Social Media Statistics: Trends, Facts, and Insights
But let’s get real, social media is more than a social activity. Social media has become a part of our everyday life.
Over the past 10 years, social media has completely revolutionized how we communicate, shop, and live. AI has taken over what we consume and what we produce.
In this article, Social Media Statistics: Trends, Facts, and Insights, we’ll be going through statistics from 2015-2025 and what we can expect from social media in 2025.
We’ll look at the number of users, geographical reach, leading platforms, social media usage, age and gender, most used devices, engagement, and more.
Take a look at this article and find out how much of an impact social media has made.
Worldwide Social Media Users: 2015 to 2025
Overall, the data shows social media usage has been compounding over the past 10 years.
At the beginning of 2015, the number of global social media users was 2.078 billion. This is forecast to reach 5.239 billion in 2025, marking a 10-year CAGR of 9.7%. That means an additional 3.16 billion social media users since 2015.
Cumulative annual growth rates (CAGR) have not remained steady though. Social media adoption rates increased significantly in the late 2010s before accelerating further during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, it has dropped down to a single-digit rate of growth as social media penetrates more of the global population.
In January 2025, it is estimated that 63.9% of the world’s population has at least one active social media account (what the company calls “social media user identities”). This shows how social media has become a fundamental channel for communication and entertainment, and, increasingly, for AI-powered content curation.
Here are the most recent data points at a glance:
5.239 billion social media users worldwide (4% year-over-year change from 2024). Social media penetration of 63.9% of the global population in 2025.
Global social media users (2015–2025)
| Year | Users (billions) | YoY growth |
| 2015 | 2.08 | – |
| 2016 | 2.31 | 11% |
| 2017 | 2.79 | 21% |
| 2018 | 3.20 | 15% |
| 2019 | 3.46 | 8% |
| 2020 | 3.71 | 7% |
| 2021 | 4.20 | 13% |
| 2022 | 4.62 | 10% |
| 2023 | 4.76 | 3% |
| 2024 | 5.04 | 6% |
| 2025 | 5.24 | 4% |
| Methodology: Data represents “active user accounts,” the most common metric used by large social media analytics companies for tracking multi-platform social activity; data derived from historical trends and 2025 data. |
Analyst’s take
I believe that these figures show a market maturing from land-grabs to refinement. Increased adoption is less a function of fully new internet users and more a function of (i) market share re-distribution between social media platforms, (ii) new formats (such as creator and short-form), and (iii) AI-based content filtering and curation that increases retention in apps and feeds.
There is still some upside in lower penetration markets, but the next phase of social media growth is likely to come from deepening usage (driven by integration of commerce, search, and messaging apps), not expanding it.
In other words, social media is no longer just “where people are”; increasingly, it is also “how people are getting to the internet,” and this is the next key statistic.
Regional Social Media Penetration, 2025
Fast-forward to 2025 and the social media adoption landscape appears more evenly distributed than in 2015, but not equal.
Worldwide penetration has reached 64%. Regional penetration is a different story, however.
North America and Northern Europe have reached over 85% penetration, while Africa and South Asia continue to trail, though they’ve made remarkable gains since 2020.
The highest proportional growth this decade came from South Asia.
Europe and North America are essentially maxed out, with only slight increases in users in the past 5 years. Users in Europe and North America are also using social media more intensely than ever before.
Latin America has reached the point of critical mass for social media, intertwining with commerce, messaging, and even civic engagement.
Social media penetration by region (2025)
| Region | Penetration Rate | Estimated Users (millions) | Year-over-Year Growth |
| North America | 84% | 390 | 2% |
| Europe | 79% | 610 | 3% |
| East Asia | 74% | 1,280 | 4% |
| South Asia | 53% | 960 | 8% |
| Latin America | 77% | 510 | 3% |
| Middle East & North Africa | 65% | 340 | 5% |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 33% | 360 | 9% |
| Oceania | 82% | 32 | 2% |
| Global Average | 63.9% | 5,482 | 4% |
Notes: Numbers represent “estimated active user identities” by region in 2025. Compiled from worldwide statistics and local telecom reports.
Analyst’s Comments
These statistics are interesting, not so much for where social media is, but for where it is going.
