42 TikTok Statistics You Need to Know

Chances are you’ve heard from a million different sources about the huge impact TikTok has.

It’s the trendy place to be on social media, and it has been for a while now.

To better understand Tiktok’s success, let’s dive into some key TikTok statistics.

How many people even use TikTok, is it just a Millennial and Generation Z thing, who’s on TikTok, what do they do, and how much time do they spend there?

Get a quick idea about all of these TikTok stats with our FREE TikTok Statistics Infographic for 2023!

Keep reading to take a deeper look at what’s happening on TikTok.

What is TikTok?

TikTok aims to be the leading platform for short videos recorded with mobile devices. They have one mission: to encourage creativity while people have fun.

To assess whether it’s a good idea to include TikTok in your conversion funnel, and to understand its statistics, it’s important to know some of its history.

TikTok is actually a revolution that came from Asia. The other major social networks or content platforms are all American (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter…), but TikTok is from China. In China, TikTok goes by the name Douyin. Which is loosely translated as: “vibrant sound”.

It’s owned by the company ByteDance, and has been skyrocketing since 2016. But, it didn’t catapult into the international market under the name TikTok until its 2018 merger with another Chinese social network, Musica.ly.

Now you know a bit about where this social network came from and what it’s all about. Now, how popular is TikTok? Let’s find out by looking at some TikTok statistics.

How Many People Use TikTok?

1. There are 1.52 billion TikTok users.

According to data provided by Statista and the company itself, that is the number of active TikTok users per month.

It has been growing exponentially over the years, although without a doubt its big breakthrough came in 2020. 

2. They’ve grown their TikTok audience by almost 50% since then.

With this first piece of information, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re already thinking…

How Many People Have TikTok?

With this volume of TikTok users, it isn’t difficult to conclude that TikTok is one of the most downloaded mobile apps in recent years.

3. TikTok reached 2 billion downloads in 2020.

4. By the third quarter of 2022, it had already comfortably surpassed 3 billion downloads. 

This data includes totals from both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

All of this happened despite TikTok’s ban in India.

5. In 2019 there were 277.6 million TikTok downloads in India, accounting for 45% of the app’s downloads that year.

TikTok was the most downloaded application in 2021, but they’ve also gone through some times of regulation and stability.

6. There was a 37% decrease in downloads during the second quarter of 2022.

7. In the United States alone, there’s a record of 210 million downloads.

Who Uses TikTok in 2023 – Tiktok User Demographics

8. From the worldwide TikTok audience, 56% are female and 44% are male.

9. TikTok users between the ages of 18 and 24 make up the most representative group with 39.8% of the total TikTok audience.

But, it isn’t true that TikTok is exclusive to Generation Z.

10. We can see that 57.1% of TikTok users are over 25 years old.

The TikTok demographics for gender are as follows:

11. There are 421.1 million TikTok users between 18 and 24 years old (39.8%)

12. There are 306.7 million TikTok users between 25 and 34 years old (29%)

13. There are 135.8 million TikTok users between 35 and 44 years old (12.9%)

14. There are 75.3 million TikTok users between 45 and 54 years old (7.2%)

15. There are 83.6 million TikTok users age 55 and older (8%)

Source: Dataportal

TikTok Statistics by Time Usage

By looking at some more TikTok demographics, we can learn about TikTok users’ time usage on the app.

16. Average time spent on the app is more than 39 minutes per day.

That’s the worldwide average amount of time a TikTok viewer spends watching short videos, according to Dataportal.

With a 10-minute limit per video, TikTok has become the second application (along with Facebook) to have this type of video content, behind YouTube.

The video length on TikTok has gradually increased over time. TikTok started out with 15-second videos when they launched and then increased them to 3 minutes, and finally up to 10 minutes in the second quarter of 2022.

This change was welcomed with enthusiasm by TikTok viewers in the US, the UK, Japan, Vietnam, Brazil, and Thailand.

The Most Popular TikTok Content

One of the main questions many people ask themselves, especially people who don’t fully understand the phenomenon that TikTok represents is…

“But what do you watch for so long on your cell phone?”

Well, to answer that question, here are the top TikTok content categories with a search-based popularity ranking, provided by Statista.

17. Entertainment – 535 billion

18. Dance – 181 billion

19. Comedy -79 billion

20. Fitness / Sports – 57 billion

21. Home renovation / DIY – 39 billion

22. Beauty/Skin Care – 33 billion

23. Fashion – 27 billion

24. Recipes / Cooking -18 billion

25. Tips / Life tips – 13 billion

26. Pets – 10 billion

27. Outdoor – 2 billion

Within the category of entertainment, you can find lip-synching, comedy sketches, duets, magic, and special effects among other types of entertainment.Nielsen says it is most common to watch videos on TikTok depending on your mood, which makes the entertainment category an effective way to disconnect from the world.

