Less than one-third of Sniffies users identified as gay in 2025, with bisexual men narrowly outnumbering gay men on the popular cruising app, according to the platform’s annual “Sniffies Download” report analyzing user data, profiles, and behavior.
The report found that 32.1% of users identified as bisexual, compared to 31.4% who identified as gay.
Another 10.2% of users identified as bicurious, while 18.1% described themselves as “straight-curious” — predominantly straight but interested in same-sex activity — and 7.8% identified as straight.
The breakdown underscores that cruising isn’t limited to the gay community and highlights how fluid sexual identity can be, even among users who are overwhelmingly seeking male-on-male sexual encounters.
“Many of our users are a little bit more discreet,” says Eli Martin, Sniffies’ chief marketing officer. “When we launched Sniffies, it was really the idea of taking away labels a little bit and just creating a space where people could really just explore their curiosity.”
Martin adds that broader cultural shifts are partly responsible for the data. “These polar sides of being straight or gay is something that emerged due to homophobia,” he says. “So people couldn’t really even identify as something other [than straight], because it created more unease. But now, something like one in five younger folks say they are on the spectrum of being queer in some way, but they’re not necessarily identifying as gay.”
The Sniffies app, which attracts about 4.3 million unique visitors per month, is busiest on Mondays, the most popular day of the week to cruise. User data shows that around 1 p.m. — lunchtime — is the most popular time of day, with parks emerging as the app’s most common cruising destination.
Beyond one-on-one hookups, Sniffies also allows users to organize and attend group sex activities. In 2025, more than 2.1 million cruisers participated in over 200,000 groups, averaging more than 16,000 groups per month. The most popular group activity was “pump and dump” sessions, with nearly 600,000 users attending at least one during the year. Other group activities included bukkakes, orgies, “goon sessions,” in which participants masturbate and delay orgasm for extended periods, and blow-and-go oral sessions.
App-wide, the most commonly used “looking for” tags — which describe various gay subsets or subcultures — were Discreet, Bro, and Daddy. The most popular kinks listed on users’ profiles were edging, cum play, BDSM, facials, and exhibitionism, while the top three fetishes mentioned were ass, hard cocks, and armpits.
Sniffies data also highlights how sexual preferences and partner interests vary widely from city to city.
For instance, when it comes to fetishes, London led all cities in jockstrap enthusiasts, while New York topped the list for mask lovers and Providence, R.I., showed the strongest interest in uniforms. San Francisco ranked highest for used underwear, while Melbourne, Australia, had the largest share of self-proclaimed swallowers.
Preferences also diverged by city when it came to sexual roles. New York City cruisers were more likely to favor dominant and flexible positions, with the highest concentrations of dom tops, tops, vers, and vers tops, while Chicago users were more likely to identify as bottoms, submissive bottoms, sides, passive tops, or vers bottoms.
“Expression” data — referring to the tribes or subsets users identify with — showed that Boston had the highest concentration of “discreet” men, while Atlanta stood out as the “clean-cut” stronghold and Seattle ranked highest for the “guy-next-door” vibe.
Los Angeles had the largest concentration of “bros,” while Melbourne, Australia, had the highest number of both self-described bears and daddies. Sydney ranked highest for “curious” users and self-described “jocks,” while San Diego boasted the largest share of users with “femme” expression. Philadelphia users, meanwhile, were most likely to describe themselves as “masc.”
For users frustrated by anonymous profiles without photos, the cities to avoid were San Antonio, Texas, in the United States and São Paulo, Brazil, internationally.
Based on user activity beyond messaging, the cities with the most confident cruisers were Las Vegas, New York City, and São Paulo. Meanwhile, the “horniest” cities — measured by chats per capita — were Atlanta, Las Vegas, and San Francisco in the United States, and Havana, Johannesburg, and Cape Town globally.
“One reason we break the report into cities and countries is that Sniffies is unique and local to every area,” Martin says. “The photos might look different. The way people interact on the app might be different. Their kinks and fetishes are influenced by the people around them. So it creates a local cruising culture.”
The “Sniffies Download” report also examined users’ self-proclaimed endowments across different locales, with the Philippines topping the list of countries claiming the largest average endowment at 8.33 inches, and Japan reporting the smallest average.
Among individual cities, Yonkers, N.Y., topped the list with the largest average self-proclaimed endowment at 7.22 inches, followed by Baltimore, Md., Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and New York City, which rounded out the top five with a 7.15-inch average.
At the other end of the spectrum, Perth, Australia, reported the smallest average at 6.25 inches, followed by Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, with Calgary, Alberta, rounding out the bottom five at 6.48 inches.
Grindr has released its annual Grindr Unwrapped report, offering a snapshot of user trends and profile behaviors across the platform.
The report is split into two sections. The first draws on data from the gay dating app's more than 15 million monthly users, highlighting identity markers, sexual habits, fetishes, dating patterns, and connection styles.
The United States has been dubbed "Daddy Capital of the World" for the sheer number of users who tag themselves as "daddy" or list the subgroup under "My Tribes." Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada follow close behind.
On the edge of the Beltway Springfield, Va., is one of the last metro D.C. outposts that drivers pass heading south on I-95, one of the first indicators that the nation's capital is just over the horizon heading north. More romantically, this suburban space is a recurring character in Mike Albo's creations, whether literary or limelight.
"The feeling I had in Springfield, of longing to get away, I love that longing," Albo tells me, returning to childhood, in that he's long called Brooklyn home. "That longing is such a special force. This special force inside you that's a fire. It's a creative tool, and it doesn't go away. Even if you get away, the longing is still there. I always think of Springfield as this place of hope."
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.