Launched in China in 2016 as Douyin, TikTok entered the international scene in September 2017. By 2020, it had reached over 850 million downloads, becoming the seventh-most downloaded app of the decade.
Originally focused on short-form video sharing, particularly lip-syncing and dancing, TikTok has evolved into a diverse platform catering to a wide range of interests. It has mirrored some of the most significant technological trends of the past decade: the shift to mobile consumption and a growing appetite for bite-sized content.
TikTok achieved a significant milestone in 2021, surpassing one billion monthly active users. The platform’s user base continues to expand along with the number of app downloads.
Top TikTok Statistics in 2024
- TikTok had 1.5 billion monthly active users in 2023 and is expected to reach 1.8 billion by the end of 2024. (Kepios, via Statista)
- TikTok generated an estimated $16.1 billion revenue in 2023, a 67% increase year-on-year. (Business of Apps)
- Indonesia had the largest TikTok user base in April 2024 with approximately 127.5 million users, followed closely by the United States at around 121.5 million, and Brazil with nearly 101.8 million. (Statista)
- TikTok reported 170 million monthly active users in the U.S. as of January 2024. (TikTok)
- TikTok’s global user base was 45.7% female and 54.3% male in April 2024. (Statista)
- TikTok has been downloaded over four billion times in 2023. (Data.ai, via Business of Apps)
- Globally, TikTok users spend an average of 95 minutes daily on the platform. (Financial Times)
- Khabane Lame is TikTok’s most followed creator, boasting 163 million subscribers as of July 2024. (Social Blade)
Table of Contents
How Many People Use TikTok?
TikTok, the international counterpart of the Chinese app Douyin, debuted in 2017 and skyrocketed in popularity in 2020, gaining a staggering 1 billion users in just three years after its inception.
TikTok Users Worldwide
- In September 2021, TikTok announced that they hit the 1 billion mark in terms of the number of people using the app every month. (TikTok)
- In 2023, TikTok had approximately 1.92 billion users worldwide, up by 36.2% compared to 2021.
- Out of this almost 2 billion users worldwide, it is estimated that TikTok had 1.5 billion monthly active users in 2023 and is expected to reach 1.8 billion by end of this year. (Kepios, via Statista)
- In April 2024, TikTok ranked 5th in the most-used social network worldwide, with 1.58 billion active users. (Kepios, via Statista)
- As of May 2024, Tiktok has 1.04 billion monthly active users worldwide. (eMarketer)
- The number of users is expected to reach 2.05 billion at the end of the year. (Statista)
- TikTok is forecasted to reach approximately 2.35 billion users in 2029. (Statista)
| Social Network | Monthly Active Users Worldwide (in millions) |
|---|---|
| 3,065 | |
| YouTube | 2,504 |
| 2,000 | |
| 2,000 | |
| TikTok | 1,582 |
| 1,343 | |
| Facebook Messenger | 1,010 |
| Telegram | 900 |
| Snapchat | 800 |
TikTok Users by Region
- TikTok is available in more than 160 countries worldwide. (Wallaroo Media)
- Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa together account for more than half (51.17%) of TikTok’s total monthly active users. (eMarketer)
| Region | TikTok Monthly Active Users | Share of Total Active Users |
|---|---|---|
| Asia-Pacific | 296.8 million | 28.62% |
| Middle East and Africa | 233.9 million | 22.55% |
| Latin America | 189.7 million | 18.29% |
| North America | 122.4 million | 11.8% |
| Western Europe | 102.6 million | 9.89% |
| Central and Eastern Europe | 91.7 million | 8.84% |
- As of April 2024, Indonesia had the most TikTok users with nearly 127.5 million, followed by the U.S. with about 121.5 million, and Brazil with almost 101.8 million. (Statista)
- Prior to its ban, TikTok had 190 million users in India, making it the app’s second largest market behind China. (Business of Apps)
- The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia led the world in TikTok penetration as of April 2024, with nearly 140% of their adult populations using the platform. Malaysia followed closely with a 115% penetration rate. The United States boasted a TikTok user base of around 150 million, representing over 45% of its online population. (Statista)
How Many Americans Use TikTok?
