Report highlights. Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform in 2025, with more than 3 billion monthly active users. 

• YouTube holds the second spot with 2.53 billion monthly active users.
  
  
• Instagram and WhatsApp tie for third place with 2 billion monthly active users.
  
  
• TikTok, a Gen Z favorite, counts 1.59 billion monthly active users. Users spend nearly 1.5 hours per day on TikTok, making it the most engaging app.
  
  

Related reports include Social Media Marketing Statistics for 2025 | How Many People Use Instagram in 2025 | How Many People Use TikTok in 2025

Top 10 social media platforms

Rank	Platform	Monthly active users
1	Facebook	3.07 billion
2	YouTube	2.53 billion
3	Instagram	2 billion
4	WhatsApp	2 billion
5	TikTok	1.59 billion
6	WeChat	1.38 billion
7	Telegram	950 million
8	Facebook Messenger	947 million
9	Snapchat	850 million
10	Douyin	766 million

Changes since the last article update in Jan 2025

• Reddit, which had previously fallen off the list, is now back and at a higher rank (12th).
  
  
• Pinterest, which was in the 15th position earlier, has fallen off the leaderboard.

1. Facebook

Facebook continues to be the world’s default social network with its 3.07 billion monthly active users. 

• According to data from Piktochart, the number of daily active Facebook users was 2.11 billion in 2023, meaning that about 68% of monthly active users log in daily. 
  
  
• The platform grew its audience by 4.3% year over year in 2025. 
  
  
• In 2024, the Facebook mobile app ranked third in global downloads with nearly 598 million installs. 
  
  
• In July 2025, Facebook was the fourth most searched term on Google with 298.8 million global searches, and facebook.com was the third most visited website worldwide, with 9.94 billion visits. 
  
  
• As of February 2025, the largest Facebook audiences were in India, with 383 million users, the United States, with 197 million, Indonesia, with 122 million, and Brazil, with 111 million. 
  

Facebook’s scale remains unmatched, but its strength lies not just in size but also in the consistency of engagement.

Nearly 70% of its users log in daily, making it one of the few platforms that people include as part of their routine.

This “stickiness” is why advertisers continue to prioritize Facebook despite ongoing challenges with younger demographics.

The demographic split is revealing.

Younger generations are slipping away to TikTok and Instagram, but Facebook still commands the high-value 25 to 34 age segment with 31% users. This group has more disposable income and drives online sales.

That is also why Facebook leads all social platforms in direct purchases; 39% of consumers report having made a purchase there.

Geographically, Facebook’s dominance is concentrated in countries with large and growing digital populations, such as India and Indonesia.

Its per-capita penetration in markets like the Philippines (770 users per 1000 people) and Vietnam (751 users per 1000 people) shows saturation levels that are rarely seen in global platforms.

Even in its third decade, Facebook continues to grow, add users, and drive commercial outcomes.

2. YouTube

YouTube has 2.53 billion monthly active users in 2025, making it the second largest social platform. 

• YouTube.com was the second most visited website worldwide in July 2025 with 47.12 billion visits. 
  
  
• The average user spends 1 hour and 24 minutes per day on YouTube. 
  
  
• Active users opened YouTube’s Android app on 63.5% of days.
  
  
• YouTube reaches 39% of the world’s population.
  
  
• The audience skews toward adults aged 25 to 34 at 21.7%, followed by 35 to 44 at 18.5%. 

YouTube is way more than a video site at this point; it has become the internet’s go-to stage.

With 2.53 billion monthly users and the crown of the most visited website in the world, it outpaces nearly every rival in sheer visibility. 

People are not just dropping in briefly either. A YouTube user uses the platform for over an hour on average every day, which is far longer than most social apps and second only to TikTok.

YouTube’s user base leans heavily into the 25 to 44 demographic, which gives it a powerful combination of reach and spending power. 

While growth has slowed (1.6% year over year in 2025) compared to the rapid climbs of TikTok or Instagram, YouTube has settled into a role that feels unshakable: the place where long-form content lives, creators build careers, and audiences spend serious time. 

For marketers, that means YouTube is less about chasing novelty and more about tapping into a massive, dependable engine for discovery and influence.

