15 Instagram Stories Statistics You Didn’t Know About for 2024
Posts by Kelly IndahOctober 26, 2023
Being one of the most influential social media platforms of all time means there are plenty of Instagram stories statistics that we can sort through.
You might wonder why that would matter, but you might be surprised at why Instagram stories are so important.
When you look at Instagram’s user base as a whole, around 500 million users post on their stories on a daily basis.
Of course, this is only a fraction of the engagement on Instagram, but it’s still a heavy factor nonetheless.
Instagram won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Although the social app has evolved numerous times since its inception, it continues to reign supreme among others.
We could dive into a long list of statistics covering Instagram as a whole, but this article will be specifically geared toward data on Instagram stories.
Key Statistics
- Around 86.6% of Instagram’s user base posts on their story at least once per day
- Instagram Stories has over 500 million daily users
- Marketers in the U.S. allocate roughly 31% of their budget for ads on Instagram stories
- 60% of millennials post or watch stories on Instagram
- Reach rates declined in 2022, spanning only 0.9% to 4.8% on the high end
- Stories that feature sports content boast a finish rate of 90%
- ⅓ of the most viewed IG stories are uploaded by brands
- 36% of businesses use Instagram stories for marketing
- 17% of respondents prefer to watch stories on IG over Snapchat
- On average, brands only post on their stories 8.7 times per month
Instagram Stories Statistics: Breaking Down the Numbers
Even if you aren’t an avid user of the feature, there’s a good chance you watch others or have come across a few ads.
The feature is used a lot more than you might expect, and for some people, it can churn quite a bit of money.
From brands to content creators and everyday individuals, Instagram stories offer a glimpse into everyday interactions, promotions, and much more.
No matter which way you look at it, the numbers are there, and Instagram stories are only becoming increasingly popular.
1. Most IG Users Post on Their Story
You can assume that not everything that lands on IG stories is marketing material.
It may be a great way to promote a business, product, or service, but it’s also a way for people to share whatever they’d like.
Around 86.6% of IG users post on their stories at least once per day.
Many people like to get their profile’s feed to look a certain way, so they’ll post some content to their story instead.
Another aspect that makes IG stories popular with everyday people are all of the interactions you can add on top.
People share to their stories daily as they can also include polls, links, showcase music, and much more.
(99Firms)
2. Instagram Stories is Popular with Marketers
Considering the analytics behind Instagram stories, it makes sense why marketers make use of the feature.
In the U.S., marketers allocate roughly 31% of their budget to Instagram story ads.
Some might find this odd as they scroll through stories so quickly, but you’d be surprised at how many people actually stick around to watch.
Marketers wouldn’t allocate so much of their budget to this feature if it wasn’t effective.
You also find that this approach is more effective with certain demographics of viewers.
There are plenty of people who will never once interact with an Instagram story, but this isn’t the case for the majority of users.
Instagram offers many unique benefits for marketers, and stories are merely one of the features that can effectively drive traffic and sales.
Over time, budget allocation toward Instagram stories has increased as the app’s feature has become more intuitive and beneficial for brands and creators.
(99Firms)
3. Millennials are a Primary Audience
It makes sense since Instagram came out when many of them were teens, but roughly 60% of millennials watch or post Instagram stories.
In many cases, the younger the demographic, the more engaged they are on social media.
Millennials are unique in the sense that they grew up in the beginnings of it all.
Watching social networks like MySpace and Facebook rise to fame is a part of their childhood, and Instagram came a bit later on.
The way people use and reference Instagram nowadays is not what it was when the application was first released.
In its simplest form, IG was just a photo-sharing app, but it’s an entirely different monster now.
Millennials use IG stories to share small bits throughout their day or content from other pages.
Brands use it for the same alongside their products and services.
It’s a feature most people make use of, but millennials are some of the most active with the feature.
(EarthWeb)
4. Reach Rate Has Been Declining
Although Instagram stories are seeing plenty of engagement, the overall reach rate has been declining for the most part.
This could be due to a number of reasons, such as low-quality content, changes in user interest, poor targeting, and more.
Data shows that the reach rate is lower across the board, regardless of the niche or size of an account.
The chart below highlights the average reach rate for different account sizes in 2022.
2021 saw better reach rates for Instagram stories, but it has been on a slow decline for a while now.
This doesn’t mean that stories are dead for entertainment for marketing, but it may require a different approach to the type of content that’s successful.
Instagram is known to cause creators to shift their practices to adhere to an ever-changing algorithm.
However, that’s only part of the recipe.
While some find substantial success through IG stories, others may not see the point based on their personal experience.
Overall, the feature still serves a unique and effective purpose for any user.
(RivalIQ)
5. Sports Content is Highly Successful
You can assume that there’s an endless variety of content being posted on Instagram stories.
Literally every genre of content you can think of exists on the platform.
Although there’s an abundance of content, you’ll find a few niche areas of interest that tend to dominate the playing field.
One prime example is sports, as it’s something that a large majority of the general population has some kind of interest in.
With stories on Instagram, sports-related content boasts a finish rate of 