The net advertising revenue of Instagram Stories worldwide was expected to amount to 11.43 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, marking an increase from the previous year's value of 6.9 billion. Instagram Stories ad revenue was expected to further increase over the following two years, reaching a projected 20.03 billion dollars in 2023.

As of April 2024, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 18 and 24 years, and 30.6 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16 percent of users belonged to the 35 to 44 year age group. Instagram users With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide. The social photo sharing app is especially popular in India and in the United States, which have respectively 362.9 million and 169.7 million Instagram users each. Instagram features One of the most popular features of Instagram is Stories. Users can post photos and videos to their Stories stream and the content is live for others to view for 24 hours before it disappears. In January 2019, the company reported that there were 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users. Instagram Stories directly competes with Snapchat, another photo sharing app that initially became famous due to it’s “vanishing photos” feature. As of the second quarter of 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users.

In 2023, Instagram Stories were by far the most common type of content posted on the social media platform. Overall, accounts with 50 thousand to 45 million followers posted an average of 130 Instagram Stories per week, as well as 28 posts, and 19 Reels.

In 2021, there were 1.21 billion monthly active users of Meta's Instagram, making up over 28 percent of the world's internet users. By 2025, it has been forecast that there will be 1.44 billion monthly active users of the social media platform, which would account for 31.2 percent of global internet users.

How popular is Instagram?

Instagram, as of January 2022, was the fourth most popular social media platform in the world in terms of user numbers. YouTube and WhatsApp ranked in second and third place, respectively, whilst Facebook remained the most popular, with almost three billion monthly active users worldwide.

India had the largest number of Instagram users as of January 2022, with a total of over 230 million users in the country. The second-largest Instagram audience could be found in the United States, with almost 160 million people subscribing to the photo and video sharing app.

Gen Z and Instagram

As of September 2021, Gen Z users in the United States spent an average of five hours per week on Instagram. Although Instagram ranked third in terms of hours per week spent on the platform, Gen Z users spent considerably more time on TikTok, amounting to a weekly average of over 10 hours being spent on the mobile-first video app.

Most followed accounts on Instagram

As of May 2022, Instagram’s own account had 504.37 million followers. In terms of celebrities, Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (@chistiano) had over 440.41 million followers on the social network. Moreover, the average media value of an Instagram post by Ronaldo was over 985,000 U.S. dollars.

The most liked post on Instagram as of May 2022 was Photo of an Egg, which was posted in 2019 by the account @world_record_egg. Photo of an Egg has not only exceeded 55 million likes on the platform, but it also has nearly 3.5 million comments, and the account itself has over 4.5 million Instagram followers. After mysterious posts published by the account, World Record Egg revealed itself as part of a mental health campaign aimed at the difficulties and demands of using social media.

In 2024, image posts on Instagram reached 5,200 users, down from 14,800 users in 2023, a decrease of around 64 percent year over year. Carousels, Reels, and Stories on Instagram all saw reach decline between 2023 and 2024. Overall, Reels achieved the highest reach on the social media platform in the most recently reported period. Although all formats saw decreases in reach, engagement increased, so whilst there might not be as many users seeing content, people are interacting more with the content they see on Instagram.

Between 2023 and 2024, Carousels and single image posts on Instagram experienced a slight decrease in engagement. Overall, engagement on Reels from feed* stood at 6.92 percent in 2024, up from 4.5 percent in 2023. Additionally, average user reach on Instagram decresed from 2023 to 2024.

As of June 2023, Instagram feed posts were the most published type of content by creators in the United States, with 98.4 percent of content creators in the country reporting publishing these type of posts. Instagram Stories and Reels were also very popular and published by the majority of U.S. content creators. Overall, 89.6 percent of U.S. creators posted TikTok videos, and 68.9 published Facebook posts. Twitch streams were used by one-quarter of content creators in the U.S.

How many people use Instagram?

Instagram is a social media app which focuses on photo and video sharing. It is owned by Facebook, which recently rebranded as Meta, in a move towards the metaverse. As of December 2021, Instagram reached a new milestone of 2 billion active users worldwide. The platform previously reached 1 billion users in June 2018.

Users aged 25 to 34 years made up the biggest Instagram user group by age worldwide, followed by 18 to 24 year olds. Overall, men accounted for 51.6 percent of global Instagram users.

Most popular Instagram accounts and content

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was the most followed person on Instagram as of 2021, with approximately 315 million followers. Ranked in second and third position were the Rock and Ariana Grande, both having over 250 million followers each.

It’s not only athletes and actors who drive the views on Instagram though. Instagram has long since become a medium for people and communities to spread their messages, and in the past two years, social activists and educators have used Instagram for their movements. Political and educational accounts generate high engagement rates with their content. Posts from political accounts receive an average engagement rate of 2.74 percent and educational posts receive an average of 2.56 percent.

Social media usage worldwide

There are 3.4 billion social media users worldwide and this is expected to increase to 4.41 billion by 2025. Instagram is most popular in India with a total of 201.1 million users, followed by the U.S. with 157.1 million and Brazil with 114.9 million active users. Instagram is the fourth most popular social media site in the world, after Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp, respectively.