The “emerging” markets are not as “emerging” anymore. Many of them have robust social media ecosystems, perfect for running AI applications, like recommendations, creating local social media influencers, and a micro social media economy.
The next billion social media users are not going to dramatically alter the social media landscape. Rather, they will dramatically alter the culture of the social media platforms. More social media users will be communicating in their native language rather than English. More people will be using visual communication. More people will be using AI to communicate and create.
From a statistical perspective, the emphasis is no longer on expanding social media to the globe, but to tailor it to the individual.
Social media is no longer about connecting the world, but about reflecting it.
Most Used Social Media Platforms (2025)
There are many social media platforms out there, but here in 2025, here is a list of the most used platforms around the world, along with an analysts opinion on what it means for AI, media distribution, and social media.
Top 10 Most Used Social Media Platforms (2025) Let’s take a look at the most popular social media platforms around the world, and then we’ll look at the numbers on the list.
Facebook still comes in first place with 3.07 Billion Monthly Active Users (MAUs). The runner up is YouTube with 2.53 Billion MAUs.
Instagram and WhatsApp also make it into the billions, both coming in around 2 Billion users. TikTok also reaches over 1 Billion users with 1.59 Billion MAUs.
It’s not about who has the most monthly active users, it’s about how the big social media platforms are choosing to use AI to distribute media, how brands use their advertising dollars, and how they are using machine learning to personalize user feeds.
Top Social Media Platforms by Active Users (2025)
| Rank | Platform | Monthly Active Users (approx.) |
| 1 | 3.07 billion | |
| 2 | YouTube | 2.53 billion |
| 3 | 2.00 billion | |
| 4 | 2.00 billion | |
| 5 | TikTok | 1.59 billion |
Source: Hootsuite This list shows that a small number of social media platforms have a huge number of monthly active users. It’s the big fish in a small pond situation.
Analyst Opinion
Here’s my thoughts on this list: I see consolidation in social media.
Only a few big platforms are now at a multi-billion user scale, and their algorithms, recommendation models, and AI tools have outsized global impact.
For AI practitioners and digital strategists, this means:
- Platform specific AI knowledge is a competitive advantage. You will have an edge if you understand how Facebook or YouTubes recommendation algorithms work.
- New social media platforms are still important. Just don’t expect them to be nearly as large as these top platforms. While they may have hundreds of millions of users, there’s a huge divide between them and the top platforms.
- Engagement quality will be more important than absolute numbers. Now that the biggest platforms have gotten so large, the next big developments will be in more engaged user activity, monetization, and AI enhanced experiences.
I think this list is great, but the real value is not in the size of each social media platform, but rather how they use AI and data to continue to build out their platforms and retain their users.
Time Spent on Social Media per Day (2025)
You might be surprised at just how much the occasional scroll through a social media feed really totals up.
The global average time spent on social media in 2025 is about 141 minutes a day, or 2 hours 21 minutes.
That’s just slightly lower than last year (143 minutes).
For many, that daily scrolling time is now competing with other screen time (and with non-screen time) like never before.
Time spent on social media per day (2025)
| Metric | Value |
| Global average daily time | ~141 minutes (2 h 21 m) |
| Year-over-year change (2024→2025) | Drop from ~143 to ~141 minutes |
| Region with highest time spent | Brazil ~3 h 49 m per day |
| Region with lowest use | U.S. average ~2 h 16 m per day |
Comment from the analyst
I’m struck that the global average time spent on social media is not increasing. That tells me that we may be reaching a point of diminishing returns on social media use in some markets, in terms of minutes available to spend scrolling through feeds.
It also tells me that the future will be less about time spent on social media, and more about how time is spent on social media.
For researchers and analysts interested in AI and digital behaviors, that means focusing less on the quantity of time and more on the intensity of time.
For instance, is the average time spent on a single session increasing, even if the total daily time is not? Are users in different age groups switching between platforms more frequently?
Are new markets emerging that are exhibiting longer session times, even as the global average dips?
The headline figure (2 h 21 m) is important, but the nuance of time spent on social media is the real story to tell.
The future of time spent on social media will be told at the level of segmentation (by age, region, platform), and by the quality of the time spent on social media, as AI, short-form content, vertical video, interactivity and other innovations pack more into every minute.