Top TikTok Influencers

Global TikTok Influencers

Khabane Lame spread like wildfire across the TikTok audience.

He is the most-followed TikTok creator since June 2022, when he overtook dancer Charli D’Amelio.

28. D’Amelio had previously topped the ranking for 819 days.

Khabane became very popular by showing how other people tend to overcomplicate their lives by performing tasks that are actually very simple.

It’s very likely that at some point you have come across one of his videos because 

29. Khabane has almost 152 and a half million followers.

Here is a list where you can probably find some recognizable names.

TikTok Influencers in The United States

In the United States, the ranking is also quite varied and has some recognizable names outside the TikToker (the name given to the people who create content on TikTok) world.

Will Smith’s TikTok account may not have the worldwide impact of the D’Amelio sisters, but he still has an impressive following.

30. Will Smith has 72.4 million followers

In addition to famous actors, in this list, you’ll see TikTokers of all kinds.

 31. Charli D’Amelio – 148.8 million followers

 32. Bella Poarch – 92.1 million followers

 33. Addison Rae – 92.4 million followers

 34. Will Smith – 72.4 million followers

 35. Zach King – 70.2 million followers

Inspiring Brands on TikTok

Of course, brands are not oblivious to what is happening on TikTok and have seized the opportunity to promote their business to the TikTok audience.

Some, more successfully than others, have understood the language spoken by TikTok users and have attracted many followers, gained relevance, and impacted potential customers.

It’s a good idea to take a look at this list of brands on TikTok because some of them you might expect more than others.

36. Netflix: with 29.4 million followers, its content has recognizable faces from the media and all over the world. They definitely know how to take advantage of this much better than their competitors.

37. NBA: 17.1 million people follow the best plays, statements, and celebrities in the stands… The NBA TikTok account focuses on short easy-to-watch videos.

38. Fortnite: animations of the game and its characters, game highlights, content creators related to this video game, or partnerships with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or Dragon Ball have made 8.9 million accounts follow Fortnite on TikTok.

39. Red Bull: this brand’s image has long been linked to risk and adventure. TikTok seems like an ideal place to share its videos that always make an impression, at least for its 7 million followers.

40. Gucci: fashion, glamor, beauty, and cosmetics also have a place on TikTok. 2.5 million TikTok viewers follow this iconic luxury brand.

41. San Diego Zoo: who would have thought that a Zoo could have such a large social media presence? Well, someone realized that kittens and the Internet are inseparable. All kinds of animals walk across the screens of 2.2 million followers.

42. Washington Post: the largest and oldest newspaper in the U.S. capital, and an unlikely addition to this list, adapts to the new times in the way it shares the news with its 1.5 million followers.

And many more examples such as Oreo (it seems incredible that cookies can make such great content) Ryanair, Asos, Starbucks, Chipotle, NatGeo, Crocs… It’s worth seeing how they do it to get an idea of what’s happening on TikTok.

Find Out Your Own TikTok Stats

The general statistics of TikTok are very important to understand the ecosystem of this social network as a whole, but the statistics of our own profile and to make comparisons between TikTokers are also very important.

In addition to keeping track of your number of followers, likes, views, etc. on the application itself, you can also rely on the TikTok Counter page.

There you can compare two accounts and see their TikTok stats in real-time, which can be useful to track campaigns and calculate your customer acquisition cost, or simply to get information about other profiles.

All you have to do is enter the person’s name in the search engine, click on their profile, and it will show you the TikTok stats for their account.

TikTok Stats Marketers Need to Know

Like the brands you’ve seen above, there are also retailers who see value in making TikTok an important part of their eCommerce marketing strategy and communications.

TikTok itself, with all the statistics you have just seen, is aware of the potential this has and has been working on creating what they call “TikTok Shop” for some time now.

Part of the success of this social network comes from a powerful algorithm based on behavior that is almost always right. This is something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by almost anyone who has business interests and uses other social networks as a sales channel.

On the other hand, Okanagan campus assistant professor Ying Zhu from the School of Management at the University of British Columbia, states in Time magazine states:

“It’s a much more complicated phenomenon than someone sitting in front of a camera selling products. It’s easy for people to underestimate the complexity associated with this seemingly simple interaction.”

Although there are complications, it doesn’t mean that this moment won’t come.

So, I recommend you keep digging into the pros and cons of including TikTok in your marketing strategy.