martin@tschapke.com LinkedIn Legal notice Privacy EN / DE
MRT Martin Reza Tschapke

Article

LinkedIn reach has collapsed, but it isn’t gone, it has moved

Active creators on LinkedIn have lost around 60% of their reach in two years. In five charts, I show what happened, who sees your posts first today, which formats still work and what you can do now.

Oct 12, 2026 · 3 min read
by Martin Reza Tschapke
Empty rows of seats in a large lecture hall with concrete walls

If you’ve been posting on LinkedIn for a few years, you know the feeling: a post that would once have reached thousands now gets a few hundred views. You’re not imagining it. Reach really has dropped sharply. But not equally for everyone, and not without a reason.

Up to 60% less reach in two years

The most quoted figures come from Dutch LinkedIn analyst Richard van der Blom, who analyzes over a million posts every year. According to him, reach fell by 40 % in the first nine months of 2025, engagement by 35 % and follower growth by 25 %. Over the two years to 2026, active creators lost around 60 % of their reach.

Bar chart of the decline on LinkedIn personal profiles: reach 2024 to 2026 minus 60 percent, reach 2025 minus 40, engagement 2025 minus 35, follower growth 2025 minus 25 percent.
Analyses by Richard van der Blom.

Some context belongs here. Van der Blom works independently of LinkedIn, his report is paid, and after LinkedIn challenged one of his statistics, he has been re-checking his figures since August 2026. But many people who post regularly confirm the direction from their own experience.

Reach isn’t gone, it has moved

The main reason is a rebuild of the feed. In the past, mainly your connections saw your posts. Today, LinkedIn distributes posts more to people interested in the topic, even if they don’t follow you. According to van der Blom, the first wave of a post in 2025 still went 70 % to connections and only 5 % to people interested in the topic. In 2026, it’s almost the reverse: 10 % connections, 40 % followers, 50 % interested people.

Stacked bars for the first distribution wave of a LinkedIn post: in 2025, 70 percent went to connections, 25 to followers and 5 to people interested in the topic, in 2026 it’s 10, 40 and 50 percent.
Estimate by Richard van der Blom, October 2026.

For you, this means: a post that only speaks to your network loses out. One that clearly hits a topic can reach people who don’t know you yet. How LinkedIn recognizes topics, I describe in the article on the new LinkedIn algorithm.

More content, the same attention

On top of that, there’s more competition. LinkedIn has over 1.3 billion members, over 25 million of them in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. According to Microsoft, video watch time rose by 36 % in early 2025, and over 20 % more videos were uploaded in the fiscal year to June 2025. More content for the same time spent in the feed means every post fights for less space.

Three key figures: 1.3 billion LinkedIn members worldwide, 36 percent more video watch time in early 2025, 20 percent more video uploads in the fiscal year to June 2025.
Key figures from Microsoft and LinkedIn.

Video is gaining, carousels are losing

Formats are shifting too. According to van der Blom, native video has been gaining 15 to 25 % reach every month since March 2026, and simple phone videos clearly beat polished productions. PDF carousels, long the strongest format, have lost around 40 % of their reach since March. An external link in the post costs about 16 %.

Table of LinkedIn formats in 2026: native video plus 15 to 25 percent reach per month, document and carousel minus 40 percent since March, poll 1.78 times the reach at 0.37 times the engagement, short text post clearly weaker, external link in the post minus 16 percent.
Analyses by Richard van der Blom, 2026.

You don’t have to give up on carousels entirely. Over the report period as a whole, they were still above the average of all posts. But they’re no longer a sure thing.

In Germany, LinkedIn is a network for working people

How many people in Germany can read you at all is shown by the ARD/ZDF media study: 8.1 % of people aged 14 and over use LinkedIn at least once a week. Among 30 to 49-year-olds, it’s 14 %, one in seven, and their share has grown since 2025. For self-employed professionals who sell to businesses, that’s exactly the target group.

Paired bars for weekly LinkedIn use in Germany in 2026 and 2025: 14 to 29 years 11.3 and 12.6 percent, 30 to 49 years 14.0 and 12.3, 50 and over 3.5 and 3.9, overall 8.1 and 8.0 percent.
People aged 14 and over in Germany.

Where to start

  1. Write for interested people, not just connections. Every post should be understandable and useful to someone who doesn’t know you.
  2. Try video. A short phone video with one idea from your working day is enough. It doesn’t have to be elaborate.
  3. Use links sparingly. The post has to work without the link. More on this in the article on comments and links.
  4. Your own numbers, not the average. Check your post analytics to see which topics and formats bring you new followers, and keep going there.

I help self-employed professionals and coaches become visible on LinkedIn, with a clear personal brand and a plan for social media. If you’d like to talk about it, get in touch.

Sources

  1. Van der Blom, R. (2025): Post on reach in 2025, LinkedIn, 29 December 2025. linkedin.com
  2. Creator Science Podcast (2026): Richard van der Blom, The state of LinkedIn in 2026 (2026 report with 1.3 million posts), 2 June 2026. creatorscience.com
  3. Van der Blom, R. (2026): Newsletters #79 and #73, LinkedIn, 25 October 2026 and 6 September 2026. linkedin.com, linkedin.com
  4. Van der Blom, R. (2026): Posts on formats, LinkedIn, 20 June, 3 July and 17 August 2026. linkedin.com, linkedin.com, linkedin.com
  5. Van der Blom, R. (2026): Newsletter #67, The link penalty just changed, LinkedIn, 26 July 2026. linkedin.com
  6. Microsoft (2025): Earnings calls for Q3 and Q4 of fiscal year 2025, 30 April 2025 and 30 July 2025. microsoft.com, microsoft.com
  7. LinkedIn Pressroom: About us, Statistics. news.linkedin.com
  8. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions: Advertise on LinkedIn (DACH, in German). business.linkedin.com
  9. ARD/ZDF media study 2026 and 2025: use of social media platforms at least once a week (in German). ard-zdf-medienstudie.de

More articles