diff --git a/puppet/zulip/manifests/app_frontend_base.pp b/puppet/zulip/manifests/app_frontend_base.pp
index 8532a0dc06..0d9b35600b 100644
--- a/puppet/zulip/manifests/app_frontend_base.pp
+++ b/puppet/zulip/manifests/app_frontend_base.pp
@@ -188,6 +188,7 @@ class zulip::app_frontend_base {
     [regsubst($key, '_workers$', ''), Integer(zulipconf('application_server', $key, 1))]
   })
   $mobile_notification_shards = Integer(zulipconf('application_server', 'mobile_notification_shards', 1))
+  $user_activity_shards = Integer(zulipconf('application_server', 'user_activity_shards', 1))
   $tornado_ports = $zulip::tornado_sharding::tornado_ports
 
   $proxy_host = zulipconf('http_proxy', 'host', 'localhost')
diff --git a/puppet/zulip/templates/supervisor/zulip.conf.template.erb b/puppet/zulip/templates/supervisor/zulip.conf.template.erb
index 337f6486f5..96612944c0 100644
--- a/puppet/zulip/templates/supervisor/zulip.conf.template.erb
+++ b/puppet/zulip/templates/supervisor/zulip.conf.template.erb
@@ -84,6 +84,9 @@ directory=/home/zulip/deployments/current/
   if queue == "missedmessage_mobile_notifications"
     numprocs = @mobile_notification_shards
     term = "shard"
+  elsif queue == "user_activity"
+    numprocs = @user_activity_shards
+    term = "shard"
   elsif @worker_counts.has_key?(queue)
     numprocs = @worker_counts[queue]
   end -%>
diff --git a/scripts/lib/check_rabbitmq_queue.py b/scripts/lib/check_rabbitmq_queue.py
index fca71f0a8d..3cc6e3dbea 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/check_rabbitmq_queue.py
+++ b/scripts/lib/check_rabbitmq_queue.py
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ normal_queues = [
 mobile_notification_shards = int(
     get_config(get_config_file(), "application_server", "mobile_notification_shards", "1")
 )
+user_activity_shards = int(
+    get_config(get_config_file(), "application_server", "user_activity_shards", "1")
+)
 
 OK = 0
 WARNING = 1
@@ -175,6 +178,8 @@ def check_rabbitmq_queues() -> None:
             f"missedmessage_mobile_notifications_shard{d}"
             for d in range(1, mobile_notification_shards + 1)
         ]
+    if user_activity_shards > 1:
+        check_queues += [f"user_activity_shard{d}" for d in range(1, user_activity_shards + 1)]
 
     queues_to_check = set(check_queues).intersection(set(queues_with_consumers))
     for queue in queues_to_check:
diff --git a/scripts/nagios/check-rabbitmq-consumers b/scripts/nagios/check-rabbitmq-consumers
index ff465716a1..529e75aee3 100755
--- a/scripts/nagios/check-rabbitmq-consumers
+++ b/scripts/nagios/check-rabbitmq-consumers
@@ -62,6 +62,10 @@ for queue_name, count in consumers.items():
         target_count = int(
             get_config(config_file, "application_server", "mobile_notification_shards", "1")
         )
+    elif queue_name == "user_activity":
+        target_count = int(
+            get_config(config_file, "application_server", "user_activity_shards", "1")
+        )
     else:
         target_count = int(
             get_config(config_file, "application_server", f"{queue_name}_workers", "1")
diff --git a/zerver/decorator.py b/zerver/decorator.py
index a12a434f9d..0733210bd0 100644
--- a/zerver/decorator.py
+++ b/zerver/decorator.py
@@ -91,7 +91,13 @@ def update_user_activity(
         "time": datetime_to_timestamp(timezone_now()),
         "client_id": request_notes.client.id,
     }
-    queue_json_publish_rollback_unsafe("user_activity", event, lambda event: None)
+
+    queue_name = "user_activity"
+    if settings.USER_ACTIVITY_SHARDS > 1:  # nocoverage
+        shard_id = user_profile.id % settings.USER_ACTIVITY_SHARDS + 1
+        queue_name = f"user_activity_shard{shard_id}"
+
+    queue_json_publish_rollback_unsafe(queue_name, event, lambda event: None)
 
 
 # Based on django.views.decorators.http.require_http_methods
diff --git a/zerver/worker/user_activity.py b/zerver/worker/user_activity.py
index 36c2acceba..417b1ef5ff 100644
--- a/zerver/worker/user_activity.py
+++ b/zerver/worker/user_activity.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import logging
 from typing import Any
 
+from django.conf import settings
 from django.db import connection
 from psycopg2.sql import SQL, Literal
 from typing_extensions import override
@@ -33,6 +34,17 @@ class UserActivityWorker(LoopQueueProcessingWorker):
 
     client_id_map: dict[str, int] = {}
 
+    @override
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        threaded: bool = False,
+        disable_timeout: bool = False,
+        worker_num: int | None = None,
+    ) -> None:
+        if settings.USER_ACTIVITY_SHARDS > 1 and worker_num is not None:  # nocoverage
+            self.queue_name += f"_shard{worker_num}"
+        super().__init__(threaded, disable_timeout, worker_num)
+
     @override
     def start(self) -> None:
         # For our unit tests to make sense, we need to clear this on startup.
diff --git a/zproject/computed_settings.py b/zproject/computed_settings.py
index 2815949255..74fbaf149b 100644
--- a/zproject/computed_settings.py
+++ b/zproject/computed_settings.py
@@ -1279,6 +1279,7 @@ CROSS_REALM_BOT_EMAILS = {
 MOBILE_NOTIFICATIONS_SHARDS = int(
     get_config("application_server", "mobile_notification_shards", "1")
 )
+USER_ACTIVITY_SHARDS = int(get_config("application_server", "user_activity_shards", "1"))
 
 TWO_FACTOR_PATCH_ADMIN = False