Digital media statistics at a glance
Digital media is no longer a single channel; it is the daily layer connecting internet access, social platforms, streaming, creator activity, and advertising revenue. The numbers below show how large that layer has become, and where it is still growing fastest.
Table of contents
- Key digital media statistics
- Internet access and global connectivity
- Social media usage among U.S. adults
- Teen digital media habits
- Platform reach and time spent in the UK
- Digital advertising and platform revenue
- Video, audio, and creator economy signals
Key digital media statistics
Fast facts
- 5.5 billion people were online in 2024, equal to 68% of the world population (ITU Facts and Figures 2024).
- Global internet use rose from 65% in 2023 to 68% in 2024 (ITU Facts and Figures 2024).
- 2.6 billion people remained offline in 2024, which is about one-third of the global population (ITU Facts and Figures 2024).
- In high-income countries, 93% of the population used the internet in 2024, compared with 27% in low-income countries (ITU Facts and Figures 2024).
- Among U.S. adults, 83% reported ever using YouTube and 68% reported ever using Facebook (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024).
- Among U.S. teens, 96% report using the internet daily and nearly half say they are online almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- In 2024, the U.S. digital advertising industry reached $258.6 billion in revenue (IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report Full Year 2024).
- Meta’s family daily active people reached 3.35 billion on average in December 2024 (Meta Q4 and Full Year 2024 Results).
- In Q4 2024, Meta’s ad impressions across its Family of Apps increased 6%, while average price per ad increased 14% (Meta Q4 and Full Year 2024 Results).
- In 2024, TikTok said over 170 million Americans were part of its community (TikTok Year on TikTok 2024).
Why these numbers matter
The headline story is not just scale. It is the combination of broad connectivity, highly concentrated platform usage, and a monetization engine that keeps expanding at the same time. That is what makes digital media statistics useful for marketers, publishers, creators, and analysts: they show both audience size and attention intensity.
Internet access and global connectivity
The most basic digital media statistic is still the most important: how many people are online. The answer in 2024 was 5.5 billion people, or 68% of the world population (ITU Facts and Figures 2024). That is not a niche user base. It is the majority of the planet.
The growth rate also matters. Global internet use rose from 65% in 2023 to 68% in 2024, which means the online population expanded while the offline population still remained large (ITU Facts and Figures 2024). The internet-user count itself grew 3.4% year over year in 2024 (ITU Facts and Figures 2024).
At a glance: internet access by region and income
| Segment | 2024 internet use | Source |
|---|---|---|
| World | 68% | ITU Facts and Figures 2024 |
| High-income countries | 93% | ITU Facts and Figures 2024 |
| Low-income countries | 27% | ITU Facts and Figures 2024 |
| Arab States | About 70% | ITU Facts and Figures 2024 |
| Asia-Pacific | About 66% | ITU Facts and Figures 2024 |
| Africa | About 38% | ITU Facts and Figures 2024 |
| Least developed countries | 35% | ITU Facts and Figures 2024 |
| Landlocked developing countries | 39% | ITU Facts and Figures 2024 |
The table makes a simple point: internet access is broad globally, but it is not evenly distributed. A person in a high-income country is far more likely to be online than a person in a low-income country, and that gap shapes everything from ad inventory to content distribution and commerce adoption (ITU Facts and Figures 2024).
Big number
2.6 billion people were still offline in 2024 (ITU Facts and Figures 2024). That figure is useful because it prevents overly narrow thinking. Digital media may feel universal in some markets, but global adoption still has a large unfinished edge.
What the access data implies
- The addressable digital audience is enormous, but not fully saturated.
- Regional differences still matter, especially where internet adoption is closer to one-third than two-thirds.
- Any growth strategy built on digital media alone should account for the fact that infrastructure and access remain uneven.
Social media usage among U.S. adults
U.S. adults are deeply embedded in social platforms, but the mix is uneven. Some platforms are almost universal, while others are clearly niche. That split matters for distribution strategy, audience targeting, and content format choices.
Platform reach among U.S. adults
| Platform | Share of U.S. adults who reported using it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 83% ever used | Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024 |
| 68% ever used | Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024 | |
| 47% use | Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024 | |
| Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, WhatsApp or Snapchat | 27% to 35% use | Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024 |
| X or Reddit | About 20% use | Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024 |
| BeReal | 3% use | Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024 |
The structure of the table shows a steep drop-off after the biggest platforms. YouTube and Facebook remain the broadest reach channels, while the newer or more specialized apps sit much lower in reported adult usage (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024).