Age and Gender Distribution of Social Media Users In 2025
If you look at the distribution of social media users by age, in 2025 the majority of users are in the 25 to 34 age range, for most of the major platforms. This suggests that whilst Gen Z are increasingly important, millennials still dominate.
For example, this study found that the largest age group using TikTok is the 25 to 34 age range, at 35.3%.
If you look at the gender distribution of social media users, there is roughly a 50:50 split (e.g. this data suggests that 51.6% are female, and 48.4% are male). However, the split can vary significantly depending on which platform you look at.
Here’s a rough breakdown of the data:
| Age Group | Share of Users* | Gender Split (approx.) |
| 18–24 | 30 % | Slight female majority |
| 25–34 | 35 % | Roughly even (~50 / 50) |
| 35–44 | 20 % | Slight male majority |
| 45–54 | 10 % | Male majority |
| 55+ | 5 % | Male majority |
- This is based on a meta-analysis of studies looking at the global social media user demographics across a range of platforms in 2025.
Notes & caveats
The split varies significantly from platform to platform. For example, a platform like TikTok will have a significantly younger user base than a platform like Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Similarly, the male/female split will vary significantly depending on which part of the world you are in. Some countries have a much higher proportion of male social media users than female, and vice versa.
This global data masks those regional variations. In these datasets, the ‘gender split’ typically refers to a binary male/female split. Data on other gender identities is not always consistently available in these global studies.
Analyst’s take
Based on this data, I think there are a couple of key implications for those of us working in social media, and AI:
Firstly, the fact that the 25 to 34 age range dominates the user base of most platforms suggests that you should continue to prioritize algorithms, content formats and monetisation strategies that appeal to this demographic.
However, you shouldn’t do so at the expense of the Gen Z users, who are likely to increasingly become a more important part of your user base in the coming years.
Secondly, given that the split between male and female users is roughly 50:50, this suggests that (unless you have a specific reason to target male or female users) just targeting men or women is not a useful way to differentiate your marketing messages, your algorithms or your content formats.
Going forward, you’re likely to need to segment users in other ways, perhaps based on the interests and hobbies that they express (or behave in ways that suggest they have), or perhaps based on the region and country that they are in.
In other words, whilst it’s interesting to understand the age and gender of your users, this data suggests that (as time progresses) that is becoming less important, because those distinctions are becoming increasingly nuanced.
What is going to matter more is understanding the other ways in which your users are segmented, and that is where the next level of opportunity is for AI to be integrated into social media platforms and social media marketing strategies.
It’s no longer just a question of ‘how many 25 to 34 year old users do I have?’, but ‘what are they doing, when, and how does that vary depending on whether they are male or female, where they are in the world, and what else they are interested in?’.
User demographics for each social media platform in 2025
If you want a snapshot of what the users of each of these platforms look like, it’s useful to think in terms of demographics and biases.
Most platforms are now biased towards 18–34-year-olds, but the sex biases vary: women dominate Pinterest, men dominate Reddit and X, Instagram is roughly balanced, and TikTok has aged into 25–34-year-olds without losing its Gen Z bias.
Women dominate social media use, particularly in younger demographics. This matters for your ad models, if you’re trying to predict engagement.
Demographic snapshot by platform (2025)
| Platform | Largest Age Cohort | Gender Tilt (approx.) | Notable Notes |
| 25–34 (~31%) | ~43% F / 57% M | Older distribution than peers; still broad reach across 35+. | |
| 18–24 (~32%) | ~49% F / 51% M | Nearly even gender split; strong 18–34 concentration. | |
| TikTok | 25–34 (~35%) | ~44% F / 56% M | Audience has aged up; still Gen Z heavy, highest daily minutes. |
| YouTube | 25–34 (~22%) | ~46% F / 54% M | Broadest age reach; strong lean toward video discovery/learning. |
| 25–34 (~51%) | ~44% F / 56% M | Professional context; income and seniority skew higher. | |
| 18–24 (≈46%) | ~69% F / 23% M | Most female-skewed major network; discovery and shopping heavy. | |
| Snapchat | 18–24 (≈38%) | ~49% F / 50% M | Youth-centric messaging and creator stories; DAU-led metric. |
| 18–29 (US ≈46%) | ~39% F / 60% M | Community/topic-driven; deep engagement in niches. |
Notes: Age distribution and sex ratios are as at 2025, and represent a global picture. Data points such as age distribution on Reddit are USA-only. ‘Largest age group’ means the single largest group, not the majority of users.
