22 Leading Social Media Platforms For 2024 (Ranked By Monthly Active Users)

Want to know what the leading social media platforms are? I’ve got you covered.

In this post, I’ll be sharing the 22 most popular social media platforms in the world. Ranked according to the number of monthly active users.

I’ll tell you everything you need to know about each of them and share some interesting statistics along the way.

Note: Where possible, I’ve used official sources (such as each platform’s investor reports) to determine the number of monthly active users. However, some social media platforms do not share any official data on their monthly active user counts. In these cases, I’ve used the best third-party sources and industry estimates I could find.

#1 – Facebook

Facebook, owned by Meta, is both the largest social media platform in the world—with over 3.049 billion monthly active users (MAUs)—and one of the oldest.

Two decades ago, Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and some of his friends & roommates built Facebook out of their college dorm. 

Initially, it was exclusively an online space for Harvard students to hang out and network, but it soon spread to other universities in North America. And from there to the world.

Facebook has come a long way since those humble beginnings—and it’s weathered its fair share of controversies along the way.

Despite being racked by scandals surrounding internet privacy (i.e. the Cambridge Analytica Scandal) and political censorship, it’s remained the number one most used social media platform globally.

Stats:

• Facebook has 3.049 billion monthly active users (MAUs)…
• …and 2.06 billion daily active users (DAUs)
• Facebook Messenger has over 979 million monthly active users
• 56.8% of Facebook’s audience is male and 43.2% is female
• 31% of Facebook users are 25-34 years old (making this the biggest age group)
• 89% of social media marketers use Facebook (more than any other network)
• The average user spends 19 hours, 47 minutes on Facebook each month
• The top reason people use Facebook is to ‘message friends and family’ (72.6%)
• Facebook (Meta) headquarters are based in CA, USA

Sources: Datareportal, StartupBonsai¹

#2 – YouTube

YouTube is the second most used social media platform in the world, with around 2.49 billion monthly active users. Users go to YouTube to view and share video content.

The platform was launched in 2005 by three former PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Kawed Karim.

It would go on to be bought out by Google in late 2006, which would then expand the site and implement advertisements as a way to generate revenue.

Later, Google would also roll out YouTube’s Partner Program. Eligible creators can sign up for the Partner Program to monetize their videos and earn a share of the ad revenue.

In late 2020, YouTube released YouTube Shorts in response to the growth of rival platform TikTok. Until then, the platform had mainly been for long-form video content. But Shorts focused exclusively on short-form video content.

Stats:

• YouTube has around 2.49 billion monthly active viewers
• Users watch 70 billion videos on YouTube Shorts every day…
• …and consume around a billion hours of content on the platform.
• Around 63% of brands that post video content share it on YouTube…
• …making it the second most common video distribution channel after Facebook
• The average creator earns around $0.50 per 1,000 views
• YouTube is the second most trafficked website in the world after Google…
• …And the second most-used internet search engine

Source: Datareportal, YouTube, StartupBonsai²

#3 – WhatsApp

WhatsApp, by Meta, is the world’s leading instant messaging app, and the third most popular social network globally, with at least 2 billion monthly active users.

And that’s a conservative estimate. The 2-billion milestone was reached a few years back in 2020, and WhatsApp hasn’t released any more up-to-date data since, so there’s a good chance that there are now hundreds of millions more users.

People use WhatsApp to send text, voice, and video messages; make calls, and share images, locations, and other media content directly from their mobile phones.

It was founded in 2009 by former Yahoo! Employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum and quickly became successful, racking up hundreds of millions of users in just a few years. It was bought out by Facebook (now Meta) in 2014 and a year later, it became the world’s most-used messaging application.

In 2018, Meta expanded the platform by releasing WhatsApp Business—an app & API that businesses can use to communicate with and support their customers on WhatsApp. That too has been majorly successful and now has over 200 million MAUs.