- TikTok CEO Shou Chew announced in January 2024 that the platform has 170 million monthly active users in the US. (TikTok)
- This marks an increase of 13.33% from the 150 million reported in February 2023. (Pew Research Center)
- A Pew Research Center study found that 33% of US adults have used TikTok. (Pew Research Center)
- A 2023 survey found that 91% of US social media users were familiar with TikTok. This high brand awareness was measured using aided recognition, meaning participants were shown the TikTok logo and name. (Statista)
- 43% of U.S. social media users report liking TikTok. (Statista)
- TikTok is used by 42% of U.S. social media users. (Statista)
- Roughly 37% of U.S. social media users indicate they are likely to continue using TikTok. (Statista)
How Many Accounts Have Been Removed from TikTok?
- In Q1 of 2024, TikTok removed approximately 195 million accounts for violating community guidelines. This represents a decrease of approximately 4.79% compared to Q4 2023, wherein 204.82 million accounts were removed. (Statista)
- In the same period, there were 21.6 million accounts removed due to suspicion of being operated by users under 13. (Statista)
- During the same quarter, the platform also removed around 171 million fake accounts. (Statista)
TikTok User Demographics 2024
While men slightly outnumbered women on TikTok by 8.6%, the platform has a relatively balanced gender distribution across age groups. While almost 40% of the users are coming from the younger generation, aged between 18 and 34 years old.
- Women comprised 45.7% of TikTok’s global user base in April 2024, with men making up the remaining 54.3%. (Statista)
- In April 2024, 17.3% of TikTok’s global users were women aged 18-24, while 18.9% were men in the same age group. (Statista)
- The platform also had a significant user base of 14.6% women and 19.3% men aged 25-34. (Statista)
TikTok App Downloads Worldwide
TikTok, the global sensation born from China’s Douyin, took the world by storm in 2020. Its short-video format captured the world’s attention, with downloads soaring 62.3% year-over-year to a peak of 313.5 million in Q1 2020.
- TikTok accumulated 137 million combined downloads on iOS and Android during the first quarter of 2024. (Sensor Tower, via backlinko)
- It has been the most downloaded app for the past three years, achieving its highest number of downloads since launch with 313.53 million in Q1 2020 alone. (Apptopia, via Business of App & Statista)
- TikTok hit four billion downloads in 2023. (Data.ai, via Business of Apps)
- The app garnered approximately 232 million new users worldwide in the final quarter of 2023. (Statista)
- TikTok saw massive Android download growth in Q4 2023. Canada led the charge with a staggering 156% increase, followed by the Dominican Republic at 89%. The United States, a key market, also experienced robust growth at 60%. (Statista)
- The app also saw a surge in iOS downloads across Asia in the final quarter of 2023. China led the pack with a nearly 40% increase, followed by Japan at 33% and South Korea at 24%. The region as a whole drove TikTok’s iOS download growth during this period. (Statista)
TikTok Usage 2024
Social networks have become global platforms, connecting people across borders with multilingual services. In 2022, they reached a staggering 3.96 billion users, a number set to grow as mobile access expands worldwide. Currently, most of the top ranked social networks like TikTok have millions of people using the app daily.