Average time spent varies by country, and reasons for using socials vary by life stage. Women aged 16–24 spend the most time.
What this means to me
You can no longer rely on platform alone as a proxy for targeting. All the major platforms are now centered on 18–34-year-olds, so to reach the right people, you need to combine this with life stage, language, and interests.
I think there’s a second story here, around how medium and format dictate the users who remain on each platform. For example, short-form video appeals to a different psychology than community discussions, and AI-driven content curation enhances these distinctions.
If you’re using AI tools for ad creative or media planning, you should consider building your models around cohort preferences (e.g. commercial intent for Pinterest and Instagram; information and long-form for YouTube; in-depth interests for Reddit), rather than relying on age and sex to target your audience.
Going forward, the brands that will succeed will be those who combine platform-specific content with audience motivations, and leave the platforms to take care of the targeting.
Social Media Advertising Spend (2020 to 2025)
Where the dollars are going tells a lot about where the ad world is going. In this case, social media went from a COVID bump to an AI-powered acceleration.
2024 spend came in at “almost a quarter-trillion,” up ~15% from 2023, and another ~15% in 2025.
The Q3 2025 update has social at $306.4B, +14.9% YoY and ~26.2% of global ad spend.
Global social media ad spend (USD billions)
| Year | Spend | YoY change | Notes |
| 2020 | 132 | – | Baseline amid pandemic acceleration; rounded estimate from multi-year series. |
| 2021 | 155 | +17% | Continued rebound as performance formats scaled. |
| 2022 | 207 | +33% | Broader shift to direct-response and short-video units. |
| 2023 | 217 | +5% | Setup year ahead of 2024’s re-acceleration. |
| 2024 | 250 | +15% | “Close to a quarter-trillion” globally. |
| 2025 | 306.4 | +14.9% | ~26.2% share of all ad spend this year. |
Methodology note: 2020-2024 numbers are a composite of Statista-reported totals aggregated by DataReportal (2024 was “close to a quarter-trillion” and +15% YoY); 2025 numbers are from WARC’s Q3 2025 update. Some minor rounding error might be present.
Takeaways
Three things jump out. One, social is less a “channel” and more a full-on “medium” (ala TV) with targeting (ala performance), which is why it’s eating ~1 in 4 ad dollars.
Two, that 2024-to-2025 bump reflects AI-enabled ad creation and discovery algorithms making inventory more valuable (and attributable) for commerce and app advertisers.
Three, diversity within social matters: short-form video and retail media-adjacent formats are bringing new dollars to the table while brand and creator-driven efforts keep chugging along.
So in a purely practical sense, I’d imagine 2026 plans favoring outcome-driven bidding (did I get an incremental sale or install?) over CPMs, because at that scale, a few % improvement in efficiency adds up a lot faster than the size of the team.
Top Countries by Social Media Advertising Spend (2025)
The flip side of where to spend money is where spending actually occurs. In 2025, a few digitally advanced markets dominate the social media ad spend landscape:
The US is the biggest market for social media advertising, with more than $100 billion in ad spend on social networks in 2025, according to Insider Intelligence/eMarketer. China is No. 2 due to the enormous size of its m-commerce market and social media platforms.
In the major Western countries, the UK leads the pack with £9.02 billion ($11.38 billion) in social media ad spending in 2025, followed by Japan and Germany.
India and Brazil are big, growth markets for social media ads, driven by social commerce and short-form video.
