Instagram Story lets users share photos and pictures that disappear within 24 hours.
But despite vanishing quickly, Instagram Stories generate a lot of engagement, which benefits brands, marketers, and influencers in marketing their services and products.
In fact, more than 500 million Instagram users engaged Stories as of 2021, which is a huge customer base for both small and well-recognized businesses.
However, don’t take my words at face value! Check out the following Instagram Stories statistics, trends, and facts to get the complete picture!
Top 5 Instagram Stories Statistics (Editor’s Pick)
- In 2022, short Instagram Stories were more popular than long Stories.
- The top 25% most popular brands published Instagram Stories about 16 times a month in 2022.
- Instagram Story tap back rate increased for all brand profile sizes in 2022.
- As of January 2023, most Instagram users (30.8%) were aged 18-24 years.
- As of 2022, the best time to post Instagram Stories was Wednesday at 11 AM.
Infographic
<a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/instagram-stories-statistics/" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/top-5-instagram-stories-statistics.png" alt="Top 5 Instagram Stories Statistics" width="768" border="0" height="722.25705329154" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/top-5-instagram-stories-statistics-768x722.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/top-5-instagram-stories-statistics-300x282.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/top-5-instagram-stories-statistics-1024x963.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/top-5-instagram-stories-statistics.png 1276w" sizes="auto"></a>
General Instagram Stories Statistics
1. Instagram Story's ad revenue worldwide was $11.43 billion in 2021.
This represented an increase from $6.90 billion in the previous year.
The total Instagram Stories ad revenue is projected to reach $20.03 billion in 2023.
2. Longer Instagram Story segments of up to 60 seconds were introduced in 2022.
Beforehand, Instagram Stories were cut into 15-second clips.
3. Instagram's own page was the most popular Instagram account, with 597 million followers as of January 2023.
In the second spot was the Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, with 539 million followers, followed by Leomessi’s account, with 424 million followers.
| Instagram Account | Followers |
|---|---|
| 597,000,000 | |
| Christiano Ronaldo | 539,000,000 |
| Leomessi | 424,000,000 |
| Kyliejenner | 379,000,000 |
| Selenagomez | 373,000,000 |
| Therock | 360,000,000 |
| Arianagrande | 352,000,000 |
| Kimkardashian | 342,000,000 |
| Beyonce | 292,000,000 |
| Khloekardashian | 291,000,000 |
| Justinbeiber | 274,000,000 |
| Kendaljenner | 273,000,000 |
| Nike | 264,000,000 |
| Natgeo | 258,000,000 |
| Taylorswift | 242,000,000 |
| Virat.kohli | 233,000,000 |
| Jlo | 232,000,000 |
| Kourtneykardash | 211,000,000 |
| Nickminaj | 208,000,000 |
| Neymarjr | 202,000,000 |
4. In 2022, short Instagram Stories were more popular than long Stories.
In overview, days with only one frame composed about 40% (the most) of Story activity. Meanwhile, about 65% of Story activity consisted of 1-3 frames per day, while about 15% of Stories had 7+ frames per day.
5. Most brands saw a decline in Instagram Story reach rate regardless of their follower count in 2022.
The reach rate for brands with 50K-200K followers declined to 1.6% in 2022 from 2.4% in 2021—the biggest decline. On the other hand, brands with less than 10K followers endured the least decline.
| Brand Followers | Percentage Reach Rate in 2021 | Percentage Reach Rate in 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Less the 10K | 5.4% | 4.8% |
| 10K-50K | 3.3% | 2.5% |
| 50K-200K | 2.4% | 1.6% |
| More than 200K | 1.2% | 0.9% |
6. In November 2021, Instagram rolled out an “Add Yours” sticker in Stories.
This function was developed to create public threads whereby users could respond to other users’ Stories following a certain topic or a prompt.
7. The correct dimensions of Instagram Story are 1080px by 1920px as of 2023.
This means the Instagram Story video or picture has 1080 pixels width and a height of 1920 pixels, an aspect ratio of 9:16.
Usage Statistics of Instagram Stories
8. Brands slightly preferred using Instagram image Stories to video Stories in 2021.
Images were preferred by 50.98% of the brands, while 49.02% preferred videos.
