Which is world's most popular social media platform? It's not Instagram

Social media platforms have been here for over two decades, but only a few have left an indelible print on internet users. A good deal of social media platforms are still popular, while some have faded down over time. There are also the new ones that arrived when the world went through an overhaul during the pandemic, but only a few survived after the normalcy kicked in. With so many options, it is hard to put a finger on the most popular social media platform. However, a new report has put the crown on the winner’s head.

According to the numbers by DataReportal’s Digital 2023 October Global Statshot report, Meta-owned Facebook is the world’s most popular social media platform with over 3 billion monthly active users. Launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook rose to fame for providing users tools they could not find anywhere else, and engagement features such as the ‘Like’ and ‘Poke’ buttons drove large user bases. Facebook may not be as exciting as it was and may as well be a community platform for ‘boomers’, but it is still around with the biggest active user base.

Why is Facebook still popular?

Back in 2004 when Facebook debuted, internet users were already slightly bored of Orkut and wanted a platform that could allow them to do things differently. Facebook’s suite of features offered exactly that, with the option to post statuses, photos, and videos; like them; poke friends, and instantly chat with them. However, people eventually got bored of using Facebook, even though its features expanded significantly over the past few years. It became a graveyard because all of the young population had left for more attractive platforms such as Snapchat and sooner Instagram.

That is when Facebook underwent a demographic overhaul. It became a cool spot for people older than millennials to express themselves without judgment from youngsters because they weren’t there anymore. Facebook’s strategy to stay afloat never included the appeal to the old population, but it worked for the company.

Meta, however, never wanted young users to abandon its platform, so it implemented a highly effective strategy within the social media industry. This strategy involved integrating all of Meta’s services with each other. Therefore, a post a user makes on Instagram can also be automatically posted on Facebook, and a WhatsApp Status can instantly become a Facebook Story. This integration allowed young users to become more active on Facebook without actually having to visit the website or manually post anything.

Even after 20 years, Facebook is still kicking, while its archnemesis, Twitter, which recently breathed a new life as X, is far behind in terms of monthly active users. Snapchat, which has been Meta’s source of inspiration for all the features on its apps, is close behind Facebook, per the report.

Here is the full list of social media platforms with monthly active users