It is impossible to imagine a world without social networks: a statement that is gaining increasing strength each day, thanks to the acceleration and constant use of various digital platforms. Within this context of social media growth, Facebook has managed to remain at the forefront as the social network with the most users worldwide, according to the most recent Digital 2026 report conducted by We Are Social in collaboration with Meltwater.
Before we delve into the analysis, we would like to highlight the shift in approach undertaken by the study, which has transitioned from being released at the beginning of the year it is named after to being published several months prior to its onset. In this way, Digital 2026 was published in October 2025 with the intention of serving as a useful guide for companies preparing their digital strategies for 2026.
This means that, although we will compare certain data with what was provided in the previous edition (Digital 2025), such figures cannot be considered as reflecting annual evolution.
Currently, there are over 5.66 billion active social media user identities. The study points out that this figure has grown by 4.8% compared to one year ago, with 259 million new users starting to use social networks for the first time during this period.
Furthermore, this number represents 68.7% of the total world population. However, it is important to note that a single individual may have more than one social media user identity. On the other hand, the study also allows us to apply this proportion to the specific case of each country, thus enabling an understanding of the percentage of active social media user identities in a country compared to the population of that particular territory.
In this regard, in Spain this figure is well above the global average, revealing that the number of social media profiles in Spain is equivalent to 81.4% of the Spanish population. The case of Saudi Arabia stands out in particular, where the number of profiles represents 111.2% of the population. Conversely, at the other end of the spectrum, the country with the lowest proportion is Nigeria with 20%.
It was not the first social network in history, but for the vast majority, it is the benchmark network. Yet again, the social platform with the most users globally is Facebook. On this occasion, Meta’s flagship platform remains at 3.07 billion users compared to the figures presented in Digital 2025; however, it is important to bear in mind that only eight months have elapsed between one study and the other.
In the 2025 edition, it was reported that Mark Zuckerberg’s social network had increased its user base by 0.69% compared to 2024 (3.049 billion).
While Facebook has remained stable, there are indeed variations in the rest of the top 4 compared to the previous edition. This time, Facebook is followed by Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube. Instagram moves up from third to second place, while YouTube drops from second to fourth, and WhatsApp rises from fourth to third position.
If we include Messenger (8th place), Zuckerberg continues to bring together most of the world’s largest social networks in terms of user numbers.
TikTok, the popular short video social network, ranks fifth and thus surpasses other networks with a strong presence in specific geographies such as WeChat (a Chinese video-based social network similar to YouTube), highly prevalent in Asia. The ranking also includes other Chinese social networks such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, and QQ.
Surprisingly, X (formerly Twitter), the social network owned by Elon Musk, is ranked 15th, with 557 million users.
With regard to users’ favorite social networks, WhatsApp has just overtaken Instagram and now holds the preference of 17.4% of global users. Consequently, Instagram moves down to second place (16.4%), and Facebook maintains its position in third (13%).
WeChat, regarded as “the WhatsApp of China,” holds fourth place with 11.4%, while TikTok continues to outperform Douyin (its version exclusively for the Chinese market) in popularity with 9.1% compared to 7.3%.
Examining the breakdown by age group, it is evident that Instagram is the favorite app among women aged 16 to 24 (24%) as well as those between 25 and 34 years old (20.1%). Meanwhile, women aged 35 to 44 (16.9%), 45 to 54 (19.3%), and 55 to 64 years old (21%) prefer WhatsApp, with this latter group also demonstrating a strong preference for Facebook (16.3%).
In the case of men, those aged 16 to 24 (25.7%) and 25 to 34 (19.9%) prefer Instagram; whereas WhatsApp is the favorite for the male population aged 35 to 44 (17.4%), 45 to 54 (20.6%), and 55 to 64 (21.2%).
In 2025, the average weekly time spent on social networks is at a global average of 7 hours and 6 minutes.
Additionally, Spain is above the global average, with an average weekly usage of social networks totaling 7 hours and 33 minutes. By contrast, China (3h 22min) and Japan (2 hours 54min) are the countries where people spend the least time browsing social media each week. On the other end, Kenya (14h 18min) and the Philippines (13h 02min) report the highest weekly averages.
Regarding the average daily time spent, users spend more time on TikTok with an average usage of 1 hour and 37 minutes per day, followed by YouTube at 1 hour and 25 minutes. Rounding out the top five are Instagram (1h 13min), Facebook (1h 07min), and WhatsApp (59min).
Keeping in touch with family and friends (50.2%) is the main reason why many people turn to social networks in 2025. In second place comes spending free time (39.7%), reading new stories (35.4%) in third, seeking content (30.3%) in fourth, and seeing what is trending (28.9%) completes the top five.
This is not the first time we have shared the data from this study with you. What is clear is that Facebook reigns supreme among the world’s social networks, but for how much longer? Is there any social platform that could immediately pose a threat to Facebook?
Let us review the results from recent years:
As previously mentioned, the Digital 2025 study announced that Facebook reached 3.07 billion users, increasing by 0.69% compared to the 3.049 billion recorded in the 2024 edition.
Taking second place in the ranking of the social networks with the most users was YouTube, which succeeded in recovering after several editions of declining user numbers, moving from 2.491 billion to 2.530 billion (+1.56%). Between 2023 and 2024, it had lost 0.91% of its users and between 2022 and 2023, a further 1.87%.
Meanwhile, and despite the efforts of its CEO Adam Mosseri to boost its growth, Instagram remained somewhat stagnant at the boundary of 2 billion users. WhatsApp experienced similar stagnation, likewise remaining at 2 billion users.
