Tinder’s interactive ‘Swipe Night’ stories return after a 20 million user turnout

Over the last year, Tinder has experimented with creative ways for people to connect beyond just swiping right. Pandemic or not, it’s hard to make the first move — so why not break the ice by weathering a virtual apocalypse with a potential date? Today, Tinder announced that it will launch its second “Swipe Night” series after its first installment garnered engagement from over 20 million users.

Tinder launched Swipe Night in 2019 as an interactive “choose your own adventure” story at a time when the app had experienced a decline in one of its user engagement metrics and saw a dip in quarterly revenue. In the months since, COVID slowed Tinder’s revenue further, but more recently, it’s been rebounding.

Noting that its user base was half Gen Z (ages 18-25), Tinder hired now 25-year-old director Karena Evans, who has also directed music videos for Drake, as well as the premiere of HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” reboot. The Swipe Night story invited users to choose what they would do in the apocalypse, swiping left or right to indicate their decisions as a character in the story. Based on how they swiped, users would get matched with other Swipe Night participants, and their choices would appear on their Tinder profile.

“All of this new information will make for plenty of material for post-apocalyptic banter,” the company had said.

Skeptics might find this to be an inorganic way to boost user engagement and matches, but on Swipe Nights, there was a 26% increase in matches compared with a typical Sunday night, Tinder now reports. The interactive video series was even recognized at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

The next installment for Swipe Night will be a “Gen Z whodunnit,” Tinder announced today.