What are the most visited social media platforms among Gen Z?

Gen Z is well known for being social media savvy. But not all platforms are created equal, and with new trends emerging it can be hard to keep track of where Gen Z is spending its time. In this blog, we’ll walk through the apps where you’re most likely to find this cohort scrolling, liking, and viewing, covering the following topics:

• What social media app has the highest reach among Gen Z?
• What social media apps are growing the fastest among Gen Z?
• How does Gen Z’s social media usage compare to the general population?
• How does Gen Z’s social media usage compare to other age groups?

Our analysis is focused on mobile apps, and we use the 18 to 24-year-old age group to get the closest estimation for Gen Z.

What social media app has the highest reach among Gen Z?

The highest percentage of Gen Z mobile internet users on a social app is on YouTube, with 84% visiting the app. This is followed by TikTok at 61%, Snapchat at 58%, and Instagram at 56%. Other platforms still see a significant share of this age group, as Facebook and Twitter reach one in three mobile internet users, Pinterest and Reddit reach one in four, and LinkedIn and Twitch each reach one in ten.

What social media apps are growing the fastest among Gen Z?

From April 2022 to April 2023, the fastest growing platforms by total reach within the 18-24 age group are BeReal (+103%) and LinkedIn (+53%), as the relatively new and smaller BeReal continues to gain traction and more young people look to enter the workforce and need to access LinkedIn. These are followed by Twitter (+16%), and TikTok (+12%). Most platforms are stable overall, only seeing a few percentage points of change year over year.

How does Gen Z’s social media usage compare to the general population?

When we compare Gen Z to the general online population, Gen Z over-indexes on most platforms, with LinkedIn and Facebook as exceptions. Some of the highest indexes are on BeReal, Twitch, Snapchat, and Reddit.

How does Gen Z’s social media usage compare to other age groups?

The 18-24 cohort is the only age group that has more than two apps reaching over half of the mobile population. They also have the highest reach for most platforms, with exceptions for Facebook and LinkedIn.

Digging deeper into Gen Z social media behavior

In this article we have just scratched the surface: while reach gives an overview of how visitation compares for these apps and age groups, metrics like time per user and cross-visitation provide further clues as to how levels of engagement vary on the different platforms, and how Gen Z travels from one platform to another. For example, while Gen Z under-indexes for reach on Facebook, they spent an average of 7 hours per person on the app in April, more than on Reddit, Twitter, or Snapchat.

For a deeper look into how Gen Z is interacting with social media related to your brand or industry, reach out to us here.

To learn more about reaching Gen Z, check out our webinar “Advertising to Gen Z” here.

Metric Definitions

Reach: Percentage of a specific demographic that visits a site or app in a given country and given month.