3. Instagram

Instagram has 2 billion monthly active users in 2025, tying with WhatsApp for the third place globally.

• The platform added 5.5% more users year over year in 2025, showing stronger growth than YouTube or Facebook. 
  
  
• Instagram was the second most downloaded app worldwide in 2024 with 817.5 million installs. 
  
  
• In July 2025, Instagram.com was the fourth most visited website worldwide with 5.71 billion visits. 
  
  
• 16.6% of global internet users aged 16 to 64 said Instagram is their favorite social media platform. 
  
  
• The average user opens the app on 61.9% of days, reflecting consistent engagement. 
  
  
• Adults aged 18 to 34 make up 61.1% of Instagram’s audience, making it one of the most youth-focused platforms. 

Instagram has played a defining role in shaping online culture over the past decade, from popularizing the influencer economy to redefining how people interact with brands.

Its young-skewing audience and strong daily engagement make it a magnet for marketers targeting Gen Z and millennials. 

The platform’s growth has been steady and faster than older rivals, and its strong daily engagement shows that users are not just browsing but building habits around it. 

For businesses, Instagram remains one of the most effective ways to connect with audiences who are both socially engaged and commercially active.

4. WhatsApp

WhatsApp has 2 billion monthly active users in 2025, tying with Instagram as the third largest social platform.

• As of November 2024, WhatsApp had the highest daily open rate among major apps at 84.1%. 
  
  
• WhatsApp users send more than 100 billion messages every day. 
  
  
• Power users open the app about 930 times per month, which is far higher than Instagram or TikTok. 
  
  
• In January 2025, WhatsApp was the most downloaded messaging app worldwide with 57.35 million installs. 

People who use WhatsApp check it almost every day, and heavy users open it hundreds of times a month.

That level of user reliance is unmatched by any other social app, which makes WhatsApp less about entertainment and more about being the backbone of daily communication.

For businesses, this habit translates into opportunity. In markets like India and Brazil, WhatsApp has become the default customer service channel, replacing email and phone calls.

More than 50 million businesses use WhatsApp Business to handle everything from support queries to order confirmations. 

When a brand message arrives on WhatsApp, it lands in the same inbox as a user’s most personal conversations, which gives it a level of immediacy and trust that other platforms cannot replicate.

WhatsApp’s growth may not be as dramatic as TikTok’s, but its value lies in depth rather than speed. It is the app people keep open, the first one they reach for in the morning and the last they close at night. 

For marketers in 2025, WhatsApp is not about chasing reach, it is about building direct, consistent connections in the one place customers are guaranteed to pay attention.

5. TikTok

TikTok has 1.59 billion monthly active users in 2025, ranking fifth globally.

• TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2024 with 825.48 million installs.
  
  
• Users spend an average of 1 hour 35 minutes per day on TikTok, more than on any other social platform. 
  
  
• TikTok’s daily open rate was 64.4% as of Feb 2025, trailing only behind WhatsApp.
  
   
• The largest audience segment is 25–34 years old at 35.3%, followed by 18–24 years old at 30.7%. 

If you want attention, TikTok still sets the pace. That 1 hour and 35 minutes of daily time means your audience are not just stopping by, they're settling in.

TikTok also shapes discovery. Google’s own leadership has noted that many Gen Z users start with TikTok or Instagram when they look for ideas, which is your cue to think of short video as a search surface.

Bottom line: TikTok may not be the biggest by users, but it is the trend factory that drives culture, consumerism, and creator momentum.

6. WeChat

WeChat has 1.38 billion monthly active users in 2025, making it the sixth-largest social platform globally.

• While not among the top apps in terms of downloads worldwide (since it’s region-specific), WeChat remains the most popular app in China. 
  
  
• WeChat Mini Programs (apps within the app) had 924 million users in China in 2024.
  
• By age group, the app’s core users who are 24–30 years old make up 26% of the entire user base, followed by those under 24 at 21%. 

WeChat is not only a messaging service, but it is also China’s default digital infrastructure.

