Here are the latest Instagram Live statistics and facts.
Find out how many people use the live streaming feature on Instagram and what that means for marketers.
Plus, we’ve included the list of the most viewed Instagram Live video streams ever. See it below.
Contents
- Significant Instagram Live Statistics
- Top 10 most viewed Instagram Live streams
- Instagram Live Usage
- Instagram User Demographics
Significant Instagram Live Statistics
- Acun Ilicali holds the record for the highest number of views (3M+) in an Instagram Live stream.
- Instagram is the 4th most popular social media in the world, with an estimated 2 billion monthly users.
- Over 100 million people worldwide watch Instagram Live per day.
- Roughly 20% or 1 in 5 Instagram users watch an IG Live stream.
- 14% of marketers posted an Instagram Live video in 2021.
- Most people stop watching a live video stream in less than 90 seconds if it has low picture quality.
- Instagram users spend 11.2 hours per month on the app.
- Generation Z is the most prominent user of Instagram Live since they’re the biggest users of social media in general.
- Instagram is the 3rd most popular platform sharing the spot with Twitter among live social media viewers.
The Top 10 Most Viewed Instagram Live Streams – World Rankings
Here’s a table of the most viewed Instagram Live videos ever:
- Acun Ilicali – 3 million – Survivor 2020 info reveal – May 25th 2020
- Tekashi 6ix9ine – 2 million – After prison stream – May 8th 2020
- Jezzy vs. Gucci Mane – 1.8 million – Verzuz song battle – Nov 19th 2020
- Brandy vs. Monica – 1.2 million – Verzuz song battle – Aug 31th 2020
- Nicki Minaj & Drake – 992,000 – Chat about “Beam Me Up Scotty” – May 13th 2021
- 6ix9ine & Nicki Minaj – 925,000 – Before the song “Trollz” release -May 2020
- BTC Jungkook and V – 922,000 – First ever Insta Live – Feb 2nd 2023
- Christiano Ronaldo – 710,000 – Random live stream in sauna – Feb 2022
- JuanDa – 701,000 – Influencer stream on his return – Oct 26th 2022
- Elvish Yandav – 593,000 – Stream with friends – Aug 19th 2023
1. Acun Ilicali holds the record for the highest number of views in an Instagram Live stream.
His streamed video on May 25th, 2020, reached 3 million views. A Turkish TV star, TV owner, and producer streamed a video revealing new information about a popular Turkish reality show, “Survivor 2020”. In the live video, he announced the changes in the survivor camps involved, which attracted a record number of people.
2. Tekashi 6ix9ine holds the second spot in the most-viewed Instagram Live stream.
The American rapper known for rainbow hair and teeth grills amassed a crowd of 2 million viewers in his May 8th, 2020, stream after being released from prison. The rapper got plenty of attention when he explained why he snitched on his criminal gang, Nine Trey Bloods.
3. Jezzy vs. Gucci Mane participated in a Verzuz song battle.
The two rappers don’t have the best relationship, which created controversy and drew viewers. During the song battle, the highest number of Insta Live viewers reached 1.8 million (as shown in the video below).
4. Brandy vs. Monica Verzuz song battle
The R&B icons reached a large audience at one point, counting 1.2 million viewers. The event was also remotely joined by, at the time, the Democrat vice president candidate Kamala Harris.
5. Nicki Minaj and Drake talked about the release of the “Beam Me Up Scotty” song on May 13th, 2021. The IG Livestream reached almost a million viewers, 992k to be precise.
6. 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj did an Instagram Live chat before the release of their single “Trollz”. It reached 925,000 viewers at some point. Check it out below:
7. BTS Jungkook and V, members of a Korean boy band, broke into the top 5 most-viewed Insta Live records on 2nd February 2023.
The unexpected livestream reached 922,000 viewers at one point, beating the previously 4th most viewed Insta Live by Christiano Ronaldo.
8. Christiano Ronaldo randomly started an IG Live stream when relaxing in a sauna and surprised his 530+ million followers.
The live stream reached 710,000 views which points to the immense popularity of the soccer (football) player out of his prime.
9. JuanDa, Juan David Morales, a Colombian content creator, broke the record with a live broadcast talking about his return as an influencer.
His return to entertaining his audience after a 7 month’s absence was welcomed with the live stream going viral and reaching 701,000 views on IG Live.
10. Elvish Yadav, an Indian YouTuber, and Bigg Boss winner, beat the previous Indian record of MC Stan.
His Instagram Live reached 593,000 concurrent viewers on August 19, 2023.
Previously ranked in the top 10
These Instagram streams have fallen off the list.
Mark Lee of NCT K-pop band hosted Johnny and Doyoung, who wished him a happy birthday and had a funny conversation. The Insta Live was seen by 571,000 viewers.
