Social media is the go-to place for marketing, sales and even customer support. Its huge and constantly growing user base makes it essential for driving sales and engaging customers globally. However, you need to stay on top of social media statistics is the key to generate data you need to create a winning strategy. According to McKinsey research, B2B companies that use service and marketing analytics are 1.5 times more likely to achieve above-average growth rates than their competitors.
Social media statistics are essential because they reveal economic headwinds, emerging trends and opportunities that you should leverage to stay ahead of the pack. There is so much information that you can get from platform-specific statistics including social media ROI and the best times to post content. The stats can mitigate risks associated with marketing and advertising.
The following article lists key social media statistics for mainstream platforms to help savvy marketers and brands shape decisions and drive real impact in 2025 and beyond.
Social Media Statistics for Consumer Trends
If you are a business looking to invest in social media marketing, these are some of the most important statistics to focus on. They can help you to find the perfect consumer base for your products and services. The following stats highlight social media statistics for consumer trends.
- Social media usage rates continue to grow worldwide
The number of social media users globally in projected to grow beyond 5.42 billion in 2025. This number has grown steadily for almost a decade, increasing by 200 to 400 million users every year.
- About 70% of people use social media globally
Social media penetration increases every year globally. It is projected to hit 69.39% in 2025. It is likely to grow beyond 75% by 2028.
- Facebook is the most popular social platform in the world
Perhaps, you are not sure which social platform you should focus your efforts on. Well, Facebook is often the best bet owing to its global popularity. Facebook had more than 3 billion monthly active users as of April 2024.
YouTube follows closely with 2.5 billion monthly active users. Instagram and Whatsapp are in third place, with about 2 billion monthly active users each.
TikTok and WeChat are the only other social networking platforms with more than 1 billion monthly active users.
However, the above statistics do not necessarily mean you should ignore the social platforms with smaller user bases.
- Short-form videos dominate social media
Short-form videos are the most engaging type of content on social media. It captures up to 66% of social media users.
- Most people access social media via mobile phones
The latest statistics reveal about 96.5% of social media users use mobile phones to scroll through their accounts and other user profiles. Meanwhile, 61% use laptops or desktop computers to access social media.
- 18 – 29 year olds are the largest age group online
Young people aged 18 to 29 years old account for the biggest online age group. 84% of them use at least one social media platform.
- Over half of consumers use social media as a search engine
More than 51% of consumers research a product online, especially on social media before making purchases. A majority of them read customer reviews to find out about products before making buying decisions. 30% of social media users use it as a search engine to find trending products to buy.
- Social commerce is on the rise
Over 56.1% of social media users buy at least one product online every week. The US social commerce market had 67.8 million shoppers as of 2024. It is expected to grow to 69.4 million by 2025. That is a significant growth in social commerce, with lucrative opportunities for businesses in 2025 and beyond.
Platform-specific Social Media Statistics
Research shows 61% of US online shoppers are likely to make purchases from brands because of social media suggestions. That means tracking social media statistics is crucial for every savvy marketer. The following are the top stats by platform:
Facebook Statistics
- Facebook has over 3 billion monthly active users as of April 2024. It boasts more than 2.11 billion daily active users.
- The most Facebook users are of the age group 25 to 34, making up about 31% of the total users. They are closely followed by age group 16 to 24.
- Each user spends an estimated 19 hours 47 minutes on the platform monthly. In the United States, an average user about 31 minutes on Facebook daily.
- Facebook is mostly popular among suburban and rural communities. 74% of rural population use the platform compared to 67% of urban population.
- Mobile phones are the most-used device, with more than 98% of users logging in through their phones. Just about 1.5% of Facebook users log in via laptops or desktop computers.
- The global ad revenue from Facebook ads is expected to surpass $127 billion by 2027. It currently accounts for about 19% of global ad revenue.
- The most liked pages on Facebook include Christiano Ronaldo and Samsung.
Instagram Stats
- Instagram has over 2 billion monthly active users.
- Daily active users on Instagram are more than 500 million, with each spending about 15 hours 50 minutes on the platform monthly.
- India boasts the largest number of Instagram users, with about 362.9 million users as of January 2024. The US comes second with 169.7 users. Other countries in the top five include Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey. The UK and Germany appear in the top 10.
- A 2023 Statista report revealed 50% of Instagram users seek funny content, 46% creative content, 41% informative content and 37% relaxing content.
- 50.6% males use IG compared to 49.4% females.
- Instagram is the second most popular social media platform for customer service. 60% of marketers and 35% of users are using Instagram for customer support.