With more than 1.3 billion monthly active users, WeChat is embedded in every aspect of life, from chatting with friends and video calling, to shopping online, paying bills, booking taxis, ordering food, and even accessing government services.

Unlike Facebook or Instagram, its strength isn’t global scale but total dominance at home.

For brands and businesses targeting Chinese consumers, WeChat is unavoidable: it’s both the advertising highway and the payments backbone.

User loyalty to WeChat is bolstered by the “super app” model: people don’t just message, they transact, play games, and run errands without ever leaving the app.

7. Telegram

Telegram has 950 million monthly active users in 2025, ranking it seventh globally among social platforms.

• The app recorded about 27.6 million downloads worldwide in January 2025, making it the third most-installed messenger app for the month. 
  
  
• Telegram users spend an average of 31 minutes per day on the app. 
  
  
• The countries with the largest audience size in terms of app downloads are India, with 104 million downloads, Russia, with 34.4 million, and Indonesia, with 27.2 million. 
  
  
• 25–34-year-olds make up the largest age segment of Telegram users globally (just under 30%), followed by 18–24-year-olds at nearly 24%. 

Telegram has steadily climbed into the global top 10, carving an identity as the “privacy-first” alternative to WhatsApp and Messenger. 

Unlike its competitors, Telegram leans heavily on channels and broadcast communities, which act more like public forums than private messaging threads.

This has made it a hub not only for individuals but also for influencers, media outlets, and even governments trying to reach large audiences.

Telegram’s skew toward younger audiences is notable: With more than half (nearly 54%) of its users under age 34, the app aligns with the generational cohorts driving adoption of newer digital platforms.

While it is not the largest messaging app, its distinct positioning around speed, security, and large community features (channels, groups with up to 200,000 members) has built strong loyalty. 

Countries such as India, Brazil, and Russia have been central to its growth story, and its role as both a private messenger and a semi-public broadcasting tool makes it stand out.

8. Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger, officially known as Messenger, has 947 million monthly active users in 2025, ranking it eighth among global social platforms. 

• Facebook Messenger’s daily open rate was 43.2% in 2024, showing consistent engagement but trailing WhatsApp (84.1%) and Line (64.2%). 
  
  
• Users spend about 19 minutes per day on the app, as of Mar 2025. 
  
  
• The app saw 18.56 million downloads worldwide in January 2025, keeping it among the top five most-installed messaging apps. 
  
  
• Messenger’s largest audiences are in India (109 million users), followed by the Philippines (61.8 million), and Mexico (57 million). 
  
  
• The platform’s biggest demographic is 25–34-year-olds (32.4%), followed by 18–24-year-olds (22.9%). 

Meta’s “other messenger” may not be as headline-grabbing as WhatsApp, but it remains a billion-user platform with major staying power. 

Sitting just under the 1-billion mark, Messenger continues to act as the default chat extension for Facebook’s 3 billion monthly users. Its appeal is strongest in markets where Facebook itself is entrenched, particularly in Southeast Asia.

For many, Messenger is where chat threads with Facebook friends live, but not necessarily the first app they open in the morning.

The platform’s value lies in its integration with Facebook’s ecosystem. Messenger powers business chat widgets, customer service bots, payments, and seamless connections with Facebook Pages and Marketplace. 

This utility makes it sticky for small businesses and customer engagement, even if younger users increasingly lean toward WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, or Telegram for personal conversations.

9. Snapchat

Snapchat has 850 million monthly active users in 2025, ranking it ninth among global social platforms. 

• Snapchat is estimated to reach about 50 million Gen Z users in 2025. 
  
  
• Users create about 4.75 billion snaps each day.
  
  
• The app’s core audience is under 35 years old, and 18–24-year-olds make up 38.1% of global users, 13–17-year-olds just 18.6%.
  
  
• Geographically, Snapchat has the biggest penetration in Bahrain at 80% of the total population, followed by Luxembourg at 76% and Saudi Arabia at 74.3%.
  

Snapchat is not the biggest social app globally, but it’s one of the most important youth-native platforms, anchoring itself in the attention spans of the under-35 generation.

Usage patterns show that people don’t just passively watch content; instead, they create, reply, and hang out with friends inside ephemeral group chats and stories.