Stats:

• WhatsApp has at least 2 billion MAUs
• WhatsApp Business has over 200 million MAUs
• WhatsApp users collectively send over 100 billion messages daily…
• …and make over 100 million voice calls
• 54.5% of WhatsApp users are male, while 45.5% are female.
• WhatsApp is used in over 180 countries
• Messages sent through the WhatsApp Business API have a 99% average open rate

Sources: Statista, Datareportal, Blogging Wizard

#4 – Instagram

Instagram is another popular social media platform under the Meta umbrella. It has at least 2 billion monthly active users (some estimates put it closer to 2.4 billion), making it the fourth-largest social network globally. 

It also happens to be the world’s ‘favorite’ social media platform, per a recent survey of social media users.

Instagram is known for being more ‘image-centric’ than other platforms—the number one reason people use it is to ‘post or share photos or videos’—so it’s a good place for brands to showcase their products.

Aside from images, users can also share other content types including Reels (short-form videos), Carousels (swipeable posts featuring multiple videos/images), and Stories (time-limited posts that disappear after 24 hours). 

Posts can be edited with filters, and hashtags are commonly added to help increase reach. 

The Instagram app was originally launched way back in 2010 by founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. It blew up quickly, gaining millions of users in a matter of months, and was acquired by Facebook (now Meta) a couple of years later in 2012.

Stats:

• Instagram has at least 2 billion monthly active users
• 50.6% of Instagram’s audience is male, while 49.4% is female
• 31.8% of Instagram users are 18-24 years old, making this the largest age bracket
• The average user spends 15 hours and 50 minutes on Instagram monthly
• The average Instagram engagement rate for all post types is 1.89%
• 70.4% of Instagram users say they use it to ‘post or share photos or videos’, making this the number one use case.
• 16.5% of surveyed social media users said Instagram is their ‘favorite’ social media platform, which is more than any other network.

Source: Datareportal

#5 – TikTok

TikTok, owned by ByteDance, is a short-form video-sharing app and social media platform based in China.

It’s taken the world by storm and has been the fastest-growing social network since it launched in 2017. Within just a few years, it’s already grown to around 1.56 billion monthly active users, making it the fifth most used social media platform—and it continues to grow rapidly. 

That growth is even more impressive considering how late TikTok entered the social media market and the fact that various countries have attempted to ban or restrict the app’s use due to national security concerns relating to data collection by the Chinese government.

TikTok users create, share, and consume short videos under 10 minutes long (usually <3 minutes). Often, these videos feature ‘trending sounds’, which may be snippets of dialogue, music, or sound effects. 

While TikTok has broad appeal across age ranges, it’s particularly popular amongst younger audiences. So, if your brand’s target audience is Gen Z or Gen Alpha, it’s a good place to reach them.

Stats:

• TikTok has 1.562 billion monthly active users
• TikTok’s counterpart in mainland China is known as Douyin
• TikTok recently overtook Google to become the most visited internet site
• 80.3% of TikTok users say they use the app to ‘look for funny or entertaining content’, making this the number one use case.
• 52% of TikTok users are male, while 48% are female
• 36.7% of TikTok users are 18-24 years old, making this the largest age bracket
• Only 6.3% of TikTok users are 55+ years old, making this the smallest age bracket
• The average TikTok user spends 34 hours on the app each month
• The median engagement rate for posts by TikTok business accounts is 7.8%

Sources: Datareportal, CBS News

#6 – WeChat 

WeChat, also known as ‘the Everything app’ and ‘Weixin’ in China, is another Chinese social media app, owned by Tencent. With over 1.336 billion monthly active users, it’s the sixth-largest social media platform in the world and the most popular social media app in China by a large margin.

Unlike TikTok, WeChat caters almost exclusively to a domestic audience, rather than an international one.  The vast majority of the app’s users are Chinese and most international users are from elsewhere in Asia. The two biggest non-China markets are India and Malaysia. 

WeChat was created by Allen Zhang and was first released in 2011 as a straightforward messaging app, much like WhatsApp. But over time, it evolved to become what’s been dubbed a ‘super app’ that can do much more than instant messaging.

Now, WeChat users can leave voice messages, make phone or video calls, play games, shop for products, pay bills, book taxis, and a whole lot more.