Estimated leaderboard (social media ad spend, 2025)
| Rank | Country | 2025 Social Media Ad Spend | Notes (method & context) |
| 1 | United States | > $100B | Explicit 2025 forecast for U.S. social network ad spend crossing $100B. |
| 2 | China | High tens of billions (est.) | Second-largest digital ad market globally; social formats command substantial share of mobile budgets. |
| 3 | United Kingdom | £9.02B (~$11.4B) | Country report cites 13.8% YoY growth in social ad spend. |
| 4 | Japan | Low-to-mid tens of billions (est.) | Large digital ad base; social/video continue to expand within internet advertising. |
| 5 | Germany | Low tens of billions (est.) | Mature performance-led mix; steady social growth tied to retail/app sectors. |
| 6 | India | High single-digit billions (est.) | Rapid digitalization; social ads rising with short-video and commerce adoption. |
| 7 | Brazil | High single-digit billions (est.) | Heavy daily social use supports robust paid social budgets. |
| 8 | Canada | Single-digit billions (est.) | Stable growth; strong Meta + YouTube mix. |
| 9 | France | Single-digit billions (est.) | Social/video formats expanding; commerce integrations deepen. |
| 10 | South Korea | Single-digit billions (est.) | Mobile-first market; creator and short-video spend intensifying. |
Methodology: The US and UK figures come from country-specific data.
All other numbers are very rough estimates based on relative country market size, digital share, and social share in 2025.
Numbers are rounded to avoid an impression of spurious accuracy because country-level data might include different items (messaging ads, creators, social commerce ads, etc.). Sources: Insider Intelligence/eMarketer (US >$100B) and We Are Social | DataReportal (UK £9.02B).
Commentary
This list shows where performance will be pushed by AI first. The US drives innovation in automation, ad creative, and incrementality testing, so innovation there often spreads from there.
In China, the flywheel of short video, live shopping, and recommendations keeps pulling spending toward more measurable, demand-generation ad formats.
In major European markets (UK, Germany, France), there’s more of a wait-and-see attitude but a steady move toward performance ad creative and placements driven by AI.
If you’re budgeting for 2026, the practical approach is to think of “social” as three sub-buckets: (1) discovery (short video, creators), (2) demand generation (shop ads, lead gen, messaging), and (3) incrementality validation (modeling, holdouts).
Countries at the top of this table are already budgeting this way, and the cumulative efficiency gains are what will keep them at the top of the spending list in 2026 as well.
The Average Engagement Rate by Social Media Platform (2025)
If I focus on the engagement rates on the different social media platforms in 2025, two things surprise me.
Firstly, the networks with the largest user bases do not always have the highest engagement rates. Secondly, how each network calculates and views engagement is evolving over time.
For example: The average engagement rate on Instagram is 1.16%. That may seem small until you consider that the algorithm isn’t fully transparent, and people don’t always make the effort to hit the “like” button, nor are “saves” accounted for in the calculation.
For comparison, LinkedIn’s average engagement rate is 6.50% (despite being ignored by many social media marketers).
Engagement benchmarks across major platforms (2025)
| Platform | Approximate Engagement Rate* | Commentary |
| ~6.50% | Strong in B2B and professional networks; fewer posts, higher relevance. | |
| ~5.07% | Large scale but broad audience; public engagement still holds up. | |
| TikTok | ~4.86% | Short-form video dominates; but rate varies dramatically by creator size. |
| Threads | ~4.51% | Newer platform, engagement still meaningful despite smaller reach. |
| YouTube | ~4.41% | Video platform where comments/likes are a smaller slice of total views. |
| ~3.46% | More niche and visually discovery-oriented; engagement lower but intent higher. | |
| X (Twitter) | ~2.31% | Fast-moving feed, lower dwell/interactions but high volume of impressions. |
| ~1.16% | Despite its prominence, public post engagements appear modest; hidden metrics likely much higher. |
*These numbers are based on a rough calculation of the average of benchmark studies on engagement rates in 2024 and 2025. In a recent study, the average engagement rate on Instagram Reels was as low as 0.50% for some accounts.
Analyst Take
What surprises me most is that engagement rate is more and more becoming a channel-specific KPI rather than a brand-specific KPI.
100,000 engagements on LinkedIn mean something completely different to 100,000 engagements on TikTok. From a brand perspective, that means:
- You need to decide on what you want to achieve. On LinkedIn, you might be looking for engagement in the form of establishing thought leadership and comments. On TikTok, you might be looking for engagement in the form of going viral.
- You need to be careful when looking at the raw percentage. Networks where most of the engagement happens through stories, lives, messaging, or private groups under-report engagement, which might seem low at first.
All in all, that means that the overall engagement rate will further decline across large social media networks as the absolute number of followers keeps growing and passive engagement increases.
Consequently, the focus will shift toward quality over quantity, across formats (e.g., from stories to DMs and conversions), and toward using AI in order to enable consumers to take action.
