A Take a look at the Comparative MAU and DAU Stats for All of the Main Social Apps

As X continues to evolve, and Threads looks to gain ground, the main players in the social media sphere continue to dominate our time and attention, with billions of people logging in every day to get the latest updates, entertainment, and more, primarily from a few key apps.

But how significant is their hold on our attention, and where does each platform currently rank, in terms of active users?

We dug into the latest reported data to provide a quick overview of the current state of play, which could help you decide which platforms should be your focus, based on where people are turning for info.

Though that is, of course, audience-specific. X may have fewer users, but if your target audience is there, that’s where you should be too. But taking a general view, here’s a look at the latest social media platform usage stats, according to official reportage from the platforms or their representatives.

First off, on monthly active users. According to the latest reported numbers, Facebook, at 3.03b users, still leads the way, followed by YouTube (2.5b), Instagram (2b), and WhatsApp (2b).

As you can see, TikTok (1.5b) is still a way behind those top players, but it is growing fast, and it may be that TikTok is now even closer, though there’s been no official confirmation beyond this stat.

Following Messenger (1.3b), there’s a big drop-off to Snapchat (750m), followed by X (550m), Pinterest (465m), and Reddit (83.8m est.)

Reddit doesn’t actually publish MAU counts, only daily actives, so I’ve extrapolated that number based on the average variation between reported daily and monthly usage stats, which comes out to 1.8x. Which gives you some idea of the variance between the two figures. I’ve used the same calculation to estimate daily active usage of platforms that don’t publish this data (note: Facebook, X, Snapchat, and Reddit have all shared official DAU stats).

So it’s pretty much the same chart, but based on estimates for the majority of platforms.

You might also note that LinkedIn’s not present here, which is because LinkedIn doesn’t publish active user data, only member counts. Which, really, is a pretty useless stat, even if it does give you some measure of overall growth. But X, for example, has reported having over 1.5 billion inactive accounts, so by the same logic, X could say that it has over “2 billion members and rising”. Which wouldn’t be untrue, but I doubt people would be as accepting if it decided to start touting this as a stat.

For reference, LinkedIn is currently sitting on 950 million members (though that calculation is questionable in itself).

This is also why the Threads member count reaching 100 million in record time is not really as amazing as it sounds. It’s a reflection of interest, for sure, and the fact that 100 million people are keen to sign up to a new app is a good indicator of its growth potential. But the real make-or-break data is in active users, and eventually, who advertisers can actually reach by running campaigns in each app.

There are no real surprises here, of course, Facebook is still the platform that everybody logs onto everyday, to ensure that they stay across the latest updates from friends and family, while YouTube is the dominant video platform, and is gaining even more traction as a traditional TV alternative. TikTok, as noted, may now be closer to Instagram, but both are highly relevant considerations, while Snapchat also has more reach than many would expect, when viewed in comparison to other apps.

X has a task ahead of it to reach ubiquity, though owner Elon Musk has reported that it’s seeing steady growth under his stewardship, while Pinterest remains a key shopping destination for millions of people.

Each platform has its purpose and place in the broader social media sphere, and again, each will have different relevance and value to each brand, depending on the audience you’re looking to reach.

But it is worth noting the comparative presence of each, and their broader popularity and usage.