Meanwhile, Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge and other dating apps, has seen mixed results on its apps. Along with Bumble, which offended many with a disastrous ad campaign earlier this year (the company has apologized), the major apps have lost $40 billion in market value since 2021. Bumble reported 10 percent year-over-year revenue growth and also revamped its app, while Tinder grew 1 percent in revenue and Hinge grew nearly 50 percent year-over-year, according to Match. But if Hinge, Bumble and Tinder are the noisy, crowded singles bars of online dating, these smaller apps are the quieter coffee shop or jog club. There may be fewer people, but they’re more likely to start out in a place where the singles have something in common.
The goblin dates model could offer a new approach that appeals to more reserved daters, says Jess Carbino, a former in-house sociologist for Bumble and Tinder. “This could be a great resource for people who are shy or hesitant to meet in person,” she says. She also wonders whether the low-lift aspect of gamified dating could make it easy to dip in and out of interactions, and entice people to meet in person.
Keeney notes that Date Like Goblins’ early beta users include people who are neurodivergent, immunocompromised or introverted, all of whom feel more comfortable getting to know someone through an activity rather than sitting down for a drink or coffee in person. She created the app, she says, partly in response to the frustration she felt with traditional apps that her persona could be hidden behind a paywall or obscured by an algorithm that couldn’t see what would connect them. People can choose to try to meet singles closer to their physical location or find people around the world, she says.
To better showcase someone's personality, prompts on Date Like Goblins encourage more in-depth profiles than a typical witty dating app bio. Some are quirky, like: “Would you rather live in a world where every song ever was by Pitbull or live in a world where the only song is 'Fireball' but it's been covered by every artist ever?” (Choose wisely — the answer to That (really says something about whether you can spend the rest of your life with someone.)
Still, Carbino says she’s not sure niche apps can truly disrupt the dating process; they may not address “the fundamental issues that most daters face,” she says. Mostly, burnout and difficulty making that right match. “They jump on the apps,” she says. “They date for a while, and before the algorithms have a chance to learn anything, they get off the apps and feel demoralized.”
As a result, dating apps get the most criticism. But they do a job that was once reserved for our larger social institutions and structures, Carbino says, like schools, churches, and family and friends: They help us meet someone to fall in love with. If people can’t find love through their communities, should they blame the people around them, as they do on apps?
Perhaps the gaming aspect of Date Like Goblins can tap into that sense of community. So many people have met friends or partners through online games, Keeney notes. She hopes her app can provide an “easy way to connect with people” online, for those eager to find a romantic partner or more friends. “If this happens by accident,” she says, “imagine if we made this happen on purpose.”