9. Instagram Story's exit rate was flat in 2022.
Compared with the previous year, the exit rates increased slightly across all frames per day. Thus, viewers were equally engaged with Stories in 2021 as in 2022.
10. The top 25% most popular brands published Instagram Stories about 16 times a month in 2022.
The medium brands published about 11 stories monthly, whereas the bottom 25% published about 6 Stories.
<a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/instagram-stories-statistics/" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/brands-instagram-stories.png" alt="Brands Instagram Stories" width="768" border="0" height="560.24316109422" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/brands-instagram-stories-768x560.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/brands-instagram-stories-300x219.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/brands-instagram-stories-1024x747.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/brands-instagram-stories-1536x1120.png 1536w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/brands-instagram-stories.png 1645w" sizes="auto"></a>
11. In 2022, Instagram replies per 1000 Story impressions increased for most brands.
The top 25% of most popular brands’ reply rates increased to 1.35 from 1.31 the previous year. Median brands saw flat reply rates (0.50 in 2022 vs. 0.48 in 2022), whereas the least active 25% of the brand’s reply rates increased to 0.11 from 0.09.
Instagram Stories Engagement Statistics
12. 500 million people were engaging with Instagram Stories each day in 2021.
This was approximately one-third of the total Instagram users.
13. Instagram image Stories gained a higher reach than video Stories as of October 2021.
Instagram image Stories for brands with 0-5K followers had a 10.40% reach rate, while video Stories had a 9.37% reach rate.
| Brand Profile Size | Image Story Reach Rate | Video Story Reach Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 0-5K | 10.40% | 9.37% |
| 5K-10K | 6.88% | 5.87% |
| 10K-50K | 5.45% | 4.74% |
| 50K-100K | 4.80% | 4.27% |
| 100K and above | 4.95% | 5.03% |
14. Short narrative Story types with a mix of texts, photos, and videos were preferred by most Instagram users (35%) in 2022.
In second place were Instagram users with no preference on what they would tap, followed by those who preferred quizzes or poll-centered Stories.
15. Instagram Story tap forward rate in 2022 was directly proportional to the frame number within a Story.
Stories that contained more than 4 frames had more than a 90% tap-forward rate, with 5 frame Stories having a median tap-forward rate of nearly 90%.
16. Instagram Story tap back rate increased for all brand profile sizes in 2022.
The tap back rate for the top 25% of popular Instagram brands increased to 7.0% from 6.5% the previous year.
17. Post engagement per impression declined across all brand sizes in 2022.
Brands with <10K followers had 6.5% post engagement per impression in 2021 which declined to 5.0% in 2022.
| Brand Size | 2021 Post Engagement per Impression | 2022 Post Engagement per Impression |
|---|---|---|
| <10K | 6.5% | 5.0% |
| 10K-50K | 5.6% | 4.4% |
| 50K-200K | 5.2% | 4.2% |
| >200K | 5.0% | 3.8% |
Instagram Stories Statistics by Demographic
18. As of January 2023, most Instagram users (30.8%) were aged 18-24 years.
30.3% of the users were aged 25-34, while 15.7% were aged 35-44.
On the other hand, Instagram users aged 45-54 were 8.4%, 13-17 were 8%, 55-64 were 4.3%, and over 65 years were the least (2.6%).
19. As of January 2023, Instagram's audience comprised more males than females.
Males were 51.8%, while females were 48.2%.
<a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/instagram-stories-statistics/" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="internal"><img decoding="async" src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagrams-audience-gender.png" alt="Instagram’s Audience Gender" width="768" border="0" height="446.4312156078" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagrams-audience-gender-768x446.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagrams-audience-gender-300x174.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagrams-audience-gender-1024x595.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagrams-audience-gender-1536x893.png 1536w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagrams-audience-gender.png 1999w" sizes="auto"></a>
20. 40% of Instagram users in Chile claimed to post Insta Stories at least once a week as of April 2022.
In contrast, 25.2% of Instagram users in Chile claimed to post Instagram Stories three times a week, whereas 17% posted Stories daily. Only 17.8% of Instagram Users in Chile avowed that they never posted Instagram Stories.
Instagram Stories Competitors Statistics
21. Twitter discontinued its Instagram Stories-like “Fleets” platform in August 2021.
Twitter launched the Instagram Stories-like “Fleets” in 2020, but the decision to shut it down came about because fewer people were using the feature.