Check it below:
KSI and Logan Paul promoted their Instagram Live video as “The Last Chapter” in their boxing rivalry, where they were teasing a new reveal. They revealed the creation of a beverage company they own together, effectively becoming business partners. The Live stream reached 550,000 views at some point.
MC Stan surprisingly won the Bigg Boss reality show in India and talked about it with his fans in an Instagram Live on February 16th, 2023. The stream reached 541,000 viewers at some point, as you can see from the video below (3:22).
Short bio and facts about Instagram Live:
Instagram Live was launched in 2016 and reached peak popularity in 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns when people craved direct human interaction.
Today, Instagram is the 4th most popular social media worldwide, with an estimated 2 billion monthly users.
It’s surpassed only by Meta’s Facebook in 1st, Alphabet’s YouTube in 2nd, and Meta’s WhatsApp service in 3rd spot.
How much time do people spend on IG?
An average user spends 12 hours per month on the IG mobile app in 2023, which is 46 minutes more than in 2022. The time spent on Instagram in 2021 has grown 10% to almost 1 more hour per month from the 2020 average.
The data for the US and UK in 2023 is practically the same:
- US 7.7 hours spent on IG per month
- UK 7.7 hours spent on IG per month
About 70% of the posts on Instagram are left unseen, so having a good marketing strategy is a must.
How Does Instagram Live (IG Live) Work?
Instagram Live videos have priority on the IG newsfeed showing at 1st place, and followers get a notification of every live video when it’s happening. It enables live communication with your Instagram followers and offers a more genuine way to create content that doesn’t allow for post-production editing. It’s raw and in real-time, which doesn’t get more authentic.
Instagram Live shows the video for 24 hours after going live and deletes it afterward unless you save it as a video. The time limit for a stream used to be 1 hour, but it’s now 4 hours. Instagram recognized some people want longer streams where you can host shows and events.
It’s one of the best tools to create highly engaging customers and brand loyalty. The only thing you need to start is an Instagram account and a capable smartphone, and you’re ready to go.
Instagram Live Usage
How many people watch Instagram Live per day?
Over 100 million people worldwide watch Instagram Live in a day, according to Instagram data.
And there are over 1 million prominent users who watch IG Live daily.
With 500 million active daily Instagram users worldwide, 100 million isn’t that high yet, but the trend is positive. People are slowly adopting IG Live videos as part of a smart marketing strategy.
Based on DataReportal data, around 300 million people use Instagram Live weekly.
And the pandemic helped the service boost its usage.
Instagram Live use surged 70% during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns in the US.
There’s no data on how many users in the US alone use IG Live, but Americans don’t represent the largest user base.
Instagram number of users by top 3 countries in 2022:
| Country | # of Instagram users in 2023 | # of Instagram users in 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| India | 229.55 million | 230 million |
| United States | 143.35 million | 159.75 million |
| Brazil | 113.5 million | 119.45 million |
Related: See the number of Patreon users.
Instagram is also India’s most popular social media, with 31% of the survey participants saying it is their favorite service.
| Country | % of participants saying IG is their favorite service |
|---|---|
| India | 31% |
| Portugal | 27% |
| Sweden | 24% |
What percentage of Instagram users watch live video streams?
Roughly 20% or 1 in 5 Instagram users watch an IG Live stream.
While the feature isn’t as popular as stories or reels. Stories are watched by every Instagram user, as more than 500 million watch them daily.
And IG Reels aren’t far behind, with 91% of users saying they watch videos weekly, which means roughly 455 million.
Source: Digital 2022 Global Overview, BusinessInsider, Instagram, Meta Earnings Call, Statista 6, GWI Report 2022
Find source links at the bottom.
How many marketers use Instagram Live?
14% of marketers posted an Instagram Live video in 2021.
The estimate is that roughly over 415,000 live videos were posted in 2021 for marketing purposes.
28% of marketers use Instagram for marketing, so the fact that 14% use IG Live means 50% of marketers who use Instagram also use IG Live videos to reach their audience.
Live videos are guaranteed to be the latest and most authentic announcements for any brand or personality. This is why many people trust and like them more than regular posts that can be scheduled and heavily edited.
Digital creators are investing 28% of their budget for live streaming.
Influencers recognize the value of live video and directly connecting with their fans, as almost a third of their budget is spent on live video.
82% of people would rather watch a live video from a brand than an average social post.
This means more engagement and better audience reach for marketers who employ IG live video streaming as part of their campaign.
It’s estimated that almost 3 million marketers worldwide use Instagram, and 1.5 million use IG Live video streaming to reach their audience.
Here’s more data on video streaming.
On average social media live streaming reaches from 5% to 14% more people than live-stream gaming.
While game streaming is hugely popular among a smaller group of people, social media streaming reaches a larger audience overall.
Most people stop watching a live video stream in less than 90 seconds if it has low picture quality. Low-quality streams are a big mistake that can cost businesses a lot of money. Sound quality is important, too, so get a good microphone.
