The Max messenger has introduced analytics for channel owners — now authors can view statistics directly within the messenger. The new feature is available across all major versions of the service: in the mobile app, on desktop, and in the web version.
This update applies to both public and private channels. Authors themselves can manage access to analytics. For example, statistics can be made unavailable to other channel administrators.
Against this backdrop, the number of channels in Max continues to grow. In August 2026, there were already more than 11.5 million of them. Collectively, they have 480 million subscribers.
The advertising market within the messenger is also growing. According to Roskomnadzor, in the first half of 2026 alone, companies placed 1 billion rubles worth of advertising in Max.
Meanwhile, the average cost per thousand ad impressions in channels increased by 72% from January to June, reaching 606 rubles. These data are provided by a study from the Telegram and Max advertising exchange Telega.in, in collaboration with the contextual advertising management service eLama, part of the Yandex Group.
How channels are developed in Max
In the summer of 2025, the messenger team began testing public channels with about 50 authors — at that time, users gained access to subscriptions, reactions, and folders, while comments and view counters were still in the planning stages. By the autumn of the same year, it became possible to track post views, and the channel feature itself opened up to bloggers with an audience of 10,000 subscribers or more.
By July 2026, the messenger received comment support under posts in public and private channels — one of the most requested updates. At that time, the number of channels was already in the millions: for comparison, in March 2026, there were 3.6 million of them with a total audience of over 200 million subscribers, according to data for the first anniversary of the platform's launch.