Each year, Australians continue to spend more time online than any other medium, and more of that time is devoted to being social. Whether it’s chatting in group messages, watching Reels, joining a subreddit, or falling into the TikTok algorithm for hours at a time, social media continues to dominate how we interact, discover, and share.
In Australia, 94.5% of internet users over the age of 16 had visited or used a social media network within the past month at the time they were surveyed; 90.3% had used a chat or messaging service. Social media, and being social in general, is by far the most significant use of the time Australians spend on the internet.
This report looks at the state of social media in Australia in 2025, drawing on platform data, app store rankings, advertising tools and our own experience at Retain Media. We explore how Australians are using these platforms, which ones are growing or slowing, and what that means for businesses trying to make the most of their digital presence.
Whether your business is active on one platform or many, understanding where audiences spend their time, and why, is essential. This report breaks down the key trends so you can decide where to invest your attention next.
The Most-Visited Social Media Sites in Australia
As if it should come as any surprise, the most-visited website in Australia is Google. However, social media platforms account for half of the top 10 most-visited websites, with YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit holding the remaining four spots in the top five. ChatGPT is the eighth most-visited website in Australia.
Although it isn’t technically a social media, we’ve chosen to include ChatGPT in these rankings due to its high ranking across all platforms (amongst the top 50 most-visited websites and most-downloaded iOS and Android apps in Australia) and the fundamental way in which it has changed Australians’ online behaviour.
X is the 18th most-visited website and appears to be slipping in popularity within Australia, no doubt due in large part to its increasingly toxic, polarised and extremist user-base, the behaviour of owner Elon Musk, and the rollback of fact-checking and moderation tools.
Makers and lovers of moodboards will be pleased to know that Pinterest remains inside the top 30 as the 28th most-visited website in Australia, while TikTok slips inside the top 50 as the 45th most-visited website. However, it is important to note that this ranking does not reflect TikTok’s true popularity, as it is overwhelmingly an app-based platform rather than a browser-based platform.
The Most-Downloaded iOS Social Media Apps in Australia
On the Apple App Store, a different picture emerges. ChatGPT stands out as the second most-downloaded app overall, ahead of all traditional social platforms. Threads makes an appearance at number 11, despite its muted trajectory in 2025 compared to the noise that followed its launch in 2023.
WhatsApp sits at 15th, followed by TikTok at 22nd. Instagram lands at 40th, while Telegram rounds out the list of social apps at 44th. Interestingly, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube and Reddit do not appear in the top 50 for iOS. This may reflect a mix of platform loyalty, default installs, or less frequent uninstall-reinstall behaviour on iPhones.
What Does This Mean?
ChatGPT’s number two ranking is the headline here. While not a social media app in the traditional sense, its usage habits clearly align with how Australians interact online. Its popularity speaks to a growing comfort with AI as a tool for communication, creativity and information.
Threads showing up at number 11 suggests that many iOS users remain curious about new social apps, especially those that feel familiar or connected to established networks. Whether that curiosity translates to long-term use remains uncertain, but the download figures are still worth noting.
Instagram’s position at 40th may hint at shifting habits, particularly among younger users who are leaning into platforms like TikTok. The absence of Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube from the iOS top 50 is less likely to reflect a drop in use, and more likely a sign that these apps are so deeply embedded that users rarely delete or reinstall them.
The Most-Downloaded Android Social Media Apps in Australia
Over on the Google Play Store, social media platforms continue to dominate Australia’s app ecosystem, with 13 of the top 50 most-downloaded free apps falling into this category. Messenger, WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram all sit inside the top 10, ranked third, fourth, seventh, ninth, and tenth respectively.
Snapchat, TikTok and Reddit follow in the next tier, sitting at 23rd, 24th and 25th, with TikTok’s lower ranking reflective of its iOS-first popularity in Australia. ChatGPT ranks just behind Reddit at 26.
Further down the list, Discord comes in at 31st, LinkedIn at 36th, and X (formerly Twitter) at 41st, reflecting a significant drop in mobile adoption compared to previous years. Rounding out the social apps are Telegram and Signal at 42nd and 43rd, respectively, suggesting that while alternative messaging platforms are still in use, they remain well behind the likes of WhatsApp and Messenger.
What Does This Mean?
Meta’s presence on Android remains dominant, with four of the top ten apps under its umbrella. These platforms continue to serve as the main channels for messaging, content sharing and community engagement across the country.