This is enabled by WeChat’s ecosystem of cloud-based embedded apps within their core mobile app. These embedded social media apps are called ‘mini programs’, and extend WeChat’s functionality in various ways.

It’s worth noting that WeChat has faced controversy surrounding privacy, surveillance, and censorship. User activity on the Chinese version, Weixin, is tracked, analyzed, and shared with Chinese authorities as part of China’s mass surveillance network. The government also censors politically sensitive topics.

Stats:

• WeChat has around 1.336 billion monthly active users
• Over 1 billion of those users are based in China
• The average Chinese mobile internet user spends 1 hour 20 minutes on WeChat daily (over 40 hours a month)
• 88% of Chinese respondents say they use WeChat daily
• There are over a million mini-programs in the WeChat app market

Sources: Datareportal, Statista², Statista³, World Population Review, ChoZan

#7 – Reddit

Reddit is a forum-style social media platform with over 850 million monthly active users. It’s made up of thousands of separate, user-created, niche communities called ‘subreddits’.

The site was founded in 2005 by Virginia University roommates Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian, and Aaron Swartz. It’s currently owned by various shareholders, of which Advance Publications is the majority stakeholder (30%). It’s operated by Reddit Inc. and has headquarters in San Francisco, CA, USA.

Despite having such a large audience, Reddit is notorious for being difficult for social media marketers to tap into, on account of the fact that many subreddits have strict rules that don’t allow self-promotion. But if you can work around that, it’s a great place to reach all sorts of highly engaged niche communities.

The way it works is that users join subreddits they’re interested in. Then, they can post content like text posts, videos, images, and links, which appear in that subreddit’s feed for other members to browse. 

Members can vote posts up or down based on whether or not they like them, and submissions with the most upvotes get more visibility in the feed. Those that get lots of upvotes quickly can be featured on Reddit’s front page, also called ‘the front page of the internet’

Stats:

• Reddit has around 850 million monthly active users…
• …and around 70 million daily active users.
• 63.6% of Reddit users are male, while just 35.1% are female
• There are over 2.2 million subreddits
• The largest Subreddit is r/funny, with 56 million members
• 33% of Reddit users use the platform to ‘look for funny or entertaining content’, making this the number one use case
• The average Redditor spends 10 minutes 23 seconds on the app daily

Source: Datareportal, BusinessOfApps

#8 – Telegram

Telegram is a cloud-based, encrypted instant messaging service and social network with over 800 million monthly active users. It was first launched in 2013 by founders Nikolai and Pavel Durov, and its headquarters are located in Dubai, UAE.

Telegram’s USP is its focus on privacy and security, with end-to-end encryption protecting calls and private chats. Users can share messages, media, and files through the app. Plus, conduct voice calls, video calls, and livestreams; share stories, create public groups, share updates, and more.

While Telegram’s focus on privacy is its main appeal, it’s also its major source of criticism. Critics have pointed to the fact that Telegram is often used by criminals and terrorist groups to communicate anonymously and that there’s little to no content moderation.

Stats:

• Telegram has around 800 million monthly active users
• 57.5% of Telegram users are male, while 42.4% are female
• The average Telegram user spends 3 hours and 45 minutes on the app monthly
• Telegram is the most popular non-gaming app in Russia
• Telegram gets 36.7 million app downloads monthly
• The largest share of Telegram users are 25-34 years old

Sources: Statista⁴, Datareportal

#9 – Snapchat 

Snapchat, by Snap Inc., is a multimedia instant messaging app based in the US with over 800 million monthly active users. It was created in 2011 by three former Stanford University students: Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. 

Snapchat’s main feature is ‘snaps’—time-limited multimedia messages that users can send privately to their contacts, or share to their public ‘Story’ (much like Instagram Stories). 

Snaps can feature pictures and videos, and are only available for a short time before ‘self-destructing’. The idea behind this is that social media users often worry about the longevity of the content they put on their socials, and the founders of Snapchat wanted to eliminate that worry.