With respect to TikTok, the Chinese social network reported a new increase in its user base, rising from 1.562 billion to 1.59 billion (+1.79%), although this was much more moderate than the growth observed in the previous edition (+48.62%).
According to the Digital 2025 edition, in 2024, average daily social network usage time experienced a very slight decline globally, falling to 2 hours and 21 minutes, which is two minutes less. In terms of national data, Spain was below the global average, with an average daily social media usage of 1 hour and 55 minutes.
South Korea (1h 14min) and Japan (46min) were the countries where the least time was spent daily on social networks. In contrast, Kenya (4h 13min), Chile (3h 39min), South Africa (3h 36min), and the Philippines (3h 32min) were the nations where users spent the most time on these platforms.
The Digital 2024 report revealed that Meta’s crown jewel, Facebook, had surpassed the 3 billion user milestone globally, reaching 3.049 billion users (+3.07%). YouTube lost users (-0.91%), dropping from 2.514 to 2.491 billion, while WhatsApp reached 2 billion users, a figure that Instagram also matched but found itself stagnated.
The main highlight was undoubtedly TikTok: it recorded a meteoric rise in its user base (+48.62%). However, this is more closely related to a change in the data collection method for this platform rather than a sudden boom.
As was explained at the time by We Are Social: “We observe some inconsistent trends in the data published by the advertising tools of various social platforms (….) We should be cautious when analyzing trends in social network audience data, especially for X (Twitter) and TikTok. We have changed the way we collect data for TikTok, so our latest global figures are not comparable to previous reports. However, the good news is that the data we can now report covers many more countries.”
Likewise, the daily time we spent on social networks declined slightly, falling from 2 hours and 31 minutes to 2 hours and 23 minutes. Kenya (3h 43min), South Africa (3h 41min), Brazil (3h 37min), and the Philippines (3h 25min) were the countries in which people invested the most time daily on social networks. Conversely, those with the lowest daily usage were South Korea (1h 06min) and Japan (53min). In the case of Spain, the figure was 1 hour and 54 minutes.
In the Digital 2023 report, Zuckerberg brought together most of the social networks with the largest user numbers worldwide: Facebook (2.958 billion users), WhatsApp (2 billion users), Instagram (2 billion users), and Messenger (931 million users), all within the top 7 of this ranking. Instagram’s rise was particularly remarkable, positioning itself as the main driver of user growth: the app saw an increase of 522 million users (+35.3%).
United Arab Emirates was the country with the highest social network usage in proportion to its population, recording 105.5% social media usage in the last year. While it may seem overwhelming that some countries have more users than population, it should be remembered that one person can hold multiple profiles on one or more social networks, so ultimately this is not so farfetched. Spain was the sixth country with the highest percentage of social network users, with 85.6% of its population.
According to the 2022 study, Facebook retained its crown as the world’s leading social network with 2.91 billion users (an increase of 6.2% compared to 2021). Completing the podium, also repeating their positions, were YouTube and WhatsApp.
Despite the long-standing controversy regarding its security, Meta’s CEO continued to place his platforms among those with the most users: WhatsApp (2 billion users), Messenger (988 million users), and Instagram (1.478 billion users), all in the top 7 of this ranking. In the case of Instagram, the growth was notable: 250 million more users (+21%).
TikTok was the main growth story: the Chinese-origin social app reached 1 billion users, an increase of 45% over 2021. At the same time, after years of stagnation, Twitter posted significant growth (+23%), reaching 436 million users.
The 2022 study showed that the United Arab Emirates remained the country with the highest social network usage in proportion to its population, surpassing its population at 106.1% usage in the last year, followed by Malaysia (91.7%), South Korea (91.2%), Sweden (90.8%), and the Netherlands (90.7%). Spain rose in rank from 30th place the previous year to become the eleventh country with the highest percentage of social network users, at 87.1% of its population:7 points higher than in the 2021 edition.
According to the 2021 report, Facebook attained 2.74 billion users in January 2021, an increase of 11.8% compared to 2020. YouTube ranked second with 2.291 billion users, a 14.5% increase over the previous year. The pandemic fueled Instagram’s use, which jumped from sixth place in 2020 (1 billion users) to fourth in 2021, amassing a total of 1.22 billion users (+22%). However, this also resulted from WeChat, China’s most popular instant messaging platform, occupying fifth position, which exhibited only modest growth, advancing from 1.151 billion users in 2020 to 1.213 in 2021.
The United Arab Emirates continued to lead in the percentage of social network users relative to its total population, with 99%, followed closely by South Korea, which rose a position this year to 89.3% of its population connected to social networks. Taiwan dropped to third with 88.1%. The Netherlands (88%) and Malaysia (86%) rounded out the top five. Regarding Spain, it climbed swiftly from 30th in 2020 to 14th, with 80% of its citizens connected to at least one social network that year.
In the 2020 edition of the study Facebook reached 2.449 billion users, a 7.8% increase compared to the previous year. As you can see, second place was occupied by YouTube, with 2 billion users. In 2020, the United Arab Emirates maintained its lead in the percentage of social network users relative to its population, with 99%, followed by Taiwan at 88%, South Korea (87%), Malaysia (81%), and Singapore (79%). In the case of Spain, it dropped to 30th place: 62% of the population used social networks, a two-point increase from the previous year’s figure. Among the countries with the lowest social network penetration rates are North Korea, Eritrea (0.6%), and Sudan (0.7%).
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