As of October 2021, Brunei was the country with the highest Instagram audience reach with 92 percent of the population using the platform. This was followed by Guam with 79.2 percent and the Cayman Islands with 78.8 percent audience reach.

As of October 2021, Facebook had almost 3 billion users worldwide. The penetration rate for Facebook in the United States in 2021 was 70.59 percent and it is expected to reach 76.87 percent by 2026.

According to a study conducted between 2023 and 2024, Instagram posts from accounts with between 10,001 and 50,000 followers reached an average of 2,909 Instagram users. Overall, stories reached 642 Instagram users, and reels reached 9,649 users.

According to information from NapoleonCat, the highest share of Instagram users in Indonesia, 39.9 percent, were between the ages of 25 and 34 years as of December 2024. As of this date, there were approximately 90.2 million Instagram users in Indonesia, of which 54.2 percent were female and 45.8 percent male. Indonesia's Instagram landscape Indonesia stood out as one of the countries with the largest Instagram audiences globally. Based on follower counts, Instagram in Indonesia is dominated by influencers, with followers ranging from 10 to 50 thousand. As of June 2023, there were around 45.4 thousand micro-influencers on Instagram in Indonesia. Standing out as the most followed influencer accounts were popular public figures such as Raffi Ahmad and Nagita Slavina, Ayu Ting Ting, and Prilly Latuconsina. Influencer marketing trends in Indonesia As a prevalent platform for influencer marketing, Instagram held a significant share of nearly 70 percent in such campaigns in Indonesia in 2022. Nowadays, influencers are key in swaying consumer purchasing decisions. A recent study revealed that 56 percent of Indonesian consumers stated that Instagram influencers were the type of influencer whose endorsed products they would purchase. While Instagram can help consumers with their purchase decisions, an increasing number of brands are also leveraging influencer marketing to gain a larger consumer base. As of October 2022, Indonesian food and drink brands were the brands that leveraged influencer marketing the most. This was followed by fashion and beauty brands.

As of April 2024, around 16.5 percent of global active Instagram users were men between the ages of 18 and 24 years. More than half of the global Instagram population worldwide was aged 34 years or younger. Teens and social media As one of the biggest social networks worldwide, Instagram is especially popular with teenagers. As of fall 2020, the photo-sharing app ranked third in terms of preferred social network among teenagers in the United States, second to Snapchat and TikTok. Instagram was one of the most influential advertising channels among female Gen Z users when making purchasing decisions. Teens report feeling more confident, popular, and better about themselves when using social media, and less lonely, depressed and anxious. Social media can have negative effects on teens, which is also much more pronounced on those with low emotional well-being. It was found that 35 percent of teenagers with low social-emotional well-being reported to have experienced cyber bullying when using social media, while in comparison only five percent of teenagers with high social-emotional well-being stated the same. As such, social media can have a big impact on already fragile states of mind.

In January 2025, Instagram had almost 35 million users in the United Kingdom (UK). The largest share of Instagram users were individuals aged between 25 and 34 years old, at 29.7 percent. This was followed by the category of users aged 18 to 24 years. Individuals over 65 years old, were less likely to use the social media platform, making up the smallest share of Instagram users during this period. Leading social media in the UK According to figures based on approximately fifteen billion hits online per month, Facebook was the leading social media website in the UK as of November 2024, holding over 60.48 percent of the social media market share. This was followed by X (Twitter) and Instagram. The Pinterest website ranked fourth during that period, with a market share of 5.83 percent. Facebook: Leader in the UK The number of social network users in the UK experienced an increase of roughly 6.5 million users between 2018 and 2023. The share of female Facebook users is slightly higher than the number of male users. At a quarter of respondents, individuals aged between 25 and 34 years old made up the largest share of Facebook users in the UK. This was followed by roughly 19 percent of users within the 35 to 44 years old category. Facebook usage appeared to be the lowest among those aged 65 and older.

As of January 2025, 28.3 percent of Instagram users in the United States were aged between 25 and 34 years, making up the platform’s largest audience in the country. Overall, the group with the second-highest usage was those aged 18 to 24 years, with 26.5 percent of users, followed by 19.4 percent that were aged 35 to 44 years. The age group that used Instagram the least was those older than 65 years, making up 5.8 percent of users, respectively. Popular social media platforms in the United States Instagram was the third most visited social media platform in the United States as of March 2024 across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices combined, accounting for 14.13 percent of all social media visits in the country. Despite Instagram’s popularity, Facebook remained the leading social media platform by far in the U.S., accounting for almost 50 percent of all social media visits. Pinterest and X (formerly Twitter) ranked second and fourth in terms of visits, with 21.2 percent and 10.91 percent of visits, respectively. Instagram’s global audience Instagram’s global popularity continues to surge, with no signs of slowing down. As of January 2024, the country with the largest Instagram audience was India with 362.9 million users, while the United States had the second-highest market with 169.65 million users, followed by Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey, respectively. As of April 2024, Instagram was the third most popular social network globally, reaching two billion monthly active users.

