of r/stocks (#83) in our ranking. Reddit files it under the “animals” category and its main language is English.

What sets r/cats apart

r/cats is far more image-driven than most big subreddits: 41% of its recent posts are images, against a median of 9% across the Top 100. r/cats is more of a browsing community than a debating one: 6.7 comments per post on average, well under the Top 100 median of 16.2. For its size it is unusually busy: about 63.6 new posts a day per million members, more than 98% of the Top 100. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 0.70% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 98% of the Top 100.

Subscriber growth

Between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026, r/cats grew from 9,462,933 to 9,528,728 subscribers (+65.8K, +0.70%). That is about 1,645 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (8 so far), so it gets longer every week.

All-time top posts

The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/cats, from 2024 to 2026, ranked by Reddit.

After being homeless for 1,5 year, my cat and me are sleeping in our new apartment tonightu/ThreeDaysNish · Oct 8, 2026 · image
Gf brought home a cat that i don’t want. Now me and him are best friends.u/Hoofarted91 · Sep 7, 2026 · gallery
Cat with a tattoou/Q_D_V_F · Apr 13, 2026 · image
A very interesting series of events y'all should read.u/NoctisStar · Jul 8, 2026 · gallery
After 23 years together I think we’re at the end and I can’t stand itu/lovelyb1ch66 · Jun 7, 2025 · image
Just found this sweet baby in a parking lotu/aubreejohnsonx · Nov 8, 2025 · gallery
Cosmo’s ✨transformation✨u/Lucy_Koshka · Feb 4, 2026 · gallery
My crime: petting another catu/Desirai · Nov 29, 2025 · gallery
I just took the best photo in human historyu/LoudLavishLover · May 28, 2025 · gallery
My parents’ cat escaped and they sent me this pic of her trying to get back into the houseu/persimmonsareawesome · Oct 5, 2026 · image

What r/cats talks about

We read the titles of 659 recent posts (Oct 22–Oct 28), the words that come up most are “cat”, “kitten”, “help”, “baby” and “home”. Other frequent themes are kitty, name, boy, adopted, found and normal. Recurring phrases include “neighborhood watch”, “black cat”, “name ideas” and “senior cat”. By format, 41% are images, 28% are galleries and 17% are videos.

cat 159
kitten 30
help 18
baby 15
home 12
kitty 12
name 11
boy 11
adopted 11
found 10
normal 10
bed 9
life 9
happy 9
tribute 9
love 8
meet 8
orange 8

Popular post flairs: Cat Picture - OC (277), Advice (129), Humor (54), Video - OC (54), Medical Questions (39), Mourning/Loss (30).

Activity and best time to post

r/cats gets about 610 new posts a day. The public archive holds 3,696,110 posts and 24,634,815 comments in total, about 6.7 comments per post.

Images 41%Galleries 28%Videos 17%Text posts 12%Links 3%

Rules of r/cats

The moderators of r/cats list 6 rules. In short:

Respect other users
Spam, memes, ads, self-promotion, karma farming
No NSFW, animal abuse, or cruelty
Recent/Egregious repost
Disallowed topics
'Name my cat/kitten' posts are allowed, but require the correct flair + verification to ensure OC.

How to join

Open reddit.com/r/cats and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.

Frequently asked questions

How many subscribers does r/cats have?

r/cats has 9,528,728 subscribers (Oct 29, 2026), which makes it the #82 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 65,795 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026.

How old is r/cats?

r/cats was created on Apr 14, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years. The oldest post in the public archive is from May 10, 2008.

How active is r/cats?

Very active: r/cats gets about 610 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 3,696,110 posts and 24,634,815 comments. In a sample of 659 recent posts we counted 635 different authors.

What is r/cats about?

The community describes itself as: “Pictures, videos, questions, and articles featuring/about cats.” Recent post titles often mention cat, kitten, help, baby and home. Most posts are images (41%).

Is r/cats safe for work?

Yes. Reddit does not mark r/cats as an 18+ (NSFW) community, and its own rules forbid NSFW content. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.

How do I post on r/cats?

Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/cats accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos and galleries enabled. It has 6 posted rules, starting with: “Respect other users”; “Spam, memes, ads, self-promotion, karma farming”; “No NSFW, animal abuse, or cruelty”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.

Which communities are like r/cats?

Communities with similar topics include r/aww (37.9M), r/StartledCats (1.6M), r/IllegallySmolCats (1.5M), r/space (28M) and r/videos (26.9M).

Stats from public data (data updated Oct 29, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Oct 29, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/cats.

r/cats