Bumble’s paying users are slipping as it bets on an overhaul later this year

As Bumble gets ready for a big overhaul meant to win back Gen Z users (who are pretty over dating apps right now), its latest earnings still reports that paying users are declining. In the first quarter of 2026, total paying users fell 21.1% to 3.2 million, down from 4 million a year ago. This has been the story for a few quarters now. However, during the call to investors this afternoon, Bumble has framed this as a deliberate shift toward higher-quality, more intentional users. So while total revenue dropped 14.1% to $212.4 million (though it did beat expectations), and Bumble app revenue fell to $172.7 million, its total average revenue per paying user increased nearly 9%. It also reported higher profits: Net earnings increased to $52.6 million compared to $19.8 million in the year-ago quarter (largely from cutting sales and marketing expenses). On the company’s investor call, founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd described the paid-user decline as part of an intentional reset. “This is a period of real transformation at Bumble over the past few quarters,” she said. “We have executed a deliberate reset of our member base. We made a clear choice to prioritize quality over quantity, focusing on well-intentioned, engaged members. That decision reduced overall scale, but meaningfully improved the health of our ecosystem.” Still, even with that framing, a shrinking paying user base is hard to ignore. That’s why much of the conversation on the call was more about what comes next. …