How Many People Use Twitter in 2023? [New Twitter Stats]
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How Many People Use Twitter in 2023? [New Twitter Stats]

Brian Dean

by Brian Dean · Updated Mar. 27, 2023

Twitter Usage and Growth Statistics: How Many People Use Twitter in 2021?

The first tweet was sent by Jack Dorsey (Twitter’s CEO) on March 21, 2006.

It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to reach the milestone of having one billion total tweets on the platform.

Twitter went public in November 2013. At that time, Twitter had around 200 million users.

Fast forward to today, and Twitter is among the top 3 social networking apps in the United States. And boasts close to 400 million users.

You’ll find out the latest information on Twitter demographics and usage data on this page. After reading some of these stats, it should be clear why Twitter’s market cap is over $46 billion.

Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll learn below:

Important Twitter Statistics

  • Twitter currently has 396.5 million users
  • Twitter brought in $3.72 billion in revenue last year (2020)
  • 206 million users access Twitter daily. 75% of them are not based in the US
  • Twitter is most popular among users aged 25-34
  • 8.85% of the worldwide social media users access Twitter
  • Worldwide, men use Twitter more than women
  • Quarterly Twitter revenue is over$1.1 billion as of Q2, 2021
  • In the US, 92% of tweets come from the top 10% of users
  • On average, Twitter US users spend 158.2 minutes per month on the app
  • In the US, Twitter app was downloaded over 6 million times in Q4 2020. The vast majority of app downloads were from the App Store

Twitter users

Information in this section provides an overview of Twitter’s overall user base.

  • Twitter has 396.5 million users
    Twitter has 396.5 million users
  • 7.2% of internet users access Twitter at least once per month
  • In the US, 96% of Twitter users access the platform at least monthly

Sources: Business of Apps, Statista, Statista, DataReportal

Twitter’s daily active users (DAUs)

Daily active users (DAUs) indicate the number of unique visitors Twitter receives on a 24-hour basis. Twitter discloses the monetizable daily active usage (mDAU), which defines as a number of logged accounts that were identified by Twitter and were able to show ads.

  • Twitter has 206 million daily active users
    Twitter has 206 million daily active users
  • Twitter has 187 million monetizable daily active users worldwide
  • In the US, Twitter has 37 million monetizable daily active users
  • Internationally (excluding the US), Twitter has 169 million monetizable daily active users
  • In the US, 52% of Twitter users report using Twitter daily

Sources: Twitter, Statista

Twitter user growth

Twitter didn’t start to disclose monthly active user data until 2010. But it’s reported that the social networking service had issues growing its following in its early days. But since 2010, we can see consistent growth over time, with a consistent quarter-on-quarter increase.

The data below isn’t only sourced from Twitter. Instead, we combined several resources for an informed overview.

Twitter user growth

Here are some major growth milestones of Twitter’s user base since 2010:

* Number is based on the latest advertising audience reach figures reported in Twitter’s self-service advertising tools.
** Twitter has stopped reporting MAUs as of 2019. Number represents the total number of Twitter users.
Year MAU, millions
2010 54
2011 117
2012 185
2013 241
2014 288
2015 305
2016 318
2017 330
2018 321
2019 330
2020* 353
2021** 396.5

Sources: Statista, DataReportal, DataReportal

As of July 2021, Twitter is ranked as the 16th most popular social networking worldwide (ranked by a number of monthly active users). To put that in perspective, Twitter has 8.85% of the world’s overall social media user base.

Twitter has 8.85% of the world’s overall social media user base

It’s estimated that more than 4.48 billion use social media at least monthly.

Sources: Statista, DataReportal

Twitter users by country

Since Twitter originally launched in the US, the largest number of users also happens to be from their country of origin. However, Twitter is quickly penetrating international markets. In fact, a good chunk of Twitter’s recent growth is happening outside of the US.

In Asia, Japan and India are leading the way with the largest number of Twitter. Combined, they’re already bigger than Twitter’s entire US audience.

There are 6 more countries with a user base of 10 million in each, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico. Here’s the breakdown of the top fifteen countries that use Twitter the most.

Twitter users by country

Here’s the breakdown of the top fifteen countries that use Twitter the most.

Country Users, in millions
United States 73
Japan 55.55
India 22.1
United Kingdom 17.55
Brazil 17.25
Indonesia 15.7
Turkey 15.6
Saudi Arabia 12.7
Mexico 12
Thailand 9.45
France 9.05
Philippines 9
Spain 8.1
Germany 7
Canada 6.9

Source: Statista

With over 397 million users, it’s not easy to amass a massive following on the platform.

Yet, certain political leaders, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and brands have amassed a following of over 50 million.

Here is the list of the top 20 Twitter accounts with the most followers in 2021:

Profile Followers, in millions
Barack Obama 129.9
Justin Bieber 113.9
Katy Perry 108.7
Rihanna 102.8
Christian Ronaldo 93.5
Taylor Swift 88.6
Ariana Grande 84
Lady Gaga 83.6
Ellen DeGeneres 77.9
Youtube 73.1
Narendra Modi 70.6
Kim Kardashian West 70
Selena Gomez 65
Justin Timberlake 63.4
CNN Breaking News 61.2
Twitter 59.5
Elon Musk 59.3
Britney Spears 55.5
Bill Gates 55.3
Demi Lovato 54.6

Source: Brandwatch

Twitter user demographics

Gender demographics

68.1% of Twitter users are male. 31.9% are female.