Snapchat’s Spotlight short-video feature continues to capture some of TikTok’s spillover growth, but its DNA is still peer messaging and group communities.

10. Douyin

Douyin, China’s leading short‑video app, represents a domestic version of TikTok but operates independently with its own ecosystem and regulations.

It has 766 million monthly active users in 2025, making it the tenth-largest social platform globally. 

• Douyin users spend more than 2 hours per day on the app. 
  
  
• In 2024, Douyin’s e‑commerce gross merchandise volume (GMV) surpassed RMB¥3.5 trillion (≈US$483 billion), cementing its role as not just a social platform but also a retail powerhouse. 
  
  
• Over 22 million creators earned income through Douyin in 2019.

Douyin isn’t just TikTok’s Chinese cousin. In fact, it’s arguably the most commercially advanced social platform in the world.

By merging short videos, livestreaming, and e‑commerce into a single app, Douyin has created a “social + retail” hybrid that other platforms (including TikTok and Instagram) are still trying to replicate.

The time spent on Douyin is staggering: over 2 hours per day per user means people aren’t just dropping by, they’re living inside the app.

And unlike Facebook or YouTube, where ad revenue drives the business, Douyin monetizes through direct shopping and impulse commerce, giving creators, advertisers, and brands a tightly integrated ecosystem.

Its dominance is geographically limited (entirely in China), but within that single market it’s nearly unavoidable. It captures culture, entertainment, and consumer spending in one loop.

11. Kuaishou

Kuaishou has 714 million monthly active users in 2025. 

• Users spend about 2 hours and 13 minutes each day on the platform.
  
  
• In Q2 2025, Kuaishou recorded over RMB 358.9 billion (≈US$50.27 billion) in gross merchandise volume from live shopping.

Kuaishou’s story is striking because it represents another side of China’s video economy. 

While Douyin dominates aspirational, urban, influencer-driven culture, Kuaishou built its empire by giving voice to small-town creators, grassroots communities, and rural livestream sellers. 

That foundation not only makes it sticky in China’s vast lower-tier markets but also underpins its ability to export its technology and business model globally under the Kwai brand, which has built strong user bases in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

While it doesn’t have Douyin’s global cultural power, it shows how short video + live shopping can thrive outside premium demographics, and its international push could make it an under‑the‑radar giant in emerging markets.

12. Reddit

Reddit has 606 million monthly active users in 2025.

• Reddit.com ranks among the top 10 most visited websites worldwide, with over 4.66 billion monthly visits as of Jul 2025.
  
  
• Reddit thrives on its community/subreddit model, hosting more than 130,000 active communities across every niche topic imaginable. 
  
  
• Users spend an average of 21 minutes per day on the platform. 
  
  
• In 2023, Reddit’s ad revenue surpassed $800 million, reflecting its growing importance as a discovery and discussion platform for brands.
  
  
• More than 45% of Reddit’s daily active users come from the United States, making it more geographically concentrated than platforms like Instagram or TikTok. 

Reddit is a very different kind of giant compared to video apps or messengers.

Its network of user‑governed communities gives it both depth and longevity: engagement may not be as high as TikTok, but users who get embedded in communities tend to return daily for years.

Its US-centric base makes it less of a global social giant, but its cultural impact goes far beyond its raw numbers.

Trends, memes, and even stock market movements often start inside Reddit communities before spilling into the wider internet.

For advertisers, Reddit is trickier than Facebook or Instagram since its users are protective of authenticity and skeptical of overt ads.

Still, its community trust and influence make it one of the most important digital arenas for shaping opinion.

13. Weibo

Weibo has 599 million monthly active users in 2025. 

• Weibo’s daily active users number about 261 million, meaning less than half of its monthly base engages daily.
  
  
• The app is especially strong with younger audiences: 75% of users are between the ages of 18 and 30, making it one of China’s most youth‑skewed “open” platforms. 

Compared with WeChat’s private “closed” messaging and Douyin’s short-video-plus-commerce ecosystem, Weibo remains China’s largest open public forum.

It is where trending topics, celebrity news, and political discussion spread quickly.