67% of viewers say stream quality is the most important factor when watching a live video.
Reasons why brands should use Instagram for advertising:
- 90% of people follow a brand on Instagram
- 2 in 3 say Instagram helps interaction with brands
- 50% are more interested in a brand when they see ads for it on Instagram
Instagram has a 25.6% ad reach of the total number of internet users. In other words, IG ads can potentially reach 1.32 billion people. That is 16.5% of the global population if you include non-internet users.
Related: What’s the average internet data usage
How popular is live streaming compared to other video?
Live video streaming is the 4th most popular video content type.
When asking worldwide internet users aged 16-64 years what type of video content they watch weekly, video live streams came up 4th.
In the US, watching live streams was ranked 3rd in 2021, with 19% of study participants stating it is the main reason they social networks.
Weekly usage reach of video content types:
| Type of video content | Popularity |
|---|---|
| Music video | 51% |
| Comedy, meme, viral video | 36.7% |
| Tutorial or how-to video | 30.6% |
| Video live stream | 29.5% |
| Educational video | 28.9% |
| Product review video | 27.4% |
| Gaming video | 27.1% |
| Sports clip, highlight video | 26.3% |
| Influencer or vlog videos | 25.6% |
Source: Instagram, GWI Live Streaming report, Livestream, Business Instagram, Statista, Digital 2022: April Global Statshot, DataReportal 2023, GWI Report 2022
How popular is Instagram Live in the US?
Instagram Live is the 2nd most popular platform among US live stream viewers.
43% of US live stream viewers aged 18 -34 said they use Instagram Live in a 2021 survey.
While IG Live is popular, it’s not the most popular according to the 2022 survey of 1098 adult respondents.
YouTube Live is more popular, with 45% of live stream viewers in the US saying they watch it.
Live news and sports are the most common content for streaming outside gaming. New content types have emerged during the pandemic, including live concerts, some even streamed in the metaverse, and “shoppertainment” events (a combination of a shopping and entertainment event).
Source: Statista 2, Statista 3
Instagram User Demographics
What generation/age group watches Instagram Live the most?
While there’s no data specific for IG Live, we can assume it’s similar to the social video engagement demographics:
61% of women and 59% of men watch live videos on IG. Women use IG Live a bit more, contrary to the general audience, which includes more men than women. More on that later.
16 to 24-year-olds are the biggest group, with 70% of them watching.
That means Generation Z is the most prominent user of Instagram Live since they’re the biggest users of social media in general.
Here’s a table of social video engagement by age groups:
| Age group | Social video engagement |
|---|---|
| 16-24 years | 70% |
| 25-34 years | 64% |
| 35-44 years | 59% |
| 45-54 years | 51% |
| 55-64 years | 42% |
What are the Instagram demographics in general?
For the first time in history, there are more males than females using Instagram, 50.7% male and 49.3% female. The reason for this change is a major influx of new users from Asia who are predominantly male.
25–34-year-olds are the biggest group representing 31.5% of the IG audience. It’s followed closely by users aged 18-24 with a 30.1% share.
| Age | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| 13-17 years | 3.9% | 4.6% |
| 18-24 years old | 13.7% | 16.4% |
| 25-34 years old | 15.1% | 16.4% |
| 35-44 years old | 8.6% | 7.5% |
| 45-54 years old | 4.5% | 3.5% |
| 55-64 years old | 2.2% | 1.4% |
| 65+ years old | 1.2% | 0.9% |
Source: GWI Social Flagship report, DataReportal 2022 Instagram, Statista 4, Digital 2022: April Global Statshot
How many Americans use Instagram?
Around 40% of US adults say they use IG.
This number is below the usage rates for YouTube, which is used by 81% of American adults, and Facebook at 69%.
59% of users log in to Instagram daily: 38% multiple times, 21% about once per day, and 41% less frequently.
Here’s a table about it:
| % of IG users | Logins per day |
|---|---|
| 38% | Multiple times |
| 21% | About once per day |
| 41% | Less frequently |
Live streaming video is the 3rd most engaging content on Instagram.
The most engaging are short form video-reels at 66%, followed closely by images at 61% of users reporting high engagement for the content types. In 3rd place, 37% of users report live video streaming to be the most engaging.
| Type of content on IG | Engagement |
|---|---|
| Short-form video-reels | 66% |
| Images | 61% |
| Live video (Instagram Live) | 37% |
| Gifs/memes | 32% |
| text posts | 32% |
| User-generated content | 26% |
| Long-form video | 24% |
| Audio | 13% |
| Links/other content | 11% |
The engagement rate for types of Instagram posts:
| Type of Instagram posts | Engagement rate in 2023 | Engagement rate in 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Carousel posts (pics & video) | 0.76% | 3.15% |
| Video posts | 0.66% | 1.5% |
| Photo posts | 0.59% | 1.18% |
| Average for all | 0.65% | 1.94% |
A survey found that 93% of responding marketers in America have plans to use influencer marketing on Instagram. 83% of those want to use stories, and 36% want to use short-form IG Reels.