TikTok’s position outside the top 20 may raise eyebrows at first glance, but it likely reflects the platform’s stronger performance on iOS rather than any real decline in popularity. As discussed elsewhere in this report, Australians spend more time on TikTok than on any other app, and its influence on digital culture remains unmatched.
Lower rankings for LinkedIn, Discord and X indicate slower growth or reduced churn among their user bases. These apps continue to serve niche roles, but they no longer attract the download volumes seen during peak periods. ChatGPT landing at number 26 is particularly telling, showing how Australians are increasingly turning to generative AI tools as part of their everyday online activity.
The Most-Searched Social Media Platforms in Australia
Search behaviour offers another lens through which to understand how Australians engage with social media. While download figures and usage time tell us about adoption and engagement, search data reveals something different: which platforms people are actively looking for information about.
YouTube dominates search interest in Australia, accounting for 47.2% of all social media platform searches with 13.6 million monthly searches. This overwhelming lead reflects YouTube’s position as the most searched-for social platform in the country by a significant margin.
Facebook follows at 31.7% search share with 9.14 million monthly searches. Together, YouTube and Facebook account for nearly 80% of all social media platform searches in Australia, demonstrating their continued dominance in how Australians seek out social platforms.
Instagram sits in third position with 7.8% search share and 2.24 million monthly searches. The gap between Instagram and the top two platforms is substantial, though it still represents considerable search interest relative to other platforms.
Twitter and X combined capture 5.8% of search share with a combined 1.67 million monthly searches (Twitter at 1 million, X at 673,000). The fact that both terms are still being searched suggests the platform’s rebrand hasn’t fully taken hold in Australian search behaviour.
Reddit matches Twitter’s individual search volume at 3.5% search share and 1 million monthly searches, while TikTok accounts for 2.9% with 823,000 searches. Despite TikTok’s massive engagement figures elsewhere in this report, its search volume sits below several other platforms.
LinkedIn shows notably low search interest at just 0.2% search share with 49,500 monthly searches, a significant gap between its search volume and its claimed audience reach of 17 million users. This likely reflects that LinkedIn users access the platform through saved bookmarks or the app rather than repeated searches.
Discord (1.9% search share, 550,000 searches), Twitch (1.3%, 368,000 searches), Threads (0.1%, 33,100 searches), and Pinterest (0.01%, 3,600 searches) round out the platforms with measurable search interest. Pinterest’s exceptionally low search volume is particularly striking given its 5 million user base, suggesting users access it through means other than web search.
So, What's the Big Deal?
Social media in Australia is more fragmented than ever. The average user now maintains six to seven accounts across different platforms, each serving a slightly different purpose in how they connect, consume, and engage. This fragmentation means no single platform holds all the attention, and no one channel can do it all.
For brands, that’s a clear reminder not to put all your eggs in one basket. A balanced strategy that reflects where your audience actually spends time, whether that’s short-form video on TikTok, professional updates on LinkedIn, or community-building on Facebook, is more important than chasing the latest trend.
How Much Time Is Spent on Social Media
High rates of social media access and use inevitably mean that Australians will be spending a lot of their time on these platforms, and these numbers seem to be growing every year. Although YouTube has dominated in previous years, TikTok has overtaken it and left it in the dust: the average Australian TikTok user now spends almost 39 hours on the app per month, while the average YouTube user spends nearly half of that time, at just shy of 22 hours per month.
There are probably more than a few TikTok users who felt a little dizzy reading that, and it does seem a little hard to believe, but it’s true. In Australia, the average TikTok user spends a full working week a month on the platform. That this much time can be spent on the app each month is a testament to TikTok’s moreish infinite scroll, especially considering that most videos on the platform are between 30 seconds and three minutes long. Compare this to YouTube, where videos tend to be in excess of 10 minutes (the minimum
Social Media as a Discovery Tool
One of the most interesting shifts in recent years has been the growth of social media as a discovery tool. Whereas in the past shoppers would head to Google and come across brands by exploring broad search terms, increasingly, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and even Reddit ads are where shoppers discover brands and businesses. Consequently, Google has shifted to become a navigational tool, directing shoppers to brand websites and e-commerce platforms after the initial discovery journey has taken place on social media.
Pinterest is far and away the leading discovery platform amongst all social media, with 97% of all searches on the platform being unbranded. This means that users aren’t coming to Pinterest to look at a particular brand but with a feeling, aesthetic, or keyword in mind and are discovering brands on their quest for inspiration.