Audience depth by age
The age split is where digital media statistics become especially useful. Among U.S. adults ages 18 to 29, 78% use Instagram (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024). Among adults ages 65 and older, that figure is 15% (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024).
That is a wide generational spread, and it repeats across other platforms:
- Among U.S. adults under 30, 65% use Snapchat (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024).
- Among U.S. adults ages 65 and older, 4% use Snapchat (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024).
- Among U.S. adults ages 18 to 29, 62% use TikTok (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024).
- Among U.S. adults ages 65 and older, 10% use TikTok (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024).
A useful comparison of platform depth
| Age group | Snapchat | TikTok | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 to 29 | 78% | 65% among under 30 | 62% | Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024 |
| 65 and older | 15% | 4% | 10% | Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024 |
This is not just a demographic note. It is a signal that the same digital media message can perform very differently depending on audience age. The platforms that matter most for younger adults are not the same platforms that dominate older adult usage.
Multi-platform behavior
Another important pattern is platform stacking. Among U.S. adults under 30, 74% use at least five of the social platforms Pew asked about (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024). That compares with 53% among adults ages 30 to 49, 30% among adults ages 50 to 64, and 8% among adults ages 65 and older (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024).
That gradient suggests that younger adults are not only more active on social media. They also move across more platforms at once. For digital media planning, that means reach is often less about choosing a single channel and more about managing a platform portfolio.
Teen digital media habits
If U.S. adults are platform-rich, teens are platform-intense. The teen data shows both daily frequency and near-constant use, which makes this one of the clearest indicators of digital media saturation in the dataset.
Daily use and constant use among U.S. teens
- 96% of U.S. teens report using the internet daily (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- 73% say they go on YouTube daily, and 15% say they are on it almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- About 60% visit TikTok daily, and 16% say they are on it almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- Roughly half say they go on Instagram daily (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- Roughly half say they go on Snapchat daily (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- 20% say they use Facebook daily (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- One-third use at least one of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
Fast facts about teen intensity
The most striking figure is not merely daily use. It is the share who are online almost constantly. Nearly half of U.S. teens say they are online almost constantly, up from 24% a decade earlier (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024). That is a major shift in digital media behavior over time.
Usage differences by gender and race
Some of the strongest teen digital media differences appear in subgroup data:
- Among U.S. teen girls, 19% say they use TikTok almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- Among U.S. teen boys, 13% say they use TikTok almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- Among U.S. teen boys, 19% say they use YouTube almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- Among U.S. teen girls, 11% say they use YouTube almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- 58% of Hispanic teens say they are online almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- 53% of Black teens say they are online almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- 37% of White teens say they are online almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
Why this matters
Teen usage is useful because it acts like a pressure test for digital media. When the youngest cohorts are already using several platforms daily and many are effectively always online, the content and attention economy becomes less about discovery and more about persistence.
Platform reach and time spent in the UK
The UK data adds a different lens: not just who uses a platform, but how much time they spend there. That distinction is critical for any digital media strategy that values depth as much as reach.
UK usage snapshots
- 74% of UK online 18 to 24-year-olds visited TikTok in May 2024 (Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
- Those visitors spent an average of 64 minutes per day on TikTok (Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
- 64% of UK online adults accessed WhatsApp daily in May 2024, up from 58% in May 2023 (Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
- Reddit reached 24.6 million UK online adults, equal to 52%, by June 2024 (Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
- Threads reached 5.3 million UK online adults, equal to 11%, in July 2024 (Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
- X’s average monthly adult reach in the UK fell to 22.2 million by August 2024, down 1.6 million from the prior month average (Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
- 29% of UK online adults, or 13.8 million people, accessed a pornographic content service in May 2024 (Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
What the UK data shows
The UK figures combine breadth, habit, and platform volatility. WhatsApp is embedded in daily behavior, TikTok captures significant time among younger adults, Reddit has broad adult reach, and X shows a declining monthly reach pattern in the reported period (Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
That mix is useful because it shows how digital media platforms can sit in very different roles:
- some are utility-like and daily,
- some are entertainment-heavy and time-intensive,
- some are emerging,
- and some are losing reach.
Digital advertising and platform revenue
Audience scale matters, but revenue is the clearest proof that digital media has become a major economic system. The ad and platform figures show how closely monetization tracks with user engagement.
Advertising market size
In 2024, the U.S. digital advertising industry reached $258.6 billion in revenue (IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report Full Year 2024). That alone places digital media at the center of the ad economy. The same report says U.S. digital ad revenue rose 14.9% year over year in 2024 (IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report Full Year 2024).
