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If you've made it onto Raya, you can forget about Tinder, Bumble, and all the rest. That's because if you've made it onto this dating app, you've been deemed attractive and talented enough to soiree with socialites. It's the only dating app that accepts membership like a private club does, admitting people based on an application that they have every right to deny. Should you make it on, expect to find the personal profiles of some seriously famous people gracing your screen.
How is the game similar on Raya vs. other dating apps? How is it different? Surely the rules of Tinder don't hold here. Let's find out what this exclusive online community is all about.
As you might already know, Raya is pretty exclusive. It's the dating app used by celebrities and socialites, so it's low number of users relative to other dating apps should come as no surprise. All told, about 15 million Raya users exist. A-list celebrities like Ben Affleck and Matthew Perry have been spotted on it! You'd be lucky to even make it onto the app at all. If you’re struggling to get on Raya, there are many other dating apps with lots of potential matches waiting to be found! For example, Plenty of Fish had 150 million users in 2024, and Bumble has over 50 million users!
This is the only dating app that requires an application to be sent in and reviewed. Much like a private club, Raya can deny or accept your application at their whim, and most people can expect to be denied. But doesn't that just make it all the more tempting?
Everybody pays for Raya -- there is no free option. It costs $9.99 a month, and they made $3 million in 2021. Isn't it interesting how one of the most exclusive online societies asks for such a small fee? As with all rich people things, Raya has an atmosphere about it that transcends money; it is only for users with such a social currency more powerful than any amount of dollar, pound, euro, or yen. If this doesn’t sound like your thing and you’d prefer a dating app where you can get be successful without paying a single penny, why not check out Hinge? Only 4.6% of Hinge users pay for extra services on the app, meaning that most people find matches without paying anything. Similarly, only 0.2% of Plenty of Fish users are paying users.
What's even more interesting is that you have to pay even when you're on the waiting list. They're trying to build the narrative that it's a privilege merely to be noticed by the app. And it's working.
Would you pay $9.99 a month, indefinitely, just for the chance to mingle with beautiful famous people?
It's not that much. Some would say they're doing people like you a service, giving you so much leeway and opportunity to cross the field of vision of such influential and rich people. Do you have the fortitude and endurance to hold out that long without losing your nerve? When you finally make it onto the app and start messaging, will you be able to step up to the plate and impress the other person?
Raya is mainly used in the US, where they made $2.7 million. It should come as no surprise that Raya is mainly meant for cities like New York and Los Angeles, as very few other countries can offer anything as glamorous.
Raya vets their users heavily, and one way they do that is by keeping a strict 50/50 split between men and women. The dynamics of Tinder, where men swipe greedily on every woman they come across, aren't found here. Raya is like a party where you have to be extremely lucky to get in, and you carry yourself accordingly.
It's a rare thing indeed to find a dating app that has equal representation between men and women. Good luck experiencing it for yourself, as you have to be pretty much perfect to even make it onto the app. If you’re looking for another dating app with an equal gender representation, Ok Cupid has one of the fairest male:female ratios. 46% of Ok Cupid users are female, making it one of the most gender-balanced dating apps out there currently.
The reason Tinder is so lopsided with its gender representation is that they let everyone on. So it mimics the way male-female dynamics play out for most people. However, Raya operates on a level with a certain amount of sophistication. Like a socialite's party, Raya ensures that nobody is ever found wanting for company.
In return, you are expected to act with a certain amount of grace. Anybody you meet is almost certainly going to be more famous than you, so you need to bring your A-game to the socializing and keep their attention without being too forward. Are you prepared to do that?
As previously mentioned, the vast majority of Raya users are based in the US, at 92%. It's simply more convenient for, say, Channing Tatum to be able to assume you're in LA so he can send a limo to come get you. Allowing users from too many other cities just complicates things and frustrates people. You don't want to leave any of these people dissatisfied, that's for sure.
If you're wondering what kinds of other cities Raya users message from, it can only be the ultra-glamorous locales like Dubai and Hong Kong. Maybe if you're in one of those spots, you can meet up for a dip in a pool on a rooftop? Only if you've got the profile and online presence to wow the other person, of course.
How do men and women behave on Raya? When you start swiping, how many successes can you expect to get?
Honestly, Raya is the app where these sorts of numbers are the least descriptive. There's nothing statistical about what happens in this online community. You're either seen and selected by the person on the other side of the screen, or you're cast aside in favor of someone with more going for them. Sorry, but we don't make the rules. In fact, you'll be lucky to even start talking with even one person here.
Well, let's break it down anyway.
On dating apps like Raya, the success rate for guys is about 1 match out of every 40 likes. That's a 3% ratio of matches to likes.
One out of every forty ain't bad in the dating game. In fact it's par for the course. But you have to remember that users on Raya are special people, so a lot is going in to that one out of forty. No gestures on the app are shambolic -- they're always the highly practiced and sophisticated social maneuvers natural only to extremely attractive people.
The percentage of men that have less than a match per day is about 52%. Chances are, if you're the type of person who would need to read this article, you're probably going to get less than that. But it's okay! There must be something special about you if you've made it onto Raya at all.
The percentage of men that have less than a match per week is about 13%. That number might seem low, but this isn't just any dating app. Hell, you'd be lucky to get one match every six months on an app like this. That's the type of thing you put your blood, sweat, and tears into!
If you manage to get a match on this app and start talking to someone, it'll definitely be a story for the ages. It's the kind of thing that helps you make the evening news.
When using Raya, women can expect to get 1 match out of every 2 likes. That means there's a 50/50 shot that the guy they like will like them back. The success rate for girls is much higher, and their ratio of matches to likes is far more favorable at 45%.
Let's take a look at how men and women swipe. As can be expected, men are less selective than women. Girls, you've gotta make sure to vet the guys you come across, even if they're someone like Matthew Perry. Guys love the chase, no matter how much money they have.
Every dating app requires a bit of prerequisite knowledge before you can be good at it -- and Raya more than most. We hope this is enough to get you started. Good luck out there!