At Retain Media, our internal data shows that 8% of landing page views from our social media ads subsequently revisited the advertiser’s website via a Google referral (paid click or organic click). More impressively, one advertiser whose campaigns we manage had 25% of their landing page views from their Facebook ads, then visit their website via Google search
Clearly, users see the brand and product on social media and then return to the website later to discover more. However, the social media journey doesn’t stop with discovery, with 33.6% of internet users aged 16+ visiting social networks to conduct further research on brands and products, according to data from GWI.
YouTube
When it comes to number of users, YouTube is the clear winner in Australia, with Google’s ad planning tools showing that YouTube had 20.1 million users in Australia in 2025.
Of the major social media, YouTube has the closest user breakdown by gender, albeit with a slight edge still to women, at 50.7% of users, compared to the 49.3% of users identified as men.
As we’d expect, YouTube’s user base skews young, with the majority of users under the age of 35. Despite this skew, YouTube can still lay claim to one of the largest numbers and proportions of older users, with an estimated 6.1m users over the age of 45, the highest number of all the platforms we assessed.
On a state-by-state basis, we saw the same pattern for YouTube as we did for many of the other platforms, with the majority of users in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, in descending order. Western Australia had the fourth-most users, followed by South Australia, the ACT, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory.
Although this pattern was largely mirrored across the other platforms, YouTube had a smaller gap between the number of users in Victoria and Queensland, with only Pinterest having a smaller gap between the two states.
Overall, YouTube remains the most versatile platform for both content and advertising, with unmatched audience size and strong engagement across all age groups.
Although public sentiment would have you believe that Facebook is on the way out, it continues to have one of the largest user bases in the country, with resources from Meta estimating that there are 17.2 million Facebook users in Australia in 2025, with an estimated ad reach of approximately 13.7m users.
Of this 17.2 million, Meta’s advertising tools give an estimated audience reach of 13.75 million users aged 18 or over, with the bulk of these falling in the 18-35 year old category. When it comes to sex, women are over-represented amongst Facebook users, comprising 51.9% of the platform’s ad audience in Australia, versus 48.1% for men.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook’s audience is dominated by the east coast states, with New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland having an estimated audience size of 4.2 million, 3.5 million, and 2.9m users, respectively, according to Meta’s advertising planning tools. Western Australia and South Australia have an estimated audience of 1.5m and 940k, respectively, while Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory have an estimated audience of 283k, 249k, and 123k, respectively.
Overall, Facebook continues to deliver significant reach, particularly among older Australians, despite ongoing concerns about relevance and trust.
Trailing a little behind Facebook, Meta’s other flagship platform has 14.3 million users in Australia in 2025, according to Meta’s advertising tools. Like Facebook, Instagram restricts use of the platform to people over the age of 13, giving it an ad reach equivalent to 53.1% of the Australian population. Women are over-represented on Instagram even more so than Facebook, comprising 55.2% of Instagram’s users in Australia, compared to 44.8% for men.
Compared to Facebook, Instagram’s audience skews even younger, with more than half of its users between the ages of 18 and 35, according to the platform’s advertising tools. Additionally, while Facebook can lay claim to a mature-aged (55+) audience of approximately 5.5 million users, Instagram only boasts approximately 2.9 million users in the same demographic.
The state-by-state breakdown of Instagram’s users looks more or less the same as Facebook’s, albeit with a slightly different spread. New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory all have more Instagram than Facebook users, with 4.5 million, 3.9 million, and 295k, respectively. In Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, the number of Instagram users trails the number of Facebook users, while in Western Australia, the estimated Instagram audience size is the same as it is for Facebook, at 1.5 million users.
That Instagram users outnumber Facebook users in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, and trail them in Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, is not all that surprising, given Instagram generally skews younger. NSW, VIC and the ACT all have sizeable populations of young professionals, who are the core of Instagram’s user base. Meanwhile, states with larger populations of older, retirement-age people lag in their number of Instagram users compared to Facebook, which offers greater utility and accessibility to older users.
It could be argued that the narrow gap between the Northern Territory’s Facebook and Instagram users is surprising considering it is the youngest state in Australia, and Darwin, the capital city with the youngest median age, at 34.6 years. However, at the risk of generalising Territorians, it feels safe to say that the residents of that state are generally less interested in Instagram than their counterparts in other Australian capital cities.
With its strong appeal to younger users and visual content formats, Instagram remains a key channel for brand engagement and lifestyle marketing.