As the data shows, Twitter users are predominantly men. While other social networking sites such as Instagram or LinkedIn report more equal distribution, with 51% and 43% share of female users, respectively.

Source: Statista, DataReportal

Age demographics

Twitter’s audience is dominated by younger and middle-aged users. In fact, 59.2% of users are between 25 and 49 years old. Here’s the complete breakdown of Twitter users by age group:

Age group Share
13-17 6.6%
18-24 17.1%
25-34 38.5%
35-49 20.7%
50+ 17.1%

Source: Statista

Why people use Twitter

In the US, Twitter is predominantly used for getting the news. Other commonly reported usage reasons include entertainment, staying in touch with friends and family, and following corporate accounts.

Here’s the complete list of reasons that people use Twitter:

Reason Share of respondents
To get news 48%
To get entertainment 48%
To keep contact with friends and family 34%
To follow brands / companies 33%
To strengthen professional network 14%
Other purposes 12%

Source: Statista

Time spent on Twitter per day

US adults spend an average of 6 minutes on Twitter per day in 2021.

The average visit duration on the web version of Twitter worldwide was nearly 11 minutes in August 2021.

Sources: eMarketer, SimilarWeb

Where Twitter ranks in terms of privacy and data concerns

When it comes to privacy and data concerns, Twitter is ranked 7th among the list of 9 popular social media networks.

60% of US respondents think that Twitter protects their privacy and data.

60% of US respondents think that Twitter protects their privacy and data

Source: eMarketer

Gaming as a topic on Twitter

Gaming was ranked the 6th most popular subject on Twitter in 2020.

What were the most common topics relevant to video games on Twitter?

Here’s the complete list:

  1. Gaming
  2. Gaming News
  3. Esports
  4. Gaming Influencers
  5. Playstation
  6. Fortnite
  7. Call of Duty
  8. Minecraft
  9. Animal Crossing
  10. Xbox

More than 2 billion tweets about gaming in 2020 were sent (a 75% increase compared to 2019). Twitter also saw a 49% growth in the number of unique accounts tweeting about gaming since 2019.

Which countries tweeted the most about gaming?

Here’s the ranking sorted by number of relevant tweets:

  1. Japan
  2. United States
  3. Korea
  4. Brazil
  5. Thailand
  6. United kingdom
  7. France
  8. India
  9. Philippines
  10. Spain

Source: Twitter

2020 has been a transformative year. And Twitter data shows that hashtags about coronavirus and social injustice themes were most popular last year.

Here’s the complete list of three top hashtags in 2020:

  1. #COVID19
  2. #BlackLivesMatter
  3. #StayHome

Source: Twitter

Most tweeted emojis

In 2020, the “tears of joy” emoji was the most popular on Twitter. Emojis signaling love and gratitude also made it to the top 10.

Here’s a list sorted by rank as of June 2021:

  1. 😂
  2. 🙏🏼
  3. 😭
  4. 👍🏼
  5. 🤣
  6. 😍
  7. 🥺
  8. 😊
  9. 🔥
  10. 😁

Source: Financial Express

Twitter by the money

During the first round of funding in 2007, Twitter was valued at $220,000. Over the next few years, it showed an exponential growth in valuation, reaching $9.25 billion in mid 2011.

During Twitter’s IPO in 2013, it valued itself at $14.2 billion. As of January 2021, Twitter’s market cap is over $46 billion.

Twitter revenue is made of two types: 1) advertising revenue and 2) data licensing and other revenue.

Sources: Pitchbook

Twitter revenue by year

In Q2 2021, the company brought in $1.053 billion in advertising revenue (87% YoY increase) and $137 million in data licensing with other revenue (15.5% YoY increase).

Twitter registered $3.716 billion in revenue in 2020 (a 7.43% increase when compared with 2019) and shows consistent financial growth in the past few years.

Twitter revenue by year

Here’s a full year-by-year breakdown of Twitter’s revenue:

Year Revenue, U.S Dollars
2010 28.2 million
2011 106.31 million
2012 316.93 million
2013 644.989 million
2014 1.403 billion
2015 2.218 billion
2016 2.529 billion
2017 2.443 billion
2018 3.02 billion
2019 3.459 billion
2020 3.72 billion
Q1 2021 1.04 billion
Q2 2021 1.19 billion

Sources: Twitter, Statista

How many employees does Twitter have?

Twitter has more than 5,500 employees. According to PayScale, employees have an average salary of $121,000. Employees on H1B visa (employment-based worker visa) received a median salary of $165,000 in 2020.

Sources: Pitchbook, Business of Apps, CNN, Bloomberg, Twitter, Payscale, H1B Salary Database, Statista, Macrotrends

Conclusion

That’s it for my Twitter user base statistics.

Hopefully, the facts and figures listed here helped expand your knowledge about Twitter. Much of the data here was spread all over the internet across several different sources. I’ve done my best to provide you with a roundup of stats related to Twitter users in one place.

Now I’m curious to hear from you:

Any questions or thoughts on this list of Twitter stats? Or what else would you like to see in this stats roundup?

Either way, please go ahead and leave a comment below.

2 Comments

  1. Karina Luz Bocanegra Salcedo Avatar Karina Luz Bocanegra Salcedosays:

    do you recommend twitter ads?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Karina, I’ve only used them as sort of an experiment. The results were pretty good actually.

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