29 Top Facebook Video Statistics For 2024
Looking for the latest Facebook video statistics? You’re in the right place.
Lately, the world’s been going crazy for video content. As a result, pretty much every social media platform has shifted its focus toward video to keep pace with emerging competitors like TikTok—and Facebook is no exception.
In this post, I’ll share lots of facts and figures that reveal interesting insights about how video is being used and consumed on Facebook this year.
Top picks
- Over 1.25 billion people visit the Facebook Video tab monthly (Wikipedia)
- Over 616 million people watch Facebook Reels (Datareportal)
- There are over 8 billion Facebook video views every day (Blogging Wizard)
- Videos account for 17.4% of all Facebook posts (Datareportal)
- Facebook & Instagram users spend more than 60% of their time on the apps watching videos (Meta Investor Relations)
- Total daily watch time of Facebook videos increased 25% year-over-year (Meta Investor Relations2)
- The average Facebook video engagement rate is 0.08% (Datareportal)
- Facebook is the second top channel for video marketing (Wyzowl)
Facebook video usage statistics
We’ll start by looking at some general statistics that highlight how often people use Facebook to get their fix of video content.
1. Facebook has 2.96 billion monthly active users
Facebook is still the most-used social network in the world with 2.96 billion MAUs. That works out to be around 36.9% of the total population, and 57.3% of the total online population (i.e. the total number of internet users in the world).
But how many of those Facebook users watch videos on the platform? Let’s look at some more stats to find out.
Source: Datareportal
2. Facebook Video (formerly Facebook Watch) has more than 1.25 billion monthly visitors
As of September 2020, 46% of Facebook’s monthly active user base visited Facebook Watch (now called Facebook Video) to consume video content every month—that’s around 1.25 billion people.
Facebook Video has only grown even more popular since then, so that figure is likely to be much higher today. Unfortunately, Facebook hasn’t released any more up-to-date figures since to confirm this.
Source: Wikipedia
3. 17.4% of Facebook posts are videos
Over the last few years, Facebook has shifted its focus heavily to video content. However, despite this, videos still only account for 17.4% of all posts to Facebook pages, according to a report from Datareportal.
That’s less than the share of both photo posts (30.2%) and link posts (50.6%), but higher than status posts (1.8%).
Source: Datareportal
4. There are ‘tens of billions’ of public videos on Facebook
Unfortunately, Meta hasn’t released any exact figures for the number of videos on Facebook, nor has there been any large-scale study to determine the amount (as far as we’re aware).
The best we have to go off is a statement made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Meta’s earnings call from Q4 2023, when he mentioned that there are ‘tens of billions of public videos’ on Facebook and Instagram.
Source: Meta Investor Relations2
5. Video now represents more than 60% of time spent on Facebook (and Instagram)
According to Meta’s latest earnings call from Q1 2024, Facebook & Instagram users now spend over 60% of their time on the apps watching videos. This reflects the wider explosion in consumer demand for video content across the world.
Source: Meta Investor Relations
6. Daily watch time across all Facebook video types grew by 25% last year
In Q4 2023, time spent watching Facebook native videos daily had grown by 25% year-over-year. This growth in watch time was largely driven by improvements made to Facebook’s video ranking algorithm.
Source: Meta Investor Relations2
7. Facebook videos are viewed over 8 billion times daily
That figure comes from 2015, so it almost certainly underestimates the ‘real’ number of daily Facebook video views. Unfortunately, Meta hasn’t released any more up-to-date data, so it’s the best we have to go off. That said, if I was a betting man, I’d wager the true figure is substantially higher.
Source: Blogging Wizard
8. Users watch over 100 million hours of Facebook video posts daily
Again, that’s a very conservative estimate as it’s based on data from 2016—and Facebook video consumption has increased substantially since then—so take it with a pinch of salt. I’d have thought the real number of hours watched daily would be significantly higher than that.
Source: Facebook
9. Facebook is the second most popular platform to watch live videos in the UK
30% of surveyed internet users in the UK say they watch live videos on Facebook Live. Only YouTube Live is more popular with 40%. In contrast, only 10% of surveyed internet users in the UK watch live content on Twitch.
Source: Statista2
Facebook video benchmarks
Here are some Facebook video statistics that might serve as useful benchmarks to inform your social media strategy.