Influencer Marketing Statistics (2024-2025)
In 2024-2025, the growth of influencer marketing has been more steady than spectacular.
Budgets have stabilised, content has become more performance-orientated, and AI is being used more and more to enhance campaigns.
For instance, a recent survey showed that in 2025, 80% of brands had kept or increased their spending on influencers, and 47% of brands have increased their spending by 11% or more.
73% of brands also prefer to work with micro and mid-tier influencers than top-tier influencers.
Furthermore, the global spend on influencer marketing is estimated to reach around US $21.1 billion in 2024, with some estimations that the spend will reach around US $32.55 billion in 2025, meaning the growth rate will be in double figures, but that the heady days of rapid growth are behind us.
Table: Key Influencer Marketing Metrics (2024–2025)
| Metric | 2024 Estimate | 2025 Estimate / Forecast |
| Global influencer marketing industry size | ~US $21.1 billion | ~US $32.55 billion (≈ +35 %) |
| Percentage of brands maintaining or increasing influencer budget | Not specified | ~80% |
| Percentage of brands increasing budget by ≥11% | Not specified | ~47% |
| Share of brands working with micro/mid-tier creators | Not specified | ~73% |
| ROI for influencer campaigns (brands reporting) | (various) | Shift toward performance-driven metrics |
Source: multiple sources; note some figures are estimates, the definition of “influencer marketing” and “mid-tier/micro” will vary from survey to survey
Analyst’s view
I’m a bit biased, but I think it’s interesting that volume is giving way to accuracy. When influencer marketing was in a period of hyper-growth, the emphasis was on reach and awareness.
These days, it’s about working out which creators to use, what type of content to make, and how to use AI to optimise campaigns to deliver actual results, such as sales, leads or app installs.
The numbers bear this out: more brands are using micro and mid-tier creators (who typically offer better engagement rates for a lower cost), and are being far more careful with their budgets.
For those of us in the AI business, the lesson is clear: technology which can help predict which influencers will perform well, help automate reporting, and attribute a clear return on investment is likely to be crucial going forward.
The days of big influencer campaigns where the only metric was the size of someone’s following is disappearing, and in its place are campaigns which are based on delivering a performance outcome, where the fit between creator and brand is much more thought through, and where data optimisation plays a big role.
In other words, influencer marketing is still a great channel, but success is more likely to come to those who know how to marry up creator strategy with analytics and attribution, and workflows which are automated through AI.
Going forward, the spoils will not just go to those with the best creators, but to those who can integrate them with their marketing ecosystem, and use data and automation to deliver a measurable result.
Top Social Media Apps By Downloads (2025 YTD)
This shows the social media apps that are most trending in terms of downloads in the first part of 2025.
In July 2025, TikTok was downloaded 39M times. Instagram had 38M downloads in July 2025.
While this isn’t a full 2025 YTD breakdown, it gives you an idea of which social media platforms are growing in terms of new users.
Top Social Media Apps by Downloads (2025 YTD)
| Rank | App | Estimated Downloads (July 2025) | Notes |
| 1 | TikTok | ~39 million | Strong global reach, short-video format |
| 2 | ~38 million | Mature platform, still gaining installs | |
| 3 | ~30 million | Large base but slower growth | |
| 4 | ~27 million | Messaging-first, social overlap | |
| 5 | Threads | ~23 million | Newer platform, download momentum |
Source: AppFigures (via Backlinko). Note: These numbers are estimates and based on July 2025 downloads.
Practitioner’s insight
I think these download numbers are super interesting. As you can see, all of these social media apps are still getting TONS of new downloads.
Even relatively old apps (like Facebook and Instagram) still get tens of millions of downloads per month.
So, there’s still lots of room for social media growth globally.
But at the same time, there’s a pretty big gap between the top-downloaded apps and the rest.
So, it looks like TikTok and Instagram will continue to be the go-to platforms for content creators (and probably advertisers too) in a social media world dominated by AI.
That said, if you’re someone that uses AI in your work, remember that downloads don’t necessarily translate into engagement or revenue.
But they do tell you which platforms have lots of new users (likely from areas with lower social media penetration) that are feeding new data into the algorithms.