The platform continues to serve as China’s default hub for entertainment, news, and culture. 

Tens of thousands of verified accounts from celebrities, brands, and state media use it as their main stage.

Most nationwide viral discussions, from celebrity scandals to social movements, still break on Weibo before appearing on other platforms.

14. X

X has 586 million monthly active users in 2025, placing it outside the top tier but still among the leading global social platforms. 

• The platform’s daily global active user base is around 245 million, showing steady engagement despite slower overall growth compared to TikTok or Instagram. 
  
  
• Average daily time spent is 28 minutes per user, higher than Reddit but lower than leading platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. 
  
  
• Roughly 59% of X users use the platform to keep up with news, proving its continued relevance as a source of live information. 

X in 2025 is a paradox: smaller in absolute scale than giants like Instagram or TikTok but punching far above its weight in cultural and political influence.

News breaks on X. Memes are born there. Public figures, from presidents to athletes, still use it as a loudspeaker to the world.

Under Elon Musk’s ownership, the app has undergone aggressive rebranding and product changes (pushing payments, subscriptions, “super app” features), but its core identity remains: the world’s instant conversation. 

A trending hashtag, a viral post, or a CEO’s statement on X can trigger headlines and market moves across the globe. That keeps it indispensable, regardless of its user gap with larger platforms.

15. QQ

QQ has 562 million monthly active users in 2025. 

• Around 60% of QQ’s users are under 30, making it one of China’s most youth‑oriented social apps. 
  
  
• QQ’s website saw 274.08 million visits in Jul 2025.

Despite being overshadowed by WeChat, QQ remains a half-billion-user platform, serving as Tencent’s youth-focused ecosystem for messaging, music, and gaming.

It has maintained strong traction in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, as well as among students and younger internet users. 

QQ’s resilience shows how legacy platforms in China can continue to operate at massive scale even after losing cultural prominence.

What is the most popular social media app?

The most popular social media app in 2025 is Facebook, with a staggering 3.07 billion monthly active users.

This number isn’t just big; it’s massive, especially when you look at how far the platform has come over the years.

When we first published this article way back in December 2011, Facebook was already at the top with 700 million users.

Since then, the platform’s growth has been incredible. In fact, if you look at the numbers, Facebook has seen a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 12.6% from 2011 to 2025.

To put that into perspective, Facebook’s user base has grown by about 4.23 times since we first started talking about it in this article.

In its early days, Facebook moved quickly. It took just 10 months to hit 1 million users, and by 2012, it reached 1 billion.

Fast forward to today, and Facebook is adding a lot of new users every day.

Even as some younger users move to newer platforms like TikTok and Instagram, Facebook remains incredibly dominant. Over 68% of its user base logs in every day.

How many people use social media?

A total of 5.41 billion people use social media in 2025. That is about two thirds (65.7%) of everyone on Earth, and it keeps climbing every quarter.

The primary reason reported by people for using social media is to stay in touch with friends and family (50.5%), followed by passing time (39.3%), and reading news stories (35.9%).

How much time are we all spending there? The typical user racks up around 2 hours 21 minutes per day on socials, and the average person actively uses multiple platforms rather than just one.

That mix of high reach and habitual usage is why marketers still treat social as the default channel for spreading awareness.

Top 3 social media apps

TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are the top three social media apps in terms of downloads.

In 2024, TikTok was downloaded 773 million times, followed by Instagram at 759 million, and Facebook at 571 million.

The top three social media apps, based on downloads, are TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

TikTok took the lead in 2024 with 773 million installs, followed closely by Instagram at 759 million, and Facebook at 571 million. 

TikTok's explosive growth is no surprise. Its short-form videos and addictive algorithm keep it at the forefront, especially among younger users who love the viral trends that pop up every other week.

Instagram, though not seeing the same rapid rise, remains a major player.

Reels has helped it stay competitive with TikTok, and its popularity proves it’s still the go-to platform for photo-sharing and shopping.

As for Facebook, while it’s losing some younger users, it still holds massive power, especially with older demographics and in social commerce.

Despite newer apps taking some of the spotlight, Facebook’s reach and influence remain tough to beat.

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