10. The average engagement rate of a Facebook page’s video post is 0.08%
That’s lower than both photo posts (0.12%) and status posts (0.11%) but more than link posts (0.03%).
In this case, engagement rate is the sum of total engagements (comments, reactions, shares) as a percentage of total page fans.
So for example, a page with 10,000 fans should receive around 8 engagements on each video post shared to their page, on average. This is a reasonable benchmark to aim for.
Source: Datareportal
11. The average Facebook Reels engagement rate for medium-sized accounts is 1.76%
For this statistic, medium accounts are classed as those with between 2,000 and 10,000 followers. If you have followers within this ballpark, a 1.76% engagement rate is a good benchmark to aim for.
For large accounts with over 50k followers, the average engagement rate on Reels is 2.18%. And for small accounts with less than 2,000 followers, the average Reels engagement rate is 1.55%.
Source: Statista1
12. The average length of Facebook videos is 10-15 seconds
According to a report from Wistia and based on data from Hubspot, the average length of a Facebook video is 10 to 15 seconds.
However, it’s important to note that this isn’t necessarily the best length—that will depend on the type of video you’re creating, your target audience, and lots of other factors.
(Hubspot, Wistia)
13. The best time to post a Facebook video is 7 AM – 3 PM on weekdays and 5 PM – 1 AM on weekends
According to a meta-analysis by Blogging Wizard, which looked at the results of multiple large-scale studies, there are two ‘best times’ to post on Facebook.
From Monday to Thursday, the best time to post is 7 AM to 3 PM. From Friday to Sunday, it’s 5 PM to 1 AM.
However, it’s important to remember that these are very broad, general guidelines and they won’t work for everyone. It’s better to look at your own audience data to find out when they’re most active and use that to determine your personal best time to post.
Source: Blogging Wizard2
Facebook Reels statistics
Reels are one of the most popular video formats on Facebook, alongside long-form videos and live videos. Here are some statistics that tell us more about Facebook Reels specifically.
14. At least 616.8 million people watch Facebook Reels
According to Datareportal’s latest yearly report, the potential audience that can be reached with ads on Facebook Reels is around 616.8 million (around 31.1% of Facebook’s total ad reach).
This is a reasonably good estimation of the minimum number of users that watch Reels on Facebook. But as it only takes into account users that are accessible to ads, it likely underestimates the true number of people that watch Facebook Reels.
Source: Datareportal
15. 9.9% of the global population watch Facebook Reels
Again, this only takes the ad audience of Facebook Reels into account. If we include viewers that can’t be reached by ads, that figure may be even higher.
Source: Datareportal
16. Reels is the primary driver of growth in Facebook video consumption
Reels are the biggest driver of growth in overall video content consumption on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta’s latest earnings call.
Notably, Facebook has recently unified the video tab to bring all types of video content together into one experience. Viewers can now watch Reels, livestreams, and long-form content from the same place.
Source: Meta Investor Relations
17. 62.4% of Facebook Reels viewers are male
According to the best data we have, when it comes to Facebook Reels viewers, men outnumber women almost two-to-one. 62.4% of the total Facebook Reels audience is male, while just 37.6% are female.
Source: Datareportal
18. The most common age of Facebook Reels viewers is 25-34 years old.
In total, 32.9% of Facebook Reels viewers are between 25 and 34 years old (of that figure, 21.2% are male and 11.7% are female).
This makes 25-34 the most common age range in the Facebook Reels audience. The next most common age range is 35 to 44, which accounts for 21.1% of viewers. Taken together, that tells us that over half of all Facebook Reels viewers are between the ages of 25 and 44.
| Age range | Total share of audience | Share of audience (male) | Share of audience (female) |
| 13 to 17 | 3.8% | 2.5% | 1.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 19.3% | 12.6% | 6.7% |
| 25 to 34 | 32.9% | 21.2% | 11.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 21.1% | 13.1% | 8% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.9% | 6.9% | 5% |
| 55 to 64 | 6.8% | 3.6% | 3.2% |
| 65+ | 4.1% | 2.1% | 2% |
Source: Datareportal
Facebook video marketing statistics
Next, let’s look at some statistics that tell us how companies and marketers are using video on Facebook to promote their brands.
19. Facebook is the second most popular video marketing channel…
Wyzowl asked hundreds of video marketers which channels their companies used to distribute videos, and Facebook was the second most popular response.
86% of video marketers said their companies share videos on Facebook, either as native Facebook videos or Facebook video ads. This puts it only behind YouTube (90%) but above all other rival platforms including Instagram (79%) and TikTok (69%)
Source: Wyzowl
20. …and the second most effective video marketing channel
The same survey from Wyzowl asked marketers which platform was most effective. Again, Facebook was the second most common response, with 71% of respondents pointing to it.
That’s more than Instagram (64%) and TikTok (52%) Only YouTube was seen as most effective by a greater number of respondents (78%).
Source: Wyzowl
21. 91% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool
Video content in general has seen an explosion in popularity over the last few years. So unsurprisingly, the vast majority of businesses are now producing video as part of their marketing strategies.
91% of businesses now use video for marketing, which is an all-time high. To put that into perspective, only 61% used video for marketing in 2016. That’s an increase of 30% in just 8 years.
Source: Wyzowl
22. 33% of businesses who don’t use video say they lack the time
Amongst those who still don’t use video for marketing, 33% say it’s because they don’t have the time. This makes it the number one reason for not using video marketing.
The second top reason businesses aren’t using video is because it’s ‘too expensive’ (20%), and the third top reason is because they ‘don’t know where to start’ (15%).
Source: Wyzowl
Facebook video facts
Before we wrap up, here are some interesting facts about Facebook video, including a brief history of how it’s evolved over time.
23. Facebook Video (formerly Facebook Watch) was launched in August 2017
You could post short videos to Facebook as early as 2007, but it wasn’t until August 2017 that Facebook launched a dedicated tab for watching videos—Facebook Watch.
Facebook Watch was available to all users in the US that month and became globally accessible by the following year. Recently, Facebook Watch was rebranded as Facebook Video. Facebook also recently made changes to the way viewers watch videos on the Video tab, placing all video formats together for a unified viewing experience.
Source: Wikipedia
24. Facebook Reels was released in September 2021
Facebook first launched Reels in the US in September 2021. This came following India’s ban of rival short-form video platform TikTok. A few months later in February 2022, Facebook Reels was released globally. This brought Facebook more in line with platforms like Instagram, which already had Reels.
Source: Wikipedia2
25. Facebook launched the $1B Reels Play Bonus program in October 2021
A month after Reels was released, Facebook launched the Reels Play Bonus program—called the ‘Challenges Program’ at that time.
The Reels Play Bonus program gave content creators the chance to earn up to $4k a month by taking part in consecutive, cumulative challenges.
This was no doubt Meta’s way to encourage short-form video creators to produce content on the platform in response to the growing threat of rival short-form platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. At the time, TikTok had a similar distributed fund to reward creators.
Source: Wikipedia2
26. Facebook began testing ad monetization on Reels in February 2022
Meta decided to offer creators more avenues for monetization in February 2022 when they began to test ad monetization on Reels.
Source: Wikipedia2
27. Facebook videos can be up to 2 hours long
The maximum length of videos that show up in your feed, on the Facebook marketplace, and in the search results is 240 minutes (2 hours). However, for Facebook Stories and in-stream videos, the max length is 120 seconds (2 minutes)
Source: Facebook2
28. Facebook video creators earn 55% of advertising revenues
One way Facebook monetizes videos on the platform is through advertisements. Under their monetization program, content creators keep 55% of ad revenues earned on their videos, while the other 45% goes to Facebook.
This is broadly in line with the monetization programs on other platforms, such as YouTube, where creators also keep 55% of ad revenues.
Source: Wikipedia
29. Facebook Reels are limited to 90 seconds long
Unlike regular Facebook videos, Reels are limited to a maximum of 90 seconds in duration. They also have a 9:16 aspect ratio.
Source: Wikipedia2
Final thoughts
That’s it for our roundup of Facebook video statistics, facts, and trends. I hope you found them interesting. You’ll find a list of the sources we used below.
As these stats have shown, Facebook continues to invest heavily in video to meet the changing demands of social media users—and video content continues to be an important content format for marketers.
To find out how Facebook compares to other platforms, see my up-to-date ranking of the top social media platforms by monthly active users.
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