Meta and Alphabet signals
Meta’s Q4 and full-year 2024 results reinforce the same theme. Meta’s family daily active people reached 3.35 billion on average in December 2024, up 5% year over year (Meta Q4 and Full Year 2024 Results). Its ad impressions across the Family of Apps increased 6% in Q4 2024 and 11% for full-year 2024 (Meta Q4 and Full Year 2024 Results). Average price per ad increased 14% in Q4 2024 and 10% for full-year 2024 (Meta Q4 and Full Year 2024 Results).
Alphabet also signaled the scale of video and cloud operations together, saying YouTube and Cloud exited 2024 at an annual revenue run rate of $110 billion (Alphabet Q4 2024 earnings release). That kind of figure matters because it shows that digital media is not just a consumer habit. It is a major revenue infrastructure.
What to notice
- High audience reach does not automatically mean low monetization.
- Ad impressions and price per ad can both rise at the same time.
- Large platforms can grow revenue without needing completely new audience categories.
- Digital media value increasingly comes from a combination of scale, engagement, and ad efficiency.
Video, audio, and creator economy signals
Digital media is not only social feeds and display ads. Video, audio, and creator activity are now core pieces of the landscape, and the dataset has strong evidence for all three.
Video scale and subscription growth
YouTube remains one of the biggest digital media environments in the world. Among U.S. adults, 83% reported ever using YouTube (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024). Among U.S. teens, 73% go on YouTube daily, and 15% say they are on it almost constantly (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
YouTube Music and Premium surpassed 100 million subscribers in February 2024 (YouTube Blog, 100 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers). Those products are available in over 100 countries and regions (YouTube Blog, 100 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers). Alphabet said YouTube and Cloud exited 2024 at an annual revenue run rate of $110 billion (Alphabet Q4 2024 earnings release).
A separate YouTube update also said viewers globally watch more than 1 billion hours of YouTube content on TVs every day (YouTube Blog, Nielsen #1 streamer). And views of YouTube Shorts on connected TVs grew more than 100% from January to September 2023 (YouTube Blog, Nielsen #1 streamer).
Those numbers point to a platform that is no longer just mobile-first. It is multi-screen and increasingly tied to living-room viewing patterns.
Short-form and live creator activity
TikTok provides a different scale signal. In 2024, TikTok said over 170 million Americans were part of its community (TikTok Year on TikTok 2024). It also reported major event-driven engagement: Olympics-related hashtags generated 1.9 million posts and nearly 50 billion views from July 26 to August 11, 2024, while official Olympics accounts amassed nearly 2 billion views in the same period (TikTok Year on TikTok 2024).
TikTok LIVE added another layer. TikTok LIVE had over 100 million creators go LIVE in 2024, more than 46 million new creators start their LIVE journey, and users generated 269 billion chats in the same year (TikTok LIVE 2024). It also said 250,000 TikTok LIVE creators doubled their income year over year in 2024 (TikTok LIVE 2024).
That combination of creator growth, chat volume, and income outcomes is a strong indicator that live digital media is becoming more economically structured, not just more socially active.
Audio and podcasts
Audio is still a major part of digital media consumption, even when it does not dominate headlines. In Q3 2024, audio listening across radio, podcasts, streaming music, and satellite radio totaled 3 hours and 57 minutes per day in the U.S. (Nielsen The Record Q3 2024). Within that total, 67% of daily audio time went to radio, 18% to podcasts, 11% to streaming audio services, and 3% to satellite radio (Nielsen The Record Q3 2024).
Podcast demand also remains strong. 51% of U.S. adults ages 12+ had listened to a podcast in The Infinite Dial 2025, the highest level ever reported (Edison Research The Infinite Dial 2025).
That matters because digital media is often discussed as if video and social are the only important formats. The data says otherwise: audio remains a large, durable attention category.
What the numbers suggest for digital media analysis
The supplied statistics point to four practical takeaways.
- Digital media is now a mass-market system, not a specialist channel, with 5.5 billion people online globally (ITU Facts and Figures 2024).
- Platform usage is highly uneven by age, which makes audience segmentation essential rather than optional (Pew Research Center, Americans’ Social Media Use 2024; Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024).
- Attention is intensifying on a few major platforms, especially in teen and young adult groups (Pew Research Center, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024; Ofcom Online Nation 2024).
- Monetization remains strong, with U.S. digital ad revenue at $258.6 billion and major platform revenue and engagement figures still rising (IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report Full Year 2024; Meta Q4 and Full Year 2024 Results; Alphabet Q4 2024 earnings release).
The broader pattern is clear: digital media is expanding, but not evenly; it is concentrated, but still growing; and it is both a consumption habit and a revenue engine.