- Instagram accounts for the highest social media engagement levels, with 4.2 billion likes clicked daily. The platform has an average engagement rate of 0.71% for all types of content.
- Instagram advertising has a potential reach of 849 million users. Reel ads are estimated to reach over 675 million people worldwide. Besides, 62.2% of Instagram users follow and research brands on the platform.
- More than 81% of US marketers use Instagram Marketing for influencer campaigns. That makes the platform one of the most popular among influencer marketers.
- Instagram is the favorite social media platform for Gen Zs.
- Instagram accounts for the largest number of followers on Instagram, followed closely by Christiano Ronaldo.
TikTok
- TikTok had more than 2 billion monthly active users as of 2024. It is expected to reach 2.35 billion users by 2029.
- Instagram users spend about 34 hours on the platform per user monthly.
- Young people aged 18-34 years old account for about 69.4% of TikTok users, with 15% falling within the age bracket of 35-44.
- TikTok boasts the third highest ad reach among all social media platforms, with a 1.690 billion audience reach.
- Social commerce and TikTok shopping reach is expected to increase to 37.8 million buyers in 2025.
- Indonesia has the largest number of TikTok users, with over 157.6 million users. The United States comes in second with an estimated 120.5 million users, while Brazil follows in third position with 105.3 million.
- 45.2% of women worldwide use TikTok while men make up 54.8 of the user base.
- Khaby Lame is the most popular TikTok account, with 162.5 million followers and more than 2.5 billion likes. Dancer Charli D’Amelio takes second place with 155.7 million followers.
Struggling with boosting TikTok engagement for your brand? Check out the following guide on how to drive engagement on TikTok fast.
YouTube
- YouTube has over 2.7 billion monthly active users and about 122 million daily active users. Every user spends an average of 28 hours 05 minutes on the platform monthly.
- Almost all age brackets use YouTube. 94% of people aged 30-49 years old and 93% of people ages 18-29 use YouTube. The platform is also popular among people aged between 50-64, with 86% of them using YouTube.
- YouTube boasts more than 100 million premium and music subscribers. The most subscribed channel on YouTube is MrBeast, with 338 million subscribers.
- Nearly 90% of all YouTube views come from mobile devices.
- YouTube had 1.3 trillion visits in 2023. 88% of those visits came from mobile devices. The United States accounted for the largest share of traffic to YouTube. 54% of social media users use YouTube for searches.
- 90% of businesses that promote their brands via video marketing prefer YouTube over other social media channels.
- YouTube ads reach 2.53 billion users per month. That makes it one of the most effective social advertising platforms. Its global ad revenues were $8.1 billion in the first quarter of 2024. That indicates a 21% year-on-year increase.
X (Formerly Twitter)
- X has more than 337 million monthly active users. It is projected to hit 400 million users in 2025.
- The platform has 250 million daily active users, each spending about 4 hours 40 minutes on X monthly.
- X is one of the most imbalanced social media platforms, with 63% of users as males while female users account for just about 37%.
- About 41% of 18 to 34 year olds have a favorable opinion of X. Only 24% of people aged 65+ years are of a similar opinion. Consequently, 26% of 18-34 year olds have unfavorable opinions of X. 42% of those aged between 45 and 64 years think unfavorably of the platform.
- X has an ad reach of 590 million. But, more than 600 of the platform’s top advertisers have cut back on spending, impacting a 60% drop in ad revenue between October 20220 and 2023. The ad revenue on the platform also dropped further by 24% in the first half of 2024.
- Most X users visit the platform via mobile devices. More than 2.5 billion visits to X occur through mobile devices, with 1.9 billion visits occurring through desktop.
- The United States accounts for the largest number of X users, with 106.2 million users. Japan comes in a distant second with 69.3 million users while India occupies position three, with 25.5 million users.
- Elon Musk, who is also the owner of X has the most followers on the platform. Former U.S Presidenmt, Barack Obama comes in second with 131 million followers. Soccer star, Cristiano Ronaldo is in the third spot with 113.8 million followers.
The Bottom Line
Keeping a watchful eye over social media statistics is essential to creating a cohesive and effective strategy in 2025 and beyond. Checking them frequently ensures that your plan is working out and, allows you the space to make adjustments going forward. The data can help you to innovate strategies to adapt to the rapidly evolving digital landscape and stay ahead of the competition. Combining those numbers with the power of a next-gen platform can enable you to take your social media marketing and management to the next level. Do not hesitate to engage Superior Social Boost for solutions on how to drive your reach and engagement on social media.