As of January 2024, India had a total of 362 million Instagram users, the largest Instagram audience in the world. The United States had 169 million users, and Brazil had 134 million. Indonesia, Turkey, and Japan ranked in fourth, fifth and sixth position, respectively. Brunei is the leading country for Instagram audience reach, with 92 percent of the population using the social media service. Guam came in second, with a penetration rate of 79.2 percent and the Cayman Islands ranked third, with 78.8 percent, followed closely by Kazakhstan, Iceland and Montenegro. It took Instagram 11.2 years to reach the milestone of 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, took 11 years, whilst Facebook took 13.3 years and YouTube took just over 14 years. Instagram’s demographics in the United States As of May 2021, Instagram was the fourth most visited social media service in the United States, after Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Out of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, TikTok was the most used of all three platforms by Generation Z. Overall, 57 percent of Gen Z social media users used Instagram, down from 61 percent in 2020 and 64 percent in 2019. Instagram finds most popularity with those in the 25 to 34 year age group, and as of December 2021, roughly a third of all users in the United States belonged to this age group. The social media app was also more likely to be used by women. Most followed accounts on Instagram Instagram’s official account had the most followers as of February 2022 with over 470 million followers. Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) had over 401 million followers on the platform and media personality and makeup mogul Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) had over 309 million followers. National Geographic (@natgeo) had over 206.9 million followers, sharing educational content through its renowned photojournalism.

As of January 2024, Instagram was slightly more popular with men than women, with men accounting for 50.6 percent of the platform’s global users. Additionally, the social media app was most popular amongst younger audiences, with almost 32 percent of users aged between 18 and 24 years. Instagram’s Global Audience As of January 2024, Instagram was the fourth most popular social media platform globally, reaching two billion monthly active users (MAU). This number is projected to keep growing with no signs of slowing down, which is not a surprise as the global online social penetration rate across all regions is constantly increasing. As of January 2024, the country with the largest Instagram audience was India with 362.9 million users, followed by the United States with 169.7 million users. Who is winning over the generations? Even though Instagram’s audience is almost twice the size of TikTok’s on a global scale, TikTok has shown itself to be a fierce competitor, particularly amongst younger audiences. TikTok was the most downloaded mobile app globally in 2022, generating 672 million downloads. As of 2022, Generation Z in the United States spent more time on TikTok than on Instagram monthly.

In 2024, the average post on Instagram recieved 15.66 comments, 513.37 likes, and 19.79 saves. In 2023, the average post on the platform amassed 14.62 comments, 509.15 likes, and 20.28 saves.

In 2023, Instagram was projected to generate an estimated 23 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in the United States. The photo sharing app’s revenue is set increase to 29 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. Instagram as Facebook revenue driver Initially released in 2010 and quickly acquired by Facebook in 2012 for one billion U.S. dollars, Instagram has been in the public eye since its early days. Instagram’s monthly active users grew from a mere 90 million in January 2013 to over two billion MAU in December 2021 and the platform not showing any signs of slowing down. Apart from ongoing user growth, Instagram is also one of the most popular social media platforms used by marketers worldwide, second only to Facebook. Despite the rapid growth of Instagram under Facebook’s ownership and cross-platform promotion, not everything has been smooth sailing under the blue flag. In September 2018, founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced their resignation amidst reports of culture and product clashes between Instagram and its parent company. Facebook was quick to appoint a new CEO, and under former Facebook News Feed product manager Adam Mosseri the social network has been trying to make the most of Instagram’s ad potential. In late June 2019, Instagram launched ads in its Explore section. The platform already allowed ads in the regular feed and Stories.

A global survey conducted in the fourth quarter of 2023 found that the main reason for using social media was to keep in touch with friends and family, with over 49 percent of social media users saying this was their main reason for using online networks. Overall, 38 percent of social media users said that filling spare time was their main reason for using social media platforms, whilst 34.3 percent of respondents said they used it to read news stories. One in five users were on social platforms for the reason of following celebrities and influencers. The most popular social network Facebook dominates the social media landscape. The world's most popular social media platform turned 20 in February 2024, and it continues to lead the way in terms of user numbers. As of January 2024, the social network had over three billion global users. YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram follow, but none of these well-known brands can surpass Facebook’s audience size. Moreover, as of the final quarter of 2023, there were almost four billion Meta product users. Ever-evolving social media usage The utilization of social media remains largely gratuitous; however, companies have been encouraging users to become paid subscribers to reduce dependence on advertising profits. Meta Verified entices users by offering a blue verification badge and proactive account protection, among other things. X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, and Reddit also offer users the chance to upgrade their social media accounts for a monthly free.

During a June 2023 survey among content creators from the United States, 98.4 percent of survey participants mentioned using Instagram feed posts for sharing their sponsored content. Instagram Stories and Reels came next, each with around 98 percent, while 89.6 percent of creators also used TikTok videos to promote their sponsored content.

According to a study of Instagram (IG) influencer engagement rates (ER) worldwide, nano influencers have been seeing the highest popularity compared to other tier profiles. Influencers who had between one to ten thousand followers had tan engagement rate of 2.19 percent in 2023. On average the ER for all studied IG influencers stood at 1.85 percent in the same year.