Stats:

• Snapchat has over 800 million monthly active users…
• …and over 414 million daily active users
• Four billion snaps are sent every day, on average. 
• 42.9% of Snapchat users use the app to ‘post or share photos or videos’, making this the number one use case
• 49.2% of Snapchat users are male, while 49% are female.
• The average Snapchat user spends 3 hours 33 minutes on the app each month.
• There are over 7 million Snapchat+ subscribers

Sources: Datareportal, Snapchat, Snapchat²

#10 – Kuaishou 

Kuaishou is the biggest social media platform you’ve never heard of, with over 685 million users.

Founded in 2011 by former Google engineer Su Hua, it was China’s first short-form video platform and was hugely popular in the country. But over the years, it has faced steep competition from TikTok (Douyin) and has taken more of a backseat role.

Compared to TikTok, Kuaishou has struggled to make waves outside of China, and with younger people generally. Most of its users are older people who live outside of China’s tier 1 cities, and part of its initial appeal was that it featured lots of videos of Chinese rural life.

Internationally, it’s also known as ‘Kwai’, and as ‘Snack Video’ in Pakistan and Indonesia. Kuaishou is headquartered in Beijing, China and while is partially state-owned.

Stats:

• Kuaishou has over 685 million monthly active users…
• …and over 355 million daily active users
• Almost two-thirds of Kuaishou users live in third-tier cities and below in China

Sources: Datareportal, Statista⁵

#11 – X (Twitter)

X (formerly Twitter) is another one of the leading social media platforms, with 619 million monthly active users. Unlike other social media platforms, it strongly emphasizes real-time information, and aims to be ‘the digital town square’.

X, under its original name Twitter, was first launched in 2006 by founders Jack Dorsey & others. The core concept behind it is that users can share their thoughts via text and multimedia messages, known as ‘Tweets’. 

In 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter and subsequently implemented widespread changes, including rebranding the platform, changing the name to ‘X’, and significantly reducing staff through mass layoffs.

Many of these changes have not been widely well-received, however.

In addition, they made significant changes to their API. They closed off their previous API and replaced it with a wildly expensive version. This forced a lot of free (and useful) Twitter tools so shut down. It also forced none-profit research projects to be shut down. Some of those projects had been ongoing for more than a decade.

For third-party social media management tools, their entire business model relied somewhat on Twitter’s API. This resulted in tools either shutting off access to certain Twitter-focused features or having to pay up a huge ongoing fee. Sometimes both. Whereas Meta offers the same kind of API access for free.

Since the acquisition, X has faced heavy criticism, with accusations that a lack of efficient moderation has led to the proliferation of disinformation and hate speech on the platform. Others have praised the changes for allowing increased freedom of expression.

Stats:

• X has around 619 million monthly active users
• 60.6% of X users use the app to ‘keep up to date with news and current events’, making this the number one use case
• 60.9% of X users are male, while 39.1% are female. 
• 35.4% of X users are 25-34 years old, making this the largest age bracket
• The average X user spends 4 hours and 40 minutes on the app monthly
• At the end of last year, Fidelity estimated the value of X to be down 71.5% from its purchase price

Sources: X, Axios, Datareportal

#12 – Weibo

Weibo, formerly Sina Weibo, is another one of the most popular social media platforms in China, but has had limited international success. According to the best data we could find, it has around 605 million monthly active users (most of which are based in China).

The app was launched by the Sina Corporation in 2009. It’s often described as the Chinese version of Twitter as it shares many of the same features. Users can make posts with up to 140 characters, add hashtags and multimedia content, re-post posts from other users, etc. However, it also shares some features with Instagram and Facebook, like the ability to post Stories. 

It’s heavy on censorship and, in line with the state, sets strict controls over what topics, keywords, and links are allowed in posts.

Stats:

• Weibo has around 605 million monthly active users
• 49% of Weibo users are male, while 51% are female
• 70% of Weibo users are college-aged
• Over 100 million messages are posted on Weibo every day

Sources: Datareportal, Wikipedia

#13 – QQ

QQ is another Chinese social media platform and instant messaging service owned by Tencent. 

It’s one of the oldest social media platforms in China, and the world, having been released in 1999 under the original name OICQ. 