TikTok
Although it remains the most en vogue of Australia’s social media platforms, TikTok can only lay claim to just over 8 million users, according to the app’s advertising tools. However, it is important to note that while TikTok only ranks mid-pack in terms of user volume, it far outpaces every other platform when it comes to engagement, with users spending significantly more time on the app than anywhere else.
As could be expected, TikTok’s audience skews heavily towards the younger side, with the vast majority of users in the 18-25 age bracket, according to the platform’s advertising tools. It is important to note that the actual breakdown likely skews even younger still; however, TikTok does not allow advertisers to view potential reach for users under 18. Additionally, TikTok’s advertising tools currently have no data for the over-65 age group.
When it comes to the state-by-state audience breakdown, the results are even more skewed than those for Instagram and Facebook, albeit with smaller numbers. New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland once again lead, with estimated audiences of 3.4 million, 2.7 million, and 1.9 million users, respectively. Western Australia and South Australia have an estimated TikTok audience of 1m and 788k, respectively, while Tasmania, the ACT, and the Northern Territory have 118k, 107k, and 22k, respectively.
The big story of the year so far was TikTok suspending its services within the United States on January 18, ahead of a law banning its use that was due to come into effect on January 19. As we know, the suspension was short-lived, with TikTok going live again just 24 hours later following a temporary legal injunction.
While the platform remains operational for now, the episode sent shockwaves through the global tech and media industries, raising questions about digital sovereignty, data privacy, and the future of app-based platforms tied to foreign ownership. For Australian users, the impact was more indirect, but it served as a reminder of how quickly access to dominant social platforms can shift based on geopolitical tensions.
No platform captures more time per user than TikTok, making it an essential space for attention-driven campaigns that prioritise short-form video.
With an estimated advertising audience of more than 5 million users in Australia, Pinterest is far from a heavy hitter. With the vast majority of its users under the age of 35, it is undeniably a young person’s platform, albeit not in the same capacity as TikTok. Pinterest is an overwhelmingly female-dominated platform, with an estimated 3.9 million female users compared to just 1.1 million male users; the largest gender discrepancy amongst all the platforms we assessed.
The breakdown of users by state looks much the same as the other platforms, with a clear majority located in the eastern mainland states, with Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT having a roughly proportional amount of users as other platforms. The one exception to this is the Northern Territory, which has an estimated audience size of approximately 12,000 users.
Although it may lack the reach and hype of the other platforms we’ve discussed thus far, and while many will wonder at how it fits into their digital marketing strategy, Pinterest plays an incredibly important role in driving discovery for brands and advertisers.
We’ve written before about social media as a discovery platform and Pinterest is one of the best examples of that. 97% of searches on Pinterest are unbranded, meaning users are searching for broader topics, or even feelings, as opposed to specific brands or products. These search habits allow brands and businesses to put themselves in front of customers in an organic way, right when their intent is highest.
So, while Pinterest may not seem like a default platform that you need to be on in the same way as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, its value should not be overlooked. With its focus on unbranded discovery, Pinterest gives businesses a unique opportunity to reach customers when inspiration and intent are high.
LinkedIn occupies a strange middle-ground, as while it is technically a social media, it is used almost exclusively by the white collar, professional class. The social aspect of LinkedIn is equally restricted and focused mostly on networking, job hunting or self-promotion. Nonetheless, the platform boasts a sizeable audience in Australia, with an estimated ad reach of 17 million users. This figure seems far too big to believe, and would make LinkedIn the second-largest social media platform in Australia after Facebook.
While that is possible, it is important to note that LinkedIn’s ad planning tools only give maximum estimates of their audience size, rather than the maximum and minimum estimates provided by other platforms. As such, we encourage a healthy level of scepticism when discussing LinkedIn’s reach.
Indeed, LinkedIn’s own gender breakdown calls into question its maximum audience estimate. With an estimated 8.1 million male users and 7.1 million female (both maximum estimates) LinkedIn is slightly male-dominated, with a 53% to 46% male-to-female split.
The majority of these users are over the age of 25, with those aged 35-55 (i.e. prime professional age) accounting for the largest share of that majority. Interestingly, there are an estimated 4 million users between the ages of 18 and 25, a larger number than those aged between 25 and 35. One possible explanation for this is that a more competitive job market is causing those looking to start their careers (or still in the early stages) to pursue professional networking in a bigger way than those who are in the early-to-mid stages (aged 25-35).
However, because LinkedIn’s advertising tools only give a maximum estimate of audience size, we must be cautious about drawing too many conclusions based on the figures we have.
