What They Did
Stack Overflow was the dominant Q&A platform for software developers, with over 200 million monthly visits at its peak. For over a decade, it was the first place developers went when they hit a coding problem.
How LLMs Killed Them
Developers switched to ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot for coding questions. ChatGPT was trained on Stack Overflow data, provided similar quality answers, responded instantly, and never judged users for asking "dumb" questions — a notorious problem with Stack Overflow's culture.
Timeline
- November 2022: ChatGPT launches; question volume immediately begins declining.
- October 2023: Laid off 28% of workforce (100+ employees). CEO cited path to profitability.
- 2024: New questions plunged 76% since ChatGPT launch. Monthly questions fell from 200,000 at peak to near 2008 launch levels (~3,800).
- 2024: Signed data licensing deal with OpenAI and launched "OverflowAI" initiative.
- December 2024: Questions down 60% year-over-year.
By the Numbers
- New questions down 76% since ChatGPT launch
- 28% of workforce laid off
- Monthly questions fell from 200,000 to near 3,800
- Traffic decline was already underway pre-AI but massively accelerated