TikTok statistics 2026: Usage and social commerce

If you follow the latest TikTok statistics, you’ll know the platform is far more than a place for viral dances and trending sounds.

With roughly 36% of the world’s internet users active on the TikTok app each month, the platform has become a major force in social media and eCommerce, shaping how people discover products and brands.

But the real story lies in the numbers behind this growth. To understand what’s driving it, this article brings together the latest TikTok statistics from 2025 and 2026 to help you better grasp the platform’s impact today.

Key takeaways

• About 36% of internet users worldwide are on TikTok each month, with the US alone drawing around 90 million daily active users.

• Approximately 23 million TikTok videos are uploaded to the app every day, keeping the social media platform constantly filled with new content.

• People spend more time on TikTok than on other social media platforms. Users spend an average of 1 hour and 37 minutes per day on the app.

• TikTok Shop has grown to more than 15 million sellers worldwide, with US sales alone reaching roughly $11.8 billion in the first half of 2026.

• TikTok ads brought in an estimated $32 billion worldwide in 2025, with the US accounting for nearly $12 billion.

• TikTok’s average engagement rate reached about 3.7% in 2025, significantly higher than that of most other social media platforms.
  
  

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a social media platform centered on short-form video creation and discovery. People publish entertaining, educational, and promotional clips, while viewers explore personalized feeds filled with recommended content.

Since launching internationally in 2017, the TikTok app has grown into one of the most popular social networks worldwide. Its discovery-driven format helps TikTok creators and brands reach a diverse user base without needing a massive following.

When did TikTok become popular?

TikTok became popular between 2019 and 2020, right as short-form videos started taking over social media apps. Its growth accelerated during pandemic lockdowns, when people had more time to watch, film, and share clips.

Viral challenges, influencer marketing, and an algorithm built for discovery brought in Gen Z users first, then older demographics started coming for how-to tutorials and product reviews. That combination turned the social app into a genuine global phenomenon.

In September 2021, the TikTok app reached 1 billion monthly active users – just five years after its launch. The pace beat Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to the same milestone and locked in its spot as one of the world’s most popular social media platforms.

Is it worth selling on TikTok in 2026?

It’s absolutely worth it to sell on TikTok in 2026. TikTok’s mix of short-form video, creator recommendations, and algorithm-driven discovery makes it easy for products to go viral overnight.

Instead of actively searching for products, users often discover them organically while scrolling, with curiosity quickly turning into an impulse purchase.

Below, we’ll explore key TikTok stats that highlight the platform’s influence on user behavior and eCommerce.

What are the latest TikTok statistics?

From TikTok daily active users to average time spent and engagement trends, these TikTok stats highlight why the platform has such a strong online presence.

Is TikTok still popular?

Yes. TikTok is the sixth most popular social media platform in the world, used by roughly 36% of internet users each month. Its popularity has held steady in established markets and continues to climb across Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America as more people come online.

Part of that staying power is how the app works. Its recommendation algorithm surfaces videos based on what the platform’s users actually watch, not who they follow, so feeds stay fresh and new TikTok creators can reach highly-engaged audiences without a big following.

How many people are on TikTok today?

The platform doesn’t share an official count of TikTok users worldwide, but the number of people its ads can reach each month gives a good sense of its size: over 2.2 billion, according to DataReportal.

That makes TikTok one of the leading social media platforms, along with Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. The number counts ad audiences rather than confirmed users, so it runs a little high, but it still shows how far the social media app has come.

In the US, TikTok draws around 90 million daily active users, holding steady even through the platform’s January 2026 ownership change.

How many people have TikTok in each country?

Countries with the most monthly active TikTok users are:

• United States – 136 million

• Indonesia – 108 million

• Brazil – 91.7 million

• Mexico – 85.4 million

• Pakistan – 66.9 million

These TikTok user statistics show how widely used the social media platform has become. While North America has a large audience, a significant portion of active TikTok users worldwide comes from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Source: World Population Review

How many TikTok videos are there?

While there’s no official number of TikTok videos, we can look at daily uploads instead. Around 23 million videos are posted to TikTok each day, based on estimates of around 16,000 uploads per minute.

With so much content competing for attention, timing plays an important role. Posting when your audience is most active can help your videos stand out and reach more viewers.

How many searches happen on TikTok?

TikTok users make billions of searches a day, a figure up more than 40% year over year.

Search is also often the first thing people do: TikTok reports that one in four US users starts a search within 30 seconds of opening the social media platform. Beyond entertainment, they’re actively hunting for products, reviews, and recommendations.

