Top 35 Social Media Platforms (September 2024)

Posted 2024-12-09 10:58:53

We’ve compiled this list of the top social media platforms.

Specifically, we ranked the most popular social media networks based on number of users and monthly traffic data.

(Traffic data was obtained using Semrush and Similarweb).

All traffic data is estimated based on the most recent available August 2024 data. Monthly active user estimates are calculated from the latest reports from each platform.

What Is The #1 Most Popular Social Media Platform?

According to the latest available data, Facebook is the world's most popular and widely used social media platform. With 3.06 billion monthly active users, that means 37 percent of the world’s population uses Facebook at least once per month. With 2.7 billion users, YouTube is the second most popular social network.

Social media networks that focus on short-form video content are growing quickly. This includes Instagram and TikTok. Messenger applications like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram have also quickly climbed this list over the past few years.

Top 35 Most Popular Social Media Websites

Ranking	Social Media Network	Monthly Active Users (MAUs)	Monthly Organic Traffic
1	Facebook	3.06 billion	13,100,000,000
2	YouTube	2.70 billion	73,000,000,000
3	WhatsApp	2.40 billion	3,900,000,000
4	Instagram	2.35 billion	6,700,000,000
5	TikTok	1.67 billion	2,700,000,000
6	WeChat	1.31 billion	6,100,000
7	Messenger	1.10 billion	253,700,000
8	Telegram	900 million	615,100,000
9	Viber	820 million	17,300,000
10	Snapchat	800 million	189,300,000
11	Douyin	752 million	209,800,000
12	Baidu	676 million	1,600,000,000
13	Qzone	615 million	473,900,000
14	Spotify	602 million	725,100,000
15	X (Twitter)	600 million	4,400,000,000
16	Sina Weibo	588 million	136,600,000
17	Pinterest	518 million	974,500,000
18	Reddit	430 million	5,500,000,000
19	Kuaishou	370 million	12,700,000
20	Bilibili	336 million	1,000,000,000
21	Microsoft Teams	320 million	1,700,000,000
22	LinkedIn	310 million	1,900,000,000
23	Quora	305 million	1,100,000,000
24	Vimeo	260 million	81,700,000
25	Line	230 million	286,500,000
26	Xiaohongshu	200 million	76,300,000
27	Discord	200 million	1,000,000,000
28	ShareChat	180 million	11,000,000
29	Threads	175 million	109,300,000
30	Josh	151 million	540,200
31	Twitch	140 million	1,700,000,000
32	Tumblr	135 million	216,900,000
33	Medium	100 million	215,600,000
34	VK (Vkontakte)	80 million	1,100,000,000
35	Rumble	50 million	94,600,000

Not surprisingly, this list includes many of the big names in the social media space, like Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter).

We decided to highlight a few of the top social networks experiencing increased growth right now.

1. Telegram

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5-year search growth: 400%

Search growth status: Exploding

Monthly Active Users: 900 million

Monthly Traffic (Global): 615,100,000

Description: Telegram is a freemium instant messaging application that prioritizes security and encryption. The cloud-based platform allows users to share large media files and create groups of up to 200,000 members. Telegram Premium, an ad-free experience, grew to 1 million users within six months after its launch.

2. TikTok

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5-year search growth: 227%

Search growth status: Exploding

Monthly Active Users: 1.67 billion

Monthly Traffic (Global): 2,700,000,000

Description: TikTok is a short-form video social media network focused on a highly personalized "For You" feed. Unlike many popular social media sites, TikTok's algorithm shows videos based on users' interactions, making it possible for users to go viral without a huge following.

3. Xiaohongshu

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5-year search growth: 3,233%

Search growth status: Exploding

Monthly Active Users: 200 million

Monthly Traffic (Global): 76,300,000

Description: Xiaohongshu, also known as RED, is a Chinese social media and e-commerce platform that combines the features of Instagram, Pinterest, and Amazon into one platform. The company reported a $500 million profit in 2023, compared to a $200 million loss in 2022. After a recent funding round, the social media giant is now valued at $17 billion.

4. Discord

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5-year search growth: 171%

Search growth status: Regular

Monthly Active Users: 200 million

Monthly Traffic (Global): 1,000,000,000

Description: Discord is a communication platform for creating communities and groups for gaming, education, or any other topic. Notably, the company turned down a $10 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft in 2021.

5. WhatsApp

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5-year search growth: 135%

Search growth status: Exploding

Monthly Active Users: 2.4 billion

Monthly Traffic (Global): 3,900,000,000

Description: Now part of Meta, WhatsApp is a messaging app that allows users to send text messages, voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share media with other users. End-to-end encryption and user privacy controls keep conversations secure and private.

6. Reddit

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5-year search growth: 133%

Search growth status: Exploding

Monthly Active Users: 430 million

Monthly Traffic (Global): 5,500,000,000

Description: Reddit is a social news and discussion platform where users can share content, vote on it, and comment on posts. It is organized into communities or subreddits about specific niche topics. This social media network aims to create authentic human connections online.

7. Douyin

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5-year search growth: 1,567%

Search growth status: Exploding

Monthly Active Users: 752 million

Monthly Traffic (Global): 209,800,000

Description: Douyin is a social media app for creating and sharing short videos. It’s popular in China and other Asian countries and is owned and operated by ByteDance, the same company that created TikTok. The platforms are nearly identical but operate as completely different entities.

Conclusion

That concludes our list of the world's most popular social media networks.

Big brands like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have all pivoted to short-form video content to keep users engaged, like TikTok. This content and messaging apps like Telegram, Whatsapp, and Discord are growing and popular and worth keeping an eye on throughout 2024.

See more from Exploring Topics Blog.