Before I deleted Tinder, I downloaded my data. I knew the app hadn’t worked well for me. I hadn’t expected the disappointment to arrive with such precise accounting.
From 2021 through November 2026, I made 299,416 swipes, including 12,106 right swipes. I got 161 matches and opened the app 15,935 times. The number of actual dates was easier to remember: zero.
Part of what kept me trying was a move. I lived in Lithuania before moving to Toronto in November 2022. In Lithuania, I used Tinder much less and still got several matches. A larger, diverse city seemed likely to offer more opportunities.
Instead, I used the app more and felt I got less from it. Over nearly four years in Canada, the occasional matches included profiles I suspected were fake, people in other cities or countries, and people whose dating preferences didn’t fit mine. None became an in-person meeting.
The exported data doesn’t identify the country behind every match, so it can’t provide a clean geographic comparison. What I can describe is my experience: far more effort in Toronto, without a date through Tinder.
Those 15,935 openings weren’t all long sessions. Often, a notification brought me in. I checked for a reply, sent a message, or looked briefly and closed it. Small visits, repeated throughout the day, became part of my routine for years.
Tinder wasn’t my only app. Over roughly three years on Hinge, I went through nearly 69,000 profiles, sent 1,516 likes and roses, and exchanged hundreds of messages. That led to about 10 dates, though no long-term relationship. There were at least people I actually met.
I’m originally from Eastern Europe and have lived in several countries. I know an app can’t stand in for an entire country’s dating culture. Still, this experience has become one of several reasons I’m considering eventually leaving Canada. I’ve felt how much a social environment can affect daily life.
I deleted Tinder because I no longer wanted to keep repeating this particular routine. I’m still curious whether other men in Toronto have had similar experiences—and whether people who’ve dated in different countries have seen their results change as sharply as mine.