How much revenue does TikTok generate?

The app doesn’t publish a single global revenue figure, but the public numbers all point upward. For scale, parent company ByteDance reportedly pulled in about $200 billion across all its apps in 2025, a 29% jump from the previous year.

In-feed ads are the main engine behind TikTok’s revenue. TikTok advertising brought in around $32 billion in 2025, with the US alone accounting for close to $12 billion of that.

TikTok Shop commissions and in-app purchases, such as virtual gifts and creator subscriptions, make up the rest of the revenue.

Read more: How to make money on TikTok: Complete creator guide

Which countries have the highest TikTok penetration?

As of April 2026, Saudi Arabia (164%) and the United Arab Emirates (142.7%) recorded the highest TikTok penetration among adults aged 18 and older.

Penetration measures the share of a country’s population that the platform reaches. These figures indicate that TikTok ranks among the most popular apps in the region.

Rates above 100% look unusual at first, but they reflect how the platform’s users behave. Some people run several TikTok accounts, and many open the app on multiple devices, so the usage statistics appear to exceed the adult population.

Source: Statista

How many people use TikTok Shop for online purchases?

TikTok now leads all social networks in shopping. 70% of US social buyers have made a purchase on the platform in the past year, more than on any other app.

For anyone running a small business, that behavior is an opportunity. Brands sell products directly inside the app, so viewers can buy items shared by TikTok influencers or featured in livestreams without leaving the platform.

The buyers are not just younger audiences. TikTok users aged 25 to 44 are the platform’s most active shoppers, with 47% going on to purchase a product they first saw on the app. That’s a target audience with real spending power and buying intent.

Is TikTok Shop popular worldwide?

Yes. TikTok Shop has grown to more than 15 million sellers globally, expanding from Southeast Asia to the UK, Europe, and the US in just a few years.

The US is now its biggest market. TikTok Shop sales there more than doubled to roughly $11.8 billion in the first half of 2026, overtaking Indonesia for the first time.

The number of TikTok shops in the US has also nearly tripled to 1.35 million within a year, and about 5,700 of them achieved $1 million in sales in the first half of 2026.

That jump shows how well the app turns scrolling into spending. Instead of going to different eCommerce sites, users open TikTok for product reviews, recommendations, and tutorials.

Read more: How to sell merch on TikTok with Print on Demand

How many users does TikTok have in the UK?

The UK has about 24.8 million TikTok users, giving the platform a strong foothold among other platforms in the country.

The app’s popularity is also evident in shopping trends. During Black Friday 2025, TikTok Shop in the UK recorded its highest sales day ever, with 27 items sold every second at peak demand.

Overall sales during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period also rose by 50% compared with the previous year, while shopper numbers grew by 28% over the same period.

How important is TikTok for small businesses?

According to a 2025 SBE Council survey, TikTok is important to 89% of small businesses.

One reason is that brands can easily build visibility using existing content and creative storytelling. Even small TikTok accounts can experience rapid growth and see high engagement thanks to the app’s discovery-based algorithm.

That pull is evident in this TikTok Shop statistic: 70% of users find new brands and products on the platform. For a new business, that is a real shot at being discovered without a big ad budget.

Read more: How to promote products on TikTok: Proven strategies for success

What are the most popular products on TikTok Shop?

The top-selling categories on TikTok Shop are beauty and personal care, followed by accessories, household items, fashion, and cosmetics.

Beauty leads by a wide margin – the category pulled in $2.08 billion in US sales in the first half of 2026.

Beauty’s lead shows what kind of content performs on the app. Shoppers respond to hands-on demos and reviews, and care less about how established a brand is. That’s how new businesses can become significant players in their niche in a matter of months.

Read more: What to sell on TikTok Shop: Best-selling categories

How to start a TikTok Shop without handling inventory or fulfillment

Printful connects directly to TikTok Shop, so you can launch a brand and sell custom products without holding stock or shipping orders yourself.

Here’s how to start a TikTok Shop with Printful:

1. Sign up for Printful for free – you only pay when you make a sale.

2. Connect Printful to TikTok Shop in just a few clicks.

3. Choose from Printful products eligible for TikTok Shop, such as DTG-printed apparel and embroidered hats.

4. Add your logo, artwork, or photo using the Design Maker, or customize with built-in clipart, templates, and fonts.

5. List your product and start selling.

Printful handles production, packing, and shipping, so you can focus on creating content and growing your brand on TikTok.

How much do users engage with recommended TikTok videos?

