Interactive media is now a broad ecosystem of social networks, messaging services, video platforms, games, and connected devices. The figures below show its scale worldwide, its platform patterns in the United Kingdom and United States, and the ways younger audiences encounter it.
Contents
- Global social media scale
- How audiences spend time
- Platform reach in the United Kingdom
- Gaming as interactive media
- Teen technology access
- Teen platform habits
Global social media scale
DataReportal’s Digital 2024 Global Overview counted 5.04 billion social media user identities worldwide at the start of 2024. That represented 62.3% of the global population. The measure is expressed as user identities, so it should not automatically be read as a count of unique people.
The connected audience continued to expand during 2023. DataReportal recorded an increase of 266 million social media user identities, equivalent to 5.6% year over year. Across the year, the world averaged 8.4 new social media users every second. The same source estimated that approximately 730,000 new social media user identities were added per day.
Growth was also visible near the end of the year. Social media use increased by 1.5% between October and December 2023, adding 75 million new users in the fourth quarter. These figures describe the pace of expansion rather than the amount of time audiences spent interacting with content.
The platforms are embedded in ordinary online behavior. Globally, 94.7% of internet users aged 16 to 64 used online chat and messaging services each month, while 94.3% used social networking platforms monthly. Search remained another major interactive gateway: 80.7% of working-age internet users used search engines each month, according to DataReportal.
How audiences spend time
Reach shows who can encounter interactive media; time shows how deeply it enters the day. DataReportal reported that the typical social media user spent 2 hours and 23 minutes per day on social platforms in 2024. On a population-wide scale, the source projected that humanity would spend a combined 500 million years using social media during 2024. That projection is an estimate, not a direct observation of every individual’s activity.
The United Kingdom provides a more platform-specific view. Ofcom’s Online Nation 2024 reported that YouTube reached 94% of UK online adults in May 2024, or 44.5 million people. Its adult reach rose from 91% in May 2023 to 94% in May 2024. The youtube.com website reached 77% of UK adults, and the YouTube app reached 69% in the same month. A UK adult YouTube visitor spent an average of 47 minutes per day on the service.
Time varied substantially across services. Facebook/Messenger reached 91% of UK online adults and averaged 39 minutes per day among adult visitors. Instagram reached 76% and averaged 17 minutes per day. TikTok reached 51%, while a TikTok visitor spent an average of 27 minutes per day. Snapchat reached 21% and averaged 31 minutes per day among adult visitors.
| UK service, May 2024 | Adult reach | Average daily time where supplied |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 94% | 47 minutes |
| Facebook/Messenger | 91% | 39 minutes |
| 76% | 17 minutes | |
| TikTok | 51% | 27 minutes |
| Snapchat | 21% | 31 minutes |
The comparison illustrates why reach and engagement should be kept separate. YouTube had the highest reported reach and daily time in this group, while Snapchat’s smaller reach was paired with more daily time than Instagram among its adult visitors.
Platform reach in the United Kingdom
Ofcom’s May 2024 measurements show that interactive media in the UK extends beyond the largest video and social services. WhatsApp reached 91% of UK online adults, Facebook reached 82%, and Google Maps reached 73%. The app ranking table recorded Instagram at 68%, while another Ofcom measure recorded Instagram at 76%; these are retained as separate reported figures because they come from different tables or definitions within the source.
Several community and discovery platforms also had substantial adult audiences. Reddit reached 48% of UK online adults, with its adult audience rising from 15.6 million to 22.9 million year over year. Ofcom reported that Reddit’s UK adult reach grew 47% year over year. X reached 47%, representing 22.1 million adult users, but its adult reach fell 8% year over year.
LinkedIn reached 39% of UK online adults, Quora reached 31% and 14.6 million adults, and Pinterest reached 28%. TikTok reached 24.0 million UK adults, up 13% year over year. These measurements cover May 2024 and are specific to UK online adults unless an absolute audience is given.
Age differences are especially pronounced on short-form and messaging platforms. Adults aged 18 to 24 accounted for 39% of all time spent on TikTok by UK adults in May 2024. They accounted for 64% of total time spent on Snapchat. Within that age group, average daily time reached 64 minutes on TikTok and 55 minutes on Snapchat. Sixty percent of UK adults aged 18 to 24 visited both services during the month.
Gaming as interactive media
Games add a different form of participation: players do not only view or react to content, but make decisions, practice skills, and often share the experience with others. The Entertainment Software Association’s Essential Facts 2024 reported that 190.6 million Americans ages 5 to 90 played video games weekly in 2024. That was 61% of Americans in the survey’s age range playing for at least one hour each week.
Gaming was not limited to children or teenagers. Twenty-nine percent of US players were age 50 or older, and the average player age rose from 20 in 2004 to 26 in 2024. In identity reporting, 53% of players identified as male, 46% as female, and 6% as LGBTQ.
The reasons people gave for playing show several kinds of participation and value. Sixty-eight percent of Americans played to pass time or relax, and 67% played to have fun. Thirty-seven percent played to use their brain or keep their mind sharp, while 30% played for immersion or escape. These categories describe reported motivations and are not mutually exclusive.
Access and social play were also widespread. Seventy-eight percent of US households had played on at least one gaming device during the previous 12 months. Among players, 78% reported playing on mobile, compared with 33% in 2012. Nineteen percent played on mobile, PC, and console, while 88% had played games online.
Games frequently connect people. Seventy-four percent of players played with others both online and in person, and 55% played with others weekly. The same share, 55%, agreed that playing games can introduce people to new friends. Among parents who play, 70% said they play video games with their children, and 40% did so at least weekly.
Teen technology access
Pew Research Center’s Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024 shows how strongly interactive media is supported by home access. Ninety-five percent of US teens had access to a smartphone at home in 2024. Eighty-eight percent had access to a desktop or laptop computer, 83% had access to a gaming console, and 70% had access to a tablet computer.
Access varied by age. Smartphone access reached 98% among older teens aged 15 to 17, compared with 90% among younger teens aged 13 to 14. Desktop or laptop access was reported by 91% of older teens and 85% of younger teens. Gaming-console access also showed a gender difference: 90% of teenage boys had access at home, compared with 76% of girls.
The broader pattern is near-continuous connectivity. Pew reported that 96% of teens used the internet daily, and nearly half said they were online almost constantly. That was up from 24% a decade earlier. The share reporting almost-constant use was 58% among Hispanic teens, 53% among Black teens, and 37% among White teens.
Teen platform habits
Video and social platforms were central to teen routines in Pew’s 2024 measurement. Seventy-three percent of teens went on YouTube daily, and 15% said they were on it almost constantly. Sixty percent visited TikTok daily, with 16% describing almost-constant use. Fifty-five percent used Snapchat, and roughly half went on Instagram or Snapchat every day.
Other services reached smaller but still measurable shares. Thirty-two percent of teens used Facebook, 17% used X, 23% used WhatsApp, 14% used Reddit, and 6% used Threads. WhatsApp’s teen use was up 6 percentage points since 2022.
Pew also reported a strong increase in near-constant Instagram use: the measure rose from 8% in 2023 to 12% in the 2024 report. This is a change in reported intensity, not a claim that Instagram had the largest overall teen reach.
Together, the figures describe interactive media as a layered environment. Global social platforms provide enormous scale; UK measurements show how reach and daily time differ by service; games add active, social participation; and teen access data shows that smartphones, computers, consoles, and daily internet use are already part of the same media setting.