Instagram Live platform popularity
Instagram is the 3rd most popular platform sharing the spot with Twitter among live social media viewers.
In a GWI Social Video report, they published the results of a survey asking live video viewers which platform they prefer. Here are the results:
Most popular live streaming platforms according to live video viewers survey:
| Live video platforms | Popularity |
|---|---|
| Multiple platforms | 28% |
| 26% | |
| Snapchat | 15% |
| 13% | |
| 13% |
This survey included only live video social media users and not the general population.
Source: PewResearch, SproutSocial, Statista 5, GWI Social Video report, DataReportal 2023
Read more:
Conclusion: Instagram Live Stats
These were the Instagram Live statistics. The data is limited at the moment and we couldn’t find the answers to all of the questions we had. But the conclusion is clear, IG Live is another feature you should use if you plan on getting more followers, but as a 2nd or 3rd tool in your arsenal.
We’ll update the article with future updates to keep it up to date.
What do you think about IG Live? Do you think it will stick like IG Stories and Reels and become a powerful marketing tool or always stay a secondary feature. Let us know in the comments.
Source: Digital 2022 Global Overview, BusinessInsider, Instagram, Meta Earnings Call, GWI Live Streaming report, Livestream, Business Instagram, Statista, Digital 2022: April Global Statshot, Statista 2, Statista 3, GWI Social Flagship report, DataReportal 2022 Instagram, DataReportal 2023, Statista 4, Digital 2022: April Global Statshot, PewResearch, SproutSocial, Statista 5, Statista 6, GWI Social Video report, GWI Report 2022
Matija Ferjan is a seasoned audio enthusiast reviewing headphones since 2015. He has personally tested hundreds of headphones and earbuds. He’s an active member of the Headphone Audio community and a true nitpicker, always looking for the “best-value-for-money” headphones.
23 Comments
Hader
@juandam__ had almost 1 million on his live
Matija Ferjan
Updated, thanks!
Christina
Nicki Minaj and Drake had more than 992K viewers on their Instagram live in May 2021. If you twitter search Nicki Instagram live viewers you’ll be able to see screenshots or even clips on YouTube.
Kevin
Nicki Minaj has 2 lives over 900k
1. Nicki and 6ixNine – the release of Trollz
2. Nicki and Drake – the Release of Beam Me Up Scotty
Matija Ferjan
Thanks. Added
Ami
Hey update this calculation, cause BTS jungkook and BTS V now holds the record of a 3rd most viewed Instagram live with 920k real-time viewers so yeah hurry up and update this 🙂
Matija Ferjan
Thanks. Added
Cony
Taylor Swift had 1.7 million viewers when she when she announced Lover
Matija Ferjan
We found the video but can’t confirm the numbers. It was quite a few viewers, but 1.7M is probably just a rumor.
Alexandra Carver
I’m pretty sure the K-pop idol Mark Lee of Nct 127 should be on this list as he had about 550,000 people watch his birthday live. Please look into this and make proper corrections.
Matija Ferjan
Thanks for the info. It was actually 571k viewers.
queenminaj
search “Mirella Santos live” (Brazil) her live made 700k in less than 30 minutes this year (2023) and there is also Juliette’s (Brazil) that made 900k (2021)
Matija Ferjan
We found the video of Mirella but couldn’t confirm the numbers. There are some articles about it, but citing different numbers, so these are likely just estimates. We prefer videos with the live viewer counts.
Daddycool
Rapper from India “Mc Stan” reached 540k in his recent Instagram live.
Matija Ferjan
Thanks, added. It was actually 541k. 🙂
Siam Ahamed
Mc Stan had 573k watching on Instagram live. Please Update this
Matija Ferjan
Sorry, we can’t find any proof for this claim. Do you have it?
Hasib Khan
Please Correct this information.Mc Stan had 573k Instagram Live Watching Not 541k.
Matija Ferjan
Where do you get your information from? The only confirmed video from that day reaches 541k and doesn’t go higher at any point.
John Frido
Where are the Verzuz shows? Brand vs Monic has over 1.2M and Jeezy vs Gucci Mane had 1.8M just on IG alone.
Matija Ferjan
Updated, thanks.
Anonymous
Puneet Superstarrr new record of 730.5k check some videos for proof on YouTube.
Update it.
Matija Ferjan
We checked the Puneet Superstarrr video but none of his streams reach the 500k mark.
We did found a video with 735.2k live viewers but it was faked. There was also one with 7.7M viewers.
Considering this, we’re not adding it to the list as it didn’t pass our verification.