From 2017 to 2019, the mushroom conversation was generally in decline, despite a big seasonal spike in 2018. But from the later months of 2019, the volume gradually grew until we hit March and April 2020.

Yes, even interest in mushrooms was affected by Covid-19. This original jump was helped by an increased interest in mushroom growing as people looked to any and all hobbies they could do from the safety of their home.

While interest in mushroom growing remained stable, general mushroom interest continued to grow, especially as the Northern Hemisphere hit fall in 2020 and mushrooms were in abundance in the wild. While this died down a little going into 2021, it was back up again later in the year.

We can get a better look at the data behind this by focusing on the two largest mushroom subreddits: r/Shrooms and r/Mycology.

As we noted, r/Shrooms concerns itself with psychoactive mushrooms, and is a forum for people to discuss their experiences. r/Mycology on the other hand is for those interested in the biology behind mushrooms, and a place to get fungi finds identified.

When we look at historical data, we can see there’s been a steady rise in activity on r/Shrooms. Along with people discussing their latest trips, there’s also a lot of discussion around the supposed mental health benefits of these mushroom types. And, according to BuzzSumo data, the most popular mushroom article on Reddit over the past year was about the use of magic mushrooms as a treatment for depression in Canada.

Activity then nosedived later in 2020. We cannot be 100% on the cause, but we assume disruptions in supply and people socializing less in person due to Covid likely played a part.

The r/Mycology subreddit also saw activity rise over the years, although at a slower pace. It also saw a jump as the pandemic began but, unlike on r/Shrooms, activity peaked later in the year.

2021: The mushroom year

Many pandemic hobbies have since died off, or at least don’t see the interest they did back in 2020. That’s not the case here. Clearly something is making people stick with mushrooms.

Obviously there is the seasonal impact, but both subreddits have seen new peaks this year. Why?

For r/Shrooms, this is likely driven not only by the interest around mental health, a topic that came into sharp focus during the pandemic, but also by people feeling more comfortable socializing in person again. It would make sense that a lot of people are wanting to talk about an activity they’ve had little chance to indulge in for a while.

For r/Mycology, where the 2021 jump has been very high, there must be something else going on. There are a few possible factors. One again links to last week’s bulletin and cottagecore, which highlighted a growing interest in nature. Another factor is that the idea of wandering a damp forest documenting and collecting mushrooms is just more popular after Covid.

Backing this up, we found that interest in foraging has peaked in 2021. And the biggest topic in this conversation? Collecting mushrooms.

On top of that, another huge driver of the mushroom conversation was around the health benefits. This became obvious when we looked at the most-discussed mushroom species.

We expected to see fly agaric high up as it’s one of the most recognizable mushrooms out there. It’s got a classic toadstool look, as you can see from the below picture supplied by our VP of Brand, Christian Morris.

And we also expected chicken of the woods to rank highly due to its popularity amongst foragers (it tastes like chicken if you hadn’t guessed).

But both were pipped to the post by the lion’s mane and lingzhi mushrooms. Looking into the conversations around these mushrooms, we found them regularly recommended for their health benefits. This was the case for turkey tails too.

It’s not exactly news that mushrooms are healthy, but we can see the early signs of interest in mushrooms as a health food growing. Maybe it’s time to get that mushroom growing kit you’ve been thinking about ordering since March 2020.

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The Brandwatch React team