22. TikTok introduced its Instagram Story-like feature in August 2021.
Coincidentally, Twitter shut down its Stories feature when TikTok introduced its feature.
Unfortunately, this feature is available only for iOS users.
Instagram Stories Marketing & Business Statistics
24. 78% of marketers used Instagram Stories to leverage their roles as of 2022.
43% of the marketers who used Instagram Stories claimed to post multiple times per week on behalf of their brands.
25. As of October 2021, the retention rate increased with a decrease in Insta Stories posted daily.
On average, posting 5 Stories per day was enough to ensure a retention rate of more than 70%. Otherwise, posting too many Stories could drive away your audience.
26. As of 2022, the best time to post Instagram Stories was Wednesday at 11 AM.
Overall, on weekdays, especially Wednesday and Thursday, Instagram has a higher activity rate and the most consistent engagement.
Instagram Stories Fun Facts
27. Instagram Stories were launched in 2016.
At first, many people saw Instagram Stories as a clone of Snapchat Stories that existed earlier. Even so, Instagram Stories got more audience surpassing Snapchat.
<a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/instagram-stories-statistics/" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="internal"><img decoding="async" src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagram-stories-launched.png" alt="Instagram and Snapchat Stories" width="768" border="0" height="447.58379189595" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagram-stories-launched-768x448.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagram-stories-launched-300x175.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/instagram-stories-launched-1024x597.png 1024w" sizes="auto"></a>
28. Instagram added the translation of Stories with text in July 2021.
The feature enabled users to translate Instagram Stories with text into 90+ languages.
29. Instagram announced introducing the "Vertical Instagram Stories" feature in February 2021.
Instagram adopted this feature from Snapchat, allowing users to enjoy a natural vertical swiping feel instead of the taps and horizontal flicks that existed before.
30. In May 2021, Instagram introduced Story auto-captioning with a sticker.
This feature was first available in English only and was made to effectively transcribe speech in video Stories.
Instagram Stories Are a Big Thing!
So far, you can easily tell that Instagram Stories have a high potential to rule the social media space. In fact, digital marketers, Influencers, and business enterprises are now incorporating Stories to reach more customers/audiences for their products and services.
Therefore, we hope you did not skip a bit of our Instagram Story statistics, as they are a strong background in understanding how Stories work and how to reap the most out of them.
However, to understand Instagram as a whole, explore Instagram statistics and how they compare with Snapchat statistics, Facebook numbers, Twitter statistics, and TikTok trends.
- https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/instagram-stories-generate-quarter-of-platforms-ad-revenues
- https://techcrunch.com/tag/instagram-stories/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/421169/most-followers-instagram/
- https://get.rivaliq.com/hubfs/eBooks/Rival-IQ-2023-Instagram-Stories-Benchmark-Report.pdf
- https://twitter.com/instagram/status/1455235802682646530?s=20
- https://snappa.com/blog/instagram-story-dimensions/#:~:text=The%20Instagram%20story%20dimensions%20are,by%201920%20pixels%20in%20height.
- https://www.socialinsider.io/blog/content/images/2021/11/ig-stories-usage.png
- https://www.businessofapps.com/data/instagram-statistics/
- https://www.socialinsider.io/blog/instagram-stories-data/#storiesreach
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-story-formats
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/802776/distribution-of-users-on-instagram-worldwide-gender/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/1358281/instagram-chile-frequency-of-stories-upload/
- https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/twitter-will-remove-its-instagram-stories-like-fleets-on-3-august-because-its-working-on-some-new-stuff-9808031.html
- https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/04/tiktok-confirms-pilot-test-of-tiktok-stories-is-now-underway/
- https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/23/add-tweets-to-instagram-story/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-story-formats
- https://www.socialinsider.io/blog/instagram-stories-data/#retentionrate
- https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/
- https://www.businessinsider.com/how-developer-mark-zuckerberg-invented-instagram-stories-copied-snapchat-2020-4?r=US&IR=T#:~:text=Eventually%2C%20the%20groundswell%20of%20support,product%20they%20called%20Instagram%20Stories.
- https://twitter.com/alex193a/status/1407835245781585926
- https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/03/instagram-confirms-its-working-on-a-vertical-stories-feed/
- https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/4/22417837/instagram-captions-sticker-stories-accessibility