LinkedIn performs strongly in B2B marketing, recruitment, and education. It offers detailed targeting based on job title, industry, company size, and seniority. While advertising costs are often higher than other platforms, return on investment can be excellent for high-value services.
On a state-by-state basis, the eastern mainland states once again hold the vast majority of users, in a clear reflection of the distribution of Australia’s professional and white collar industries. As is to be expected, New South Wales and Victoria lead with 4.9 million and 3.9 million estimated users, respectively, followed by Queensland at 2.8 million users. Of the smaller states, WA led with 1.6m estimated users, followed by South Australia at 930,000, and the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory with 340,000, 200,000, and 96,000 estimated users respectively.
LinkedIn remains the go-to platform for B2B marketing, career-focused content, and recruitment, with strong targeting options for professional audiences.
X, or, the Platform Formerly Known as Twitter
The ups and downs of X have been well-reported over the past two years, and although its ad reach grew in our 2024 social media stats piece, that growth appears to have been reversed, with an estimated maximum audience of 5.1 million users, according to X’s advertising tools.
The bulk of X’s audience is under the age of 35, and as reported last year, two-thirds of the estimated audience are male, a much greater proportion than we see on other platforms.
The state-by-state breakdown follows the same trend as the other platforms, with the bulk of users located in the eastern states, albeit with a larger proportion in New South Wales. There is also a smaller gap between the number of users in Western Australia and the ACT than we’ve seen on other platforms.
Although X hasn’t been in the headlines much in 2025, that doesn’t mean that prior concerns around the platform have disappeared. Far from being the ‘digital town square’ of the modern era, post-Elon X is more like the cyber cesspool of the 21st century. Consequently, users are leaving the platform, a bad sign for any business trying to live off ad revenue.
Nonetheless, as we mentioned last year, it is possible to advertise on X in a way that protects your brand, though it will be interesting to see how long that remains the case if X’s user base continues to shrink. X allows fast reach and live event targeting, which can be effective in industries like finance, sports, and news media. However, brand safety and declining user trust remain major challenges, so advertisers must take extra care with audience settings and keyword exclusions.
But for all its flaws, X still serves as a hub for breaking news, niche communities (especially in tech, crypto, and media), and real-time commentary on major events. For certain professions and subcultures, it remains the default platform for discussion, even as overall engagement continues to decline.
That said, its dominance in this space is no longer guaranteed. With rising interest in alternatives like BlueSky — created by Twitter’s original founder, Jack Dorsey — X may soon find itself competing for relevance on the turf it once owned outright.
Snapchat
Although Snapchat may feel like one of the last vestiges of the 2010s to anyone over the age of 25, it remains very much part of Australia’s social media landscape and is one of the leading platforms for Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
With an estimated advertising audience of approximately 5.2 million users, Snapchat sits alongside Pinterest and X, and a little below TikTok. Of these users, there is a slight edge to women over men, with an estimated 2.7 million female users in Australia compared to 2.5 million male users. However, it is important to note that this 5.2m figure is based on Snapchat’s own advertising tools and only includes users over the age of 18. As anyone with children will tell you, there are plenty of teenagers and even tweens who use Snapchat, and the actual user base is likely far larger than what the advertising tools tell us.
Snapchat’s ad formats encourage direct response and playful engagement, especially among users under 25. The platform supports features like filters, swipe-ups, and story ads, but limited targeting and declining novelty make it best suited as a secondary option rather than a primary channel.
Despite limited public visibility, Snapchat remains sticky among teens and young adults due to its disappearing messages, streak-based interactions, and privacy-first approach. It is used more like a personal messaging app than a traditional social media platform, which helps explain its staying power with younger audiences.
Consequently, Snapchat remains relevant for brands targeting Gen Z, especially in personal and playful formats, but its broader value is limited outside that cohort.
The State of Social Media in 2025
Social media in Australia continues to evolve, but the story in 2025 is one of growth, not replacement. While platforms like TikTok and ChatGPT are commanding more of our time and attention, that doesn’t mean the long-standing players are no longer relevant. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube still boast massive audiences and remain deeply embedded in how Australians connect, share, and discover online.
For businesses, the challenge is not choosing the “best” platform, but identifying which platforms best suit their audience, content style and marketing objectives. In some cases, that might mean leaning into short-form video on TikTok. In others, it could mean doubling down on Facebook groups or investing in professional content for LinkedIn. The most effective social strategies are rarely one-size-fits-all.
As ever, the key is to focus on what works for your business. Social media usage is only growing, and with the right approach, there are more opportunities than ever to reach and engage the people who matter.