And platforms with tens of millions of new downloads per month are likely to see some big changes to their AI-powered recommendation algorithms and new creator discovery models. Plus, you’re likely to see that platform get even more mainstream.
In other words, as you plan out your social media strategy for 2026, it probably makes sense to focus on platforms that have lots of downloads.
But you’ll also want to understand how those new users interact with the platform, and how the platform uses AI to retain and monetize those users.
Social Media Mobile vs Desktop
If I look back on how social media was accessed in 2025, I can tell you that it overwhelmingly happened via mobile and that desktop access either declined or was more nuanced.
The share of web traffic (a proxy for social media usage) that comes from mobile devices is around 59.7%. Another 38.1% of web traffic comes from desktop browsers.
This caveat should also be added: that the usage patterns of social media applications might be even more skewed towards mobile than the web in general, since most of those services design first for mobile and then the desktop.
This will have implications for content production, ad targeting and the weighting that AI-powered recommendation algorithms give to format and device context.
Devices used for social media (2025 projections)
| Device Type | Approximate Share of Web/Social Traffic | Notes / Implications |
| Mobile devices | ~59.7% | Majority access; apps + short formats dominate. |
| Desktop devices | ~38.1% | Used more for multi-tasking, deeper sessions, content creation. |
| Tablet / Other | ~2.2% (residual) | Smaller share; may matter for niche behaviours. |
What do the analysts say?
To me, that fact that mobile is leading the pack is no big deal – the part that is interesting is the degree to which content strategies need to be adjusted based on the device divide. Here are the AI-and-social relevant key points to remember:
Mobile-optimization: Given that the majority of users access the platform through their smartphones, short-form, vertical video, fast-paced interaction is king.
AI tools for mobile-optimised creative (swipes, taps, micro-attention) will gain traction.
There is still a place for desktop – it’s just a different one: Desktop is not going away, it’s just more appropriate for lengthy browsing, creator platforms, editing, forum and comment interaction.
That implies separating out the flows by device – mobile for acquiring and engaging, desktop for retaining, deeper content and community.
Context matters for measurement: Because mobile is such a big percentage, it means the AI algorithms for attribution and analytics have to adjust for device.
For instance, the sessions from mobile devices may be shorter and more frequent while those from desktop may be less frequent and longer – results vary.
In short: the device-split tells you not only where your users are, but more importantly, how they interact. If your social media strategy (AI-powered or not) is based on a “one size fits all” approach, you are falling short.
The next wave of innovation will be built on content and platforms that optimize for the mobile masses while still using the desktop minority for storytelling and conversion.
Taking a step back from the stats, it is clear that social media has evolved into a symbiotic system where technology, data and people are all constantly evolving to suit each other.
An ever-increasing global audience, albeit at a declining rate. More complex behaviors. Increased ad spend as a result of better targeting and AI-assisted ad creative.
The demography indicates that almost all age groups and regions are on board now, although some are scrolling, some are selling and some are creating content.
Between the proliferation of micro-influencers, algorithmically filtered feeds, and the preeminence of the mobile experience, it’s clear that social media is both a reflection of and a driving force behind the zeitgeist.
The future isn’t about whether or not social media will continue to evolve, it’s about how it will use AI, automation, and personalization to change.
The future isn’t about the number of eyeballs, but the quality of the viewing experience – the ability of platforms and creators to know what you want before you look for it. Social media is now tied to the trajectory of AI.
Sources and References
- DataReportal – Digital 2025: Global Social Media Overview
- Statista – Global Social Media User Forecast (2015–2025)
- We Are Social & Meltwater – Digital 2025 Global Report
- Sprout Social – Social Media Demographics to Inform Your 2025 Strategy
- DataReportal – Global Digital and Social Media Ad Spend 2025
- WARC – Global Ad Spend Forecast Q3 2025 Update
- Insider Intelligence / eMarketer – U.S. Social Network Ad Spending 2025
- Backlinko – Most Popular Apps Worldwide (2025)
- Buffer – Average Engagement Rate by Platform 2025
- Social Insider – Social Media Benchmarks 2025
- PR Newswire – Influencer Marketing in 2025: New Data and Trends
- Thunderbit – Influencer Marketing Statistics 2024–2025
- SQ Magazine – Mobile vs Desktop Usage Statistics 2025
