People start on that server, then wind up on other servers, often keeping their old account. I run a private server, but keep the old account for downtime. Those numbers are very misleading.

so how many people use Mastodon then? and how do you gain engagement if no one interacts? its a bit like shouting in the forest...

I just follow a lot of people. Some I followed on Twitter, but most are new. If you really want followers, post your cat, dog, lizard, or moss photos, lol.

There are usually estimated to be more than 12 million active users on the fediverse, and it's slowly growing. Mastodon servers are about 70% or so of that. My private server is mastodon, but I could run GoToSocial, Misskey, Lemmy, Pixelfed, or many others.

There's #FediTips for ideas and #FediHelp for ideas on a lot of things (not just the fediverse). The @FediTips user is good to follow. You might already.

It seemed a little slow when I started, but now it definitely is not. YMMV.

You shouldn't look at one server, the whole idea of this place is to be spread out on many servers.

If everyone goes on one server it becomes incredibly easy for someone like Musk to just swoop in and take it over. BlueSky is effectively on one server, and they are owned by a for-profit company. It would be very easy for Musk etc to buy them out in the future.

If we want to break this cycle we need to be on decentralised networks: https://fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse-on-so-many-separate-servers/

super interesting! thank you for the information, i will review and learn!