According to @mastodonusercount@mastodon.social, there are now 12 million #Mastodon accounts.

This is good news for the growth of the #Fediverse, but there's a caveat.

Other than on mastodon.social, Mastodon sign-ups are slowing down. In my own estimation, the majority of Mastodon servers aren't experiencing any growth -- and many are losing servers.

At one point, https://joinmastodon.org was critical to driving sign-ups amongst many Mastodon servers. But from what numerous admins tell me, sign-ups from there have slowed to a trickle.

With https://home.social closing down soon, I fear this is a harbinger for more big server shutdowns. That is, unless something is done.

However, Mastodon isn't the entirety of the story.

It looks like *key apps are spurring more user adoption.

#Misskey is now the 2nd most used Fediverse software after Mastodon.

And within a month, #Calckey has nearly doubled in size -- despite the flagship server (which I admin) overcoming a few key challenges.

Of course, the arrival of #Barcelona will change everything. How? I don't entirely know.

But now with 12 million Mastodon users, it's time for the next chapter of the Fediverse.