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.

In 2024, the average Instagram post from an account with under 500 followers reached around 6,500 Instagram users, up from 1,405 in 2023. Huge accounts, with over 50,001 followers reach an average of 49,932 thousand users in 2024, down from 56,191 users in 2023.

As of February 2025, Australia had the highest potential Instagram ad reach rate in the Asia-Pacific region among the reported markets, at about 65.4 percent of the adult population. In comparison, Instagram advertising in China had a potential reach of about 0.3 percent among the population aged 18 years and over. The rise of social media advertising Digital advertising had the highest ad spending in the Asia-Pacific region, with brands increasingly prioritizing online presence and engagement. Social media advertising has become a major focus, as platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and WeChat offer access to a wide audience. Among APAC markets, China and Japan lead in social media ad revenue, reflecting large user bases. Next to paid advertising, social media influencers and bloggers have emerged as key players in shaping consumer preferences. Their recommendations are often perceived as trustworthy, in contrast to traditional brand ads, making them an essential part of modern digital marketing strategies. Influencer marketing: Driving purchases in Asia Influencer marketing plays a crucial role in the shopping behavior of consumers. In Southeast Asia specifically, the top product categories purchased due to influencer recommendations include beauty and fashion, with influencers often setting trends and creating demand for new products through their content. Consumers in Southeast Asia engage with influencer content primarily for entertainment, but many also seek purchase inspiration. As influencer marketing continues to evolve, brands are increasingly investing in partnerships with content creators to enhance their reach, credibility, and connection with consumers.

In 2019, brands with over 200 thousand followers had an Instagram post reach rate of 13.8 percent and an Instagram stories reach rate of just 2.3 percent. In comparison, smaller brands with under 10 thousand followers had a post reach rate of 26.6 percent and a stories reach rate of 8.4 percent.

In 2019, brands with over 200 thousand followers on Instagram had an Instagram story reach rate of 2.3 percent, down from 4.2 percent in the previous year. Additionally, Instagram accounts with under 10 thousand followers had a reach rate of 8.4 percent in 2019, a decline from 11.3 percent in 2018.

In 2024, Instagram reels from accounts with over 50,001 followers reached over 67,000 Instagram users, down from approximately 73,000 users in 2023. Reels from accounts with between 10,001 and 50,000 followers reached around 9,650 people in 2024.

As of April 2024, Bahrain was the country with the highest Instagram audience reach with 95.6 percent. Kazakhstan also had a high Instagram audience penetration rate, with 90.8 percent of the population using the social network. In the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Brunei, the photo-sharing platform was used by more than 85 percent of each country's population.

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 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.

In 2019, the top 25 percent of brands on Instagram had a tap back rate of 4.6 percent on their stories, up from 4.3 percent in the previous year. Additionally, brands in the bottom 25 percent had a tap back rate of 2.3 percent in 2019, up from 2.2 percent in 2018. A tap backward on an Instagram stories post indicates that the viewer wanted to return to the previous image for another look.

As of February 2024, the average Instagram business profile follower engagement with posts on a page was 2.18 percent. Overall, photo posts drew the highest level of engagement from page followers, having an interaction rate of 2.69 percent, while carousel posts (posts with multiple images or videos) generated a 1.16 percent engagement rate. In addition, the interaction rate for video posts on the social media platform was 2.21 percent.

As of January 2024, Australia had the highest Instagram ad reach rate in the Asia-Pacific region among the reported economies, at 64.3 percent. In comparison, Instagram advertising in China had a reach of about 0.4 percent among the population aged 18 years and over.

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 July 2022, the most popular type of content on Instagram was images, with 42.2 percent of all content being of this form. Carousels were the second most popular form of content, accounting for 26.2 percent of content on the platform. In terms of reach and likes, reels were the most successful during the measured period, accounting for 33.8 percent, and 35.4 percent, respectively. Additionally, images were the most likely type of content to receive engagement in the form of comments. Video accounted for just one in every ten pieces of content on Instagram, and gained the least amount of user engagement.

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.

According to a global online survey conducted in 2022, 50 percent of weekly Instagram users said that they wanted to see funny content on the social media platform. Additionally, 46 percent of all respondents said that they wanted to see creative content, whilst 41 percent said they wanted to see informative content on Instagram. Over a third of users wanted to see engaging content on the photo and video sharing app.

Instagram’s global popularity
Meta-owned image and video sharing app Instagram enjoys an impressive reach among digital audiences. As of January 2023, Brunei and Kazakhstan were the countries with the highest audience reach, while Brazil presented an Instagram reach of over 63.6 percent for the examined period. Instagram's audience is forecasted to reach 1.4 billion global users in 2024, an increase of 73 percent compared to the 805 million users registered in 2018.

Instagram usage on mobile Instagram's popularity is not only evident in its reach but also in its download numbers. Between January 2020 and April 2023, the Meta-powered

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.

Nano-influencers with up to five thousand followers had the highest engagement rate among Instagram influencers in Japan as of February 2020, reaching an engagement rate of about 6.8 percent. The engagement rate of micro-influencers with up to 20 thousand followers was about half as high. Japan had more than 29 million Instagram users as of February 2020 and was one of the countries with the highest Instagram influencer engagement rates.

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.

In 2023, Instagram influencers with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers had the highest engagement rates, amounting to 2.19 percent. The rate was lowest for mid-tier influencers with 50,000 to 500,000 followers. Lifestyle, beauty, and music were the most popular topics for Instagram influencers that year.