Brandwatch Bulletin #111: Have NFTs Fallen From Favor?

How interest looks in three areas.

18 March 2022

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, seem to have come out of nowhere over the last couple of years–despite the technology existing since 2014. But is their time in the sun already over? We’ve tried to find out.

Let’s get to it.

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The many sides of NFT interest

Last week, Forbes contributor Paul Tassi published an article about how interest in NFTs is falling (here’s a good explainer on the controversial world of NFTs if you’re not familiar with it). Tassi based this on search interest, and this got us thinking.

Is media and social media interest in NFTs falling too?

First, let’s look at the search data. We replicated Tassi’s chart below, although ours looks at the whole NFT topic, rather than just searches for the keyword “NFTs” specifically.

The fall in search interest is impossible to miss. After peaking in January 2022, searches quickly fell away, with today’s levels down to where they were in October last year. The question is, why?

To start, as more people learn what an NFT is, less people will be searching for a simple definition or for basic info. These types of searches aren’t necessarily a bad thing as awareness is useful. Additionally, some people might be navigating directly to NFT websites and marketplaces without the use of Google.

But this fall is precipitous, and suggests there’s more going on. Another big driver of search interest is media coverage as it spurs readers to take to Google to find out more. According to BuzzSumo data, the number of articles mentioning NFTs has fallen week-on-week since February. Meanwhile, the average engagement rate for NFT articles has dropped significantly too.

This suggests that, as readers become less engaged with NFT content, publications have shifted focus elsewhere. This is no death knell of course, but the chance of someone being made aware of NFTs through the media has well and truly fallen since January.

Now, let’s take a look at the NFT conversation on Twitter and Reddit.

Here we see something a bit different. Again there’s the peak in January, but the fall in interest on social media is nowhere near as sharp. Levels are roughly the same as before they peaked, and they’re looking stable too. Clearly NFTs have more staying power on social.

Volume is only part of the puzzle though. Let’s turn to sentiment to get a deeper understanding.

Since January 2021, there were 5.3m positive NFT mentions compared to 2.9m negative ones. It’s no secret that NFTs have been heavily criticised online, so this may come as a surprise to some.

What can be easily missed is the sheer number of accounts discussing the topic, so while a critique from a big name account may get thousands of retweets, there are a ton of smaller accounts you don’t see who are praising the technology and community.

We can also see that the peak in social media interest was driven by negative comments; positive mention levels remained relatively stable at this time. What does this mean? It suggests that the negative response to NFTs is much less sticky, and rises with media coverage. Meanwhile the NFT community continues as normal.

In other words, NFT buyers, sellers, and enthusiasts have found a place for themselves on social media, and it doesn’t look like they’re moving on any time soon. General interest may be waning, but their support is not.

The picture isn’t the same on Twitter and Reddit though.

Clearly, Twitter is a much more friendly place for NFT fans. The net sentiment for Twitter NFT posts has only dipped into the negative once since 2021, while it’s become more positive in recent months. This shows Twitter were on the right track when they brought in NFT profile pictures.

Things aren’t so rosey over on Reddit. On this platform, the conversation has been mostly negative since October last year, and it was barely positive before that. Redditors have far more scepticism of NFT technology, while a major pixel art subreddit banned NFT posts entirely.

If we put this all together, it’s safe to say NFTs are not attracting the attention they once were, but this will likely shift and change whenever the technology hits the headlines. Regardless of that, the active members of the NFT world don’t seem to be falling away, and they’re doing their best to keep spirits high.

Only time will tell if their dedication is well placed.

What should we cover next?

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Stay safe,

The Brandwatch Bulletin team

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