Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook reported around four billion monthly core Family product users. The United States and China account for the most high-profile social platforms Most top ranked social networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but services like Chinese social networks WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin have also garnered mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content. Douyin’s popularity has led to the platform releasing an international version of its network: a little app called TikTok. How many people use social media? The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political, or economic borders. In 2025, social networking sites are estimated to reach 5.42 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

In March 2025, ******** accounted for ** percent of all social media site visits in the United States, confirming its position as the leading social media website by far. Other social media platforms, despite their popularity, had to make do with smaller shares of visits across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices combined. ********* ranked second with ***** percent of all U.S. social media site visits, while X (previously Twitter) accounted for ***** percent of the total visits in the country. Additionally, the U.S. is home to the third largest social media audience worldwide. Facebook: mobile vs desktop usage At the beginning of 2022, around ** percent of Facebook users across the globe were using the platform’s social networking services exclusively via mobile phone, while only *** percent reported using their desktop or laptop devices. In September 2022, three Facebook Inc. products occupied some of the leading positions as most downloaded social networking apps on the Apple App Store in the United States. WhatsApp’s messaging platform ranked second with more than *** million downloads, while Facebook and the instant-messaging service Messenger followed ranking third and fifth with *** million and **** million downloads respectively. Social media evolution Between 2012 and 2024, the daily time spent on social networks worldwide experienced an almost constant increase, with users reaching an average of *** minutes per day in 2023, with a decrease to *** daily minutes of engagement in 2024. However, users’ favorite platforms have changed since 2019, and the power balance appears to be shifting further from Facebook’s market dominance. Not only Facebook’s user growth rate is estimated to slow down in the next years, but users belonging to Generation Z appear to prefer video-first social platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.

I’ve compiled a list of the latest social media user statistics showing just how big social media has become and where it’s likely to go in the future.

More than three-quarters of the Russian online population aged 16 years and older used the Telegram messenger, thus making it the most-used social media platform among those listed in the ranking. WhatsApp ranked second, with a penetration rate of nearly 74 percent, followed by VK and TikTok. Social media usage in Russia In 2024, the daily time spent on social media in Russia was recorded at roughly two hours and 20 minutes per user on average. After Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) were blocked in Russia at the end of February and the beginning of March 2022, a significant increase in activity was recorded on VK and Telegram. For example, the daily audience on VK increased by almost nine percent, while the number of friends requests and feed views grew by 250 percent and 25 percent, respectively. YouTube From the global perspective, YouTube ranked second after Facebook, which remained the leading social media platform with about three billion active users. The U.S.-based channel MrBeast had the highest number of subscribers on YouTube with around 343 million as of January 2025. India-based T-Series followed with 284 million subscribers as of that month.

Global ad spend were expected to reach over $134 billion in 2022. This means that it has increased by over 17% yearly.

Facebook is fast approaching 3 billion monthly active users. That’s about 36% of the world’s entire population that log in and use Facebook at least once a month.

In 2023, it is estimated that Instagram will have over one billion monthly active users worldwide, up from almost 787 billion monthly users in 2019 and just over one billion in 2020. The photo sharing app is owned by Facebook and is one of the company's major subsidiaries along with WhatsApp and Messenger.

Facebook held more than 93 percent market share among social media in Poland in 2024. Instagram was next, with a 2.28 percent share, followed by YouTube and Pinterest. The leading seven social media platforms represented 99.83 percent of the entire market. Facebook’s leadership Facebook dominates social media in Poland on all devices, and its market share is continuously increasing. It has around 23 million users in Poland, and this number was forecasted to continue growing. Most Facebook users are between 25 and 34 years old – an older demographic than platforms like Instagram or TikTok. Future of social media in Poland The overall number of social network users in Poland continues to increase, nearing 29.2 million by 2023. Nearly every Generation Z representative uses social media, meaning that platforms like TikTok and Instagram could be big competitors for Facebook. Social media have become an important medium for Poles to communicate with friends, family, and people all over the globe. Companies increasingly use them to promote products and interact with customers. While traditional media are still crucial for information and opinion-forming, new media are a serious contender in this field.

Users spend an average of 19.6 hours per month on TikTok alone. This works out to be approximately 39 minutes per day.

The average Twitter user spends 5.1 hours per month on the platform.

Despite a tumultuous 2018, Facebook is still the top social network in the United States, with 169.76 million mobile users accessing the Facebook app in September 2019. The company’s other properties Instagram and Facebook Messenger ranked second and third with 121 and 106 million users respectively. Cambridge Analytica scandal 2018 The biggest social media company in the world had a difficult 2018. The platform has long been accused of enabling the spread of fake news during the 2016 election and beyond. One of the first and biggest negative Facebook stories of 2018 was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which unfolded from March 2018. The Guardian, The Observer, and The New York Times simultaneously reported on political data firm Cambridge Analytica harvesting data of millions of Facebook users worldwide without their knowledge before the 2016 election, which led to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg having to testify before Congress in April 2018. Facebook usage behavior changes Due to the revelations about Facebook and the company’s treatment of private user data, many U.S. users are planning to use the social network much less and to be much more careful about what they post . During an April 2018 survey, only 20 percent of respondents stated that their Facebook usage has not changed, and they were planning on continuing to use the social platform as much as they always had in the past.

These are the key social media statistics that you need to know.

Which countries spent the most and least time on social media?

Snapchat now boasts over 319 million daily active users. That means it’s one of the most engaging platforms. Snapchat currently has a total user base of 800 million.

According to a survey conducted in June 2023, adults in the United States spent more time per day on TikTok than on any other leading social media platform. Overall, respondents reported spending an average of 53.8 minutes per day on the social video app. YouTube and Twitter ranked second and third, each with an average of 48 minutes and 34 minutes spent on the platforms per day, respectively.

U.S. teens have time for certain platforms

Different social media platforms attract different demographics, with teenagers in the United States being more drawn to TikTok and YouTube over Facebook. In 2023, teenagers in the United States spent an average of almost two hours on YouTube and 1.5 hours on TikTok every day, 1451257 while Facebook was used by teens for less than half an hour per day. Furthermore, social media habits differ between genders, as teen girls were more likely to spend more time than boys on Instagram.

TikTok is king for teens and Gen Z

Although spending 1.5 hours on the Generation Z app of choice may sound rather modest, some TikTok users devote much more of their time to the platform . According to a survey conducted in the United States in 2022, around eight percent of teenagers in the United States spent over five hours a day on TikTok. 1417187 whereas another 22 percent reported spending between two and three hours daily on the video-based app.

As of October 2024, Facebook was the leading social media platform accessed by Hungarian mobile users, accounting for approximately 97 percent of the market. Instagram ranked second with a share of 1.3 percent.

YouTube boasts an average of 23.7 hours per month spent by users.

In 2024, YouTube was the most popular social video platforms for users in the United States, with an estimated viewership of *** million viewers. Facebook ranked second, while Instagram had approximately *** million users engaging with the platform's Reels and posts on a monthly basis. TikTok was estimated to have a monthly audience of *** million users in the examined period.

TikTok comes in 6th position in a list of the world’s most-used social media sites today.

According to a survey during the third quarter of 2024, 32.7 percent of online audiences in Colombia stated that WhatsApp was their favorite social media platform, with a usage reach of 91.9 percent among the online population. Instagram ranked second as the social platform of choice for around 21.1 percent of respondents, while Facebook was preferred by 18.2 percent of Colombian internet users. Despite the significant growth of the platform, only 16.9 percent of the country's internet users said that TikTok was their favorite platform.