Did Network Marketing Boom During COVID — And Is It Declining Now?
I’ve been thinking about something that doesn’t get discussed very much when people talk about network marketing.
What actually happened to the industry after COVID?
Because if you’ve been around online business for a while, it certainly felt like there was an explosion of opportunities during the pandemic.
People were stuck at home.
Businesses were disrupted.
Millions of people were looking for ways to make additional income.
And, perhaps more importantly, people who had never seriously considered working online suddenly found themselves spending much more of their lives online.
Network marketing was part of that shift.
COVID created a very unusual environment
During the pandemic, people had more time at home and fewer opportunities to socialise normally.
At the same time, online communication became completely normal.
People were using:
- Zoom
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Online training
- Webinars
- Digital communities
That made it much easier for someone to discover an online business opportunity without ever meeting the person promoting it face-to-face.
The global direct-selling industry actually grew during 2020.
According to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA), global direct-selling revenue reached $179.3 billion in 2020, representing growth of 2.3% compared with 2019. The number of independent representatives also increased.
The momentum continued into 2021.
So there really was a COVID-era boost.
But what happened afterwards?
This is where it gets interesting.
As lockdowns ended and life returned to something closer to normal, some of that growth went into reverse.
In the United States, direct-selling sales subsequently declined from their pandemic-era highs. The US Direct Selling Association describes the period as a correction following the unusually strong growth experienced during the pandemic.
By 2024, US direct-selling sales were around $34.7 billion, while the number of direct sellers had fallen to approximately 5.4 million, down 12% from the previous year.
Globally, WFDSA reported approximately $163.9 billion in direct-selling sales in 2024.
So compared with the extraordinary pandemic period, the industry is smaller.
But that’s not the same thing as saying network marketing has disappeared.
It hasn’t.
We’re still talking about an enormous global industry.
So is network marketing dying?
I don’t think the data supports such a simple conclusion.
What seems to have happened is:
COVID boom → post-COVID correction → much more normal market
That’s quite different from:
COVID boom → industry collapse
The industry still generates substantial sales and has millions of participants around the world.
The UK, for example, was among the markets reporting growth in 2024 according to WFDSA.
So perhaps the more interesting question is not:
“Is network marketing dying?”
It’s:
“Who is still interested in it?”
The audience may have changed
During COVID, there were huge numbers of people suddenly looking for something they could do from home.
Today, people have considerably more choice.
Someone interested in making money online can find:
- Affiliate marketing
- Freelancing
- E-commerce
- Digital products
- Content creation
- Trading
- Remote work
- Online services
- Network marketing
- Thousands of other opportunities
And they can research all of them before committing to anything.
That creates a much more competitive environment.
People are also more experienced
This is another interesting change.
Someone entering the online-business world today may already have:
- Bought an online course
- Tried affiliate marketing
- Joined an MLM
- Used traffic exchanges
- Bought solo ads
- Built a social media account
- Created a website
- Joined an email list
- Tried several different programmes
They’re not necessarily looking for their first opportunity.
They may be looking for something that solves the problems they encountered with the previous ones.
That is a very different prospect.
And that changes how we should promote
If someone has already tried three or four online opportunities, telling them:
“Here’s another amazing opportunity!”
probably isn’t going to get much attention.
But asking:
“What are you actually doing with all the traffic you’re buying?”
might.
Or:
“You’ve got visitors. But what are you sending them to?”
Or:
“What if you didn’t have to build the entire online business yourself?”
Those questions are addressing problems rather than simply presenting another opportunity.
This is why traffic interests me
I’ve been thinking increasingly about paid traffic.
If the market is more competitive, perhaps the answer isn’t to shout louder.
Perhaps it’s to become better at finding the people who are still actively looking.
That’s a much smaller audience than “everyone who wants to make money”.
But it may be a much more useful audience.
People already reading business emails.
People buying solo ads.
People using traffic exchanges.
People looking for affiliate opportunities.
People searching for ways to generate leads.
People who are already spending time or money trying to make online business work.
Those people have demonstrated something important:
They are still looking.
This is where Plug-In Profit Site becomes interesting
This is one of the reasons I’m still interested in Plug-In Profit Site.
I’m not looking at it as simply another network marketing opportunity.
I’m interested in the fact that it provides an online business framework containing a range of products, tools, services and training.
That creates an interesting proposition for someone who is already trying to generate traffic.
Instead of sending every visitor to one individual product, you’re potentially introducing them to a broader online-business ecosystem.
Someone might be interested in one part of it and not another.
And that’s potentially important when you’re paying to acquire visitors.
The market may be smaller — but that doesn’t necessarily make it irrelevant
This is probably the biggest lesson I’m taking from looking at the numbers.
I wouldn’t assume that network marketing in 2026 is experiencing the same explosive growth it experienced during COVID.
The data suggests there was a significant pandemic-era expansion followed by a correction.
But there’s still a huge market.
The opportunity may simply be different.
Rather than trying to convince millions of people who have never considered online business to become network marketers, perhaps the more sensible approach is to find the people who are already interested in building something online.
And then give them something worth investigating.
My takeaway
COVID created an unusual environment for network marketing.
People were at home.
The internet became even more central to everyday life.
Online communication exploded.
And the industry benefited.
Then the world reopened, and some of that growth disappeared.
But network marketing didn’t disappear with it.
The industry is still substantial.
The audience has simply become more competitive, more experienced and potentially more difficult to impress.
For me, that makes the marketing question much more interesting.
It’s no longer simply:
“How do I recruit more people?”
It’s:
“How do I find the people who are still actively looking for an online business — and give them a reason to click?”
That’s the question I’m interested in testing.