Average Time Spent on Social Networks and on TikTok
- Global internet users spent an average of 143 minutes on social media daily in 2024, a slight decrease from previous year’s 151 minutes. (Statista)
- Out of 3.96 billion monthly active social media users worldwide, 26.26% use TikTok at least once a month. (eMarketer)
- In 2023, TikTok users worldwide spent an average of 34 hours using the app every month. (Statista)
- The top three countries with the highest number of hours spent on the app monthly in 2023 are United Kingdom (49 hours and 29 minutes), United States (45 hours and 37 minutes), and Mexico (45 hours and one minute). (Statista)
- Currently, the average time spent on TikTok globally is 95 minutes per day. (Financial Times)
| Social Media | Average Time Spent per Day |
|---|---|
| TikTok | 95 minutes |
| 62 minutes | |
| X (Twitter) | 30 minutes |
| Snapchat | 19 minutes |
- In a 2023 Pew Research, 33% of TikTok users said that they rely on the app for news. (Pew Research)
- US-based users spend an average of 53.8 minutes per day on TikTok, higher by 4.1 minutes than YouTube, and 19.7 minutes than X (Twitter). (eMarketer)
| Social Media | Average Time Spent per Day |
| TikTok | 53.8 minutes |
| YouTube | 48.7 minutes |
| X (Twitter) | 34.1 minutes |
| 33.1 minutes | |
| 30.9 minutes | |
| Snapchat | 30,0 minutes |
| 24.1 minutes |
Who is the Most Followed TikTok User in 2024?
- TikTok creator and comedian Khabane Lame is the most followed content creator on the platform. He has reached 163 million subscribers as of end of July 2024. Charlie D’Amelio followed closely in second position with 155.5 million followers. Jimmy Donaldson – operating on YouTube as MrBeast, ranked third, with a total of 103.4 million followers. (Social Blade)
Number of Videos & Comments Posted and Removed on TikTok
- During its peak in 2020, TikTok had almost 9 billion of video uploads in the platform. This has significantly decreased to 8.6 billion in 2021. This decline is attributed to the platform’s increased enforcement of community guidelines. (TikTok)
- Personal TikTok accounts outperformed business accounts in terms of monthly video uploads between March and August 2023. With an average of nearly 17 videos posted per month, personal accounts significantly surpassed the 14-video average of business accounts. (Statista)
- In the same period, videos exceeding 54 seconds averaged 38,000 views, while shorter formats yielded fewer impressions. The shortest videos (under 10 seconds) garnered approximately 19,000 views, with mid-length videos (16-53 seconds) falling in between at around 30,000 views. (Statista)
- TikTok video length analysis from March to August 2023 indicates that accounts with under 500 views produced shorter videos (34 seconds) compared to small accounts (38.3 seconds), while larger accounts (over 25,001 views) leaned towards longer content (50 seconds). (Statista)
- During the 1st quarter 2024, approximately 166.99 million TikTok videos were removed from the platform, a 5% decrease from the preceding quarter. (Statista)
- TikTok’s automated systems removed 129.33 million videos in Q1 2024, a slight increase of nearly 1% from the previous quarter. Automation accounted for 72% of all video removals during this period. (Statista)
- There were 976,479,946 video comments removed in Q1 2024 for violating community guidelines, accounting for 1.6% of all comments posted. (TikTok)
TikTok Revenue & Valuation 2024
TikTok’s revenue has skyrocketed from a modest $150 million in 2018 to a staggering $16.1 billion in 2023, with an average annual growth rate of 205.70%.
- TikTok’s brand value reached $84.2 billion in January 2024. (Statista)
- In 2023, TikTok generated $16.1 billion annual revenue. (Business of Apps)
- The platform has made $165 million in February 2024 alone. (Forbes)
- TikTok’s in-app revenue surged from $286 million in Q3 2020 to over $606 million in Q4 2021, culminating in approximately $707 million in Q4 2023. (Statista)
- China dominated TikTok’s iOS revenue, generating over $303 million in Q4 2023. The U.S. followed with $65 million, while Japan secured the third spot at nearly $29 million. (Statista)
- The U.S. led TikTok’s Google Play revenue, earning over $50 million, accounting for 26% of total Google Play income. Germany and Japan followed with approximately $20 million and $18.25 million, respectively. (Statista)
What’s Next for TikTok?
While most major social media platforms emerged from the U.S., the rise of TikTok is a testament to the power of localised platforms.
Their rise has been marked by both unprecedented growth and significant challenges. Despite facing bans in major markets like India and geopolitical tensions, the platform has demonstrated resilience, continuing to expand its user base and influence.
With over a billion users and projected growth to more than two billion by end of 2024, TikTok remains a dominant force in the social media landscape.