TikTok’s feed figures out what you like fast. An EPJ Data Science study found that the algorithm locks onto a viewer’s interests within roughly the first 200 videos, then keeps serving more of the same.

That tight targeting is why the feed holds attention. In a University of Washington study, viewers watched about 55% of clips all the way through – a high completion rate for short-form video that people scroll past quickly.

When your video matches what someone already likes, TikTok shows it to people who are ready to keep watching, and that attention can turn a scroll into an impulse purchase.

What is the average time spent on TikTok per day?

The average TikTok user spends 1 hour and 37 minutes a day in the app.

That’s about 14% ahead of YouTube. For comparison, Instagram users spend 1 hour and 13 minutes a day in the app, while Facebook and WhatsApp each land around an hour.

So even though TikTok is not the largest platform by total users, it commands more daily screen time per person than any other. And with the average TikTok video running about 42.7 seconds, that hour-plus a day adds up to a lot of individual clips.

Source: DataReportal

What is TikTok’s average engagement rate?

TikTok’s average engagement rate hit 3.73% in 2025, up from 2.5% the year before. That’s far ahead of the other major platforms. Instagram averaged 0.48%, while Facebook and X sat below 0.15%.

The raw interaction numbers show the same gap. A typical TikTok post drew about 3,492 likes, 50 comments, and 248 shares – well above what similar posts tend to see on Instagram, Facebook, or X.

Source: SocialInsider

Is TikTok the most downloaded app in the world?

TikTok remains one of the most downloaded apps globally, even though it no longer holds the top spot.

In 2025, the marketing intelligence platform AppTweak recorded 545.8 million TikTok downloads, placing it third worldwide behind apps like ChatGPT (845.3 million) and Instagram (762.3 million).

Source: AppTweak 

Which age demographics use TikTok the most in the US?

Teens use TikTok more than any other age group: 68% of those aged 13 to 17 are on the platform.

Among adults, the audience still skews toward younger age groups but reaches wider than its reputation suggests:

• 63% of adults under 30

• 44% of adults aged 30-49

• 30% of adults aged 50-64

• 12% of adults aged 65 and older

YouGov’s 2026 data also shows that among younger users who discover products through TikTok influencers, 25- to 34-year-olds make up the largest share (29%), followed by 18- to 24-year-olds (21%).

Older groups also play a role in product discovery:

• 35-44 years – 19%

• 45-54 years – 14%

• 55+ years – 16%

These TikTok marketing statistics show that the platform helps trending products reach multiple generations, making it perfect for brands looking to expand their reach.

Read also: Marketing to Gen Z, according to Gen Z

What is the gender distribution of TikTok users?

TikTok doesn’t release an official breakdown of its users by gender. The best estimate comes from its ad audience numbers, which skew slightly male: about 53% men and 47% women, based on DataReportal’s figures.

Actual usage points the other way, though – women are more likely to use TikTok than men. Among 16-to 24-year-olds, for example, 47.7% of women use it compared with 41.4% of men. That lead holds as ages rise, even as overall use tapers off.

Which age group gets its news from TikTok the most?

About 43% of US adults aged 18 to 29 regularly get news on TikTok, far more than any other age group. Across all US adults, roughly 20% now get news there, up sharply from just 3% in 2020.

It’s a sign of how far TikTok has moved beyond entertainment into a place people turn to for information and current events.

What’s trending on TikTok?

TikTok video trends change constantly, so creators and brands often rely on tools like the TikTok Creative Center to stay up to date.

This tool highlights the most popular TikTok hashtags, creators, and videos. It allows creators and marketers to quickly identify emerging trends and align with what their target audiences engage with.

By selecting See analytics, you can explore deeper insights, such as popularity by country and user demographics.

Source: TikTok Creative Center analytics section

Discover more eCommerce statistics with Printful

Looking for more insights about online business, marketing, and product trends? The Printful Blog regularly publishes guides, tutorials, and statistics to help entrepreneurs sell online with Print on Demand.

You’ll find resources on topics like product ideas, design trends, and social media marketing, along with data-driven articles, including Etsy statistics and other dropshipping stats.

Prefer video content? Check out the Printful YouTube channel, where we share practical tips on building a print-on-demand business, creating products, and promoting them effectively online.

Grow your business with TikTok

These TikTok statistics show what the platform is capable of. With millions of users watching short-form videos every day, brands have a unique opportunity to reach new audiences and turn attention into sales.

If you want to sell on TikTok without the hassle of managing production or inventory, Printful makes it simple. Create custom products, connect your store, and let us handle fulfillment while you focus on content and growing your brand.

Read next: TikTok metrics you should be tracking