Inside Discord where Gen Z hangs out and parents are not invited

Never heard of Discord? That might already tell your age. Born in 2015 in San Francisco as a free chat platform for gamers to plot moves while shooting zombies or building Minecraft castles, it stayed in that lane for a while.

Then somewhere between the pandemic and Gen Z’s allergy to Facebook, it ballooned and shapeshifted into their favourite hangout.
By 2025, that number had shot past 200 million monthly active users — no longer just joystick junkies but also students, coders, K-pop stans, podcasters, anime fans, activists, and anyone ducking family on Instagram. The chatter now stretches from late-night study circles and indie music salons to coder pits, sneaker heads, fandoms, and, on occasion, full-blown revolution headquarters.