Like its competitor WeChat, it functions as an all-in-one ‘everything app’, providing access to online social games, shopping services, microblogging, voice chat, chatrooms, internet dating, and more in addition to its core instant messaging functionality.

Stats:

• QQ has 558 million monthly active users
• The number of MAUs on QQ has been decreasing steadily, falling by around 16 million YOY
• 51.2% of QQ users are male, while 48.8% are female

Sources: Datareportal, Statista⁶

#14 – Pinterest

Pinterest is an image-based social media platform heavily focused on visual search, with 498 million monthly active users. It was initially founded in 2009 by Ben Sulbermann and Paul Sciarra and is headquartered in CA, US. 

The core functionality behind Pinterest is that users can share images for other users to explore. Plus, browse the app and ‘pin’ or ‘repin’ images that they like to their own personal collections called ‘pinboards’. 

This focus on sharing and collecting visually inspiring images is why Pinterest has been called a ‘catalog of ideas’ and is where many internet users go to find inspiration for things like fashion, home decor, and recipes.

Stats:

• Pinterest has around 498 million monthly active users
• Only 22.4% of Pinterest users are male, while 69.5% are female. 
• 61% of users say Pinterest is where they go to start a new project
• 46% of Pinterest users have discovered new brands/products on the platform

Sources: Datareportal, Pinterest

#15 – LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the leading social media platform for business and employment. It has over a billion users, but only around 310 million of these are monthly active users.

This is largely due to the professional nature of the platform—social media users spend a significantly smaller portion of their time on LinkedIn compared to other, entertainment-focused networks. As a result, a smaller portion of the user base is active.

LinkedIn was launched in 2003 by founders Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly and was acquired by Microsoft in 2016. It’s primarily used for professional networking, recruitment, and job seeking.

Stats:

• LinkedIn has around 310 million monthly active users…
• …but around 1 billion users in total.
• 56.4% of LinkedIn users are male, while 43.6% are female
• The average LinkedIn user spends 0 hours 51 minutes on the app monthly

Sources: LinkedIn, LinkedIn², Datareportal

#16 – Twitch

Twitch is a livestreaming video website and social media platform with around 240 million monthly active users. It’s focused primarily on video game streaming but also offers other creative live content.

Twitch was founded in 2011, initially as a spin-off from its predecessor, Justin.tv, and is owned by ecommerce giant Amazon. It’s still one of the most popular streaming platforms but is facing increasing competition from YouTube Live, Facebook Live, and Kick.

Streamers on Twitch broadcast live as they play video games or participate in other activities, all the while interacting with their audience in real time via the chat feature. Viewers can either tune in to view their favorite creators live or catch up via the video-on-demand feature. 

Streamers can monetize their livestreams through donations, subscriptions, and brand sponsorships.

Stats:

• Twitch has around 240 million monthly active users…
• …and around 35 million daily visitors
• 7 million streamers go live on Twitch monthly
• Viewers collectively watch 1.3 trillion minutes of content on Twitch yearly

Sources: Backlinko, Twitch

#17 – LINE

LINE is a Japanese mobile social media and instant messaging app with 224 million monthly users. It was created in 2011 by NHN Japan and became Japan’s largest social network within a few years of launch.

LINE users can use the app to send text, image, video, and audio messages to each other. Plus, share posts, book taxis, make voice and video calls, pay for products/services through LINE Pay, watch video content, play games, and more.

In addition to Japan, it’s also the most used social network in Taiwan and Thailand.

Stats:

• LINE has 224 million monthly active users…
• …169 million of which are based in LINE’s four key markets: Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.
• 80% of LINE’s MAUs access the app daily.

Sources: Business Of Apps²

#18 – Discord

Discord is a social media platform primarily used by gamers. It has over 154 million monthly active users at the time of writing.

Discord was founded in 2015 by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy—avid gamers who realized the need for a social gaming platform with a user-friendly UI and minimal impact on game performance.

The app is centered around communities, called ‘servers’. Users can create servers for free and fill them with voice channels, text channels, and categories. Members of each server can interact in these channels, much like other online chat rooms.

Stats:

•  Discord has around 154 million monthly active users
• There are around 19 million active Discord servers each week…
• …and around 4 billion server conversation minutes each day
• Around 66.6% of Discord users are male, while 32.2% are female

Sources: Discord, Statista⁷, Statista⁸

#19 – Tumblr

Tumblr is a microblogging website and social media platform founded in 2007 by David Karp. It’s owned by parent company Automattic and has around 135 million monthly active users.

Tumblr’s core feature is that it allows users to post short-form blog posts for free, without the need to have their own website domain. 

Users can also read, follow, engage, and interact with other Tumblr blogs and bloggers.

Stats:

• Tumblr has 135 million monthly active users
• There are around 594.6 million blogs on Tumblr
• Tumblr users create 8.6 million posts every day
• 48% of Tumblr’s active users are Gen Z

Source: Tumblr

#20 – Threads 

Threads is one of the newest social media platforms to hit the market. It was launched just a year ago in 2023 as a companion app to Instagram by parent company Meta. Despite a rocky start, it now reportedly has over 130 million monthly active users.

Threads was launched as a rival to X (formerly Twitter) following Musk’s controversial takeover, in the hopes of capitalizing on the surge in demand for a viable alternative. It aimed to attract those migrating away from X following a significant shift in the platform.

And indeed, it shares many of the same features and functionality as X. For example, Threads focuses primarily on text-based posts (much like Tweets) and prioritizes public dialogue over private messages.

Stats:

• Threads has over 130 million monthly active users
• The number of daily active users on Threads fell by over 80% 1-2 months after launch
• Threads gets 49.4 million monthly desktop visits globally

Sources: TechCrunch, Wikipedia²

#21 – Mastodon

Mastodon is another social media platform with microblogging features that’s positioned itself as an alternative to X. It has just under 1 million monthly active users.

It was created by Eugene Rochko and launched in 2016 but didn’t start gaining significant traction until 2022 following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Development is crowdfunded, and there are no ads. It’s maintained by the German non-profit Mastodon gGmbH.

What makes Mastodon different from its competitors is that it’s open-source and decentralized. Users can run their own self-hosted, independently-run social networking services—known as ‘servers’ (or alternately, ‘instances’)—with their own policies. And these servers form part of the larger decentralized network, called ‘the fediverse’.

Users can join specific Mastodon servers but are still able to communicate via posts (known on Mastodon as ‘toots’) across servers. The idea behind this is that users can choose a server with their preferred policies but still be able to interact across the larger social network.

Stats:

• Mastodon has around 975,000 monthly active users…
• …That’s significantly down from its peak of over 2.5 million MAUs at the end of 2022
• There are around 9.7k Mastodon servers up at the time of writing

Source: Mastodon, Wikipedia³

#22 – Blue Social 

Blue Social is a lesser-known social network founded and launched in 2016 by Jose Montero. There’s no official data on its monthly active users, but it’s had over 100,000 app downloads.

Blue Social has an interesting USP in that it aims to foster real-life connections and defeat loneliness by allowing you to digitally connect with people in your vicinity using Bluetooth Low Energy. 

Users can create a Digital Social card and use it to connect with people in real life, sharing their contact details instantly with a tap of their smartphone.

It also gamifies the social networking process by allowing you to earn in-app currencies called Blue Social Tokens from interacting with others in person, which you can then spend on real products in the marketplace.

Stats:

• Blue Social has had over 100k downloads to date…
• …and has facilitated over 2.5 million social interactions.

Source: Blue Social

Final thoughts

There you have it—the most used social media platforms this year.

If you’re here to figure out which platform to focus on in your social media marketing strategy, keep in mind that the typical social media user uses 6 to 7 different social platforms every month. 

So, you don’t necessarily need to focus on just one—it’s a good idea to cast a wide net and build your social media presence on multiple networks in tandem.

Just remember that different types of content will work better on certain platforms.

You can use these social media scheduler tools to help with that. You might also want to check out these social media contest apps. And remember, social media is just one of many marketing channels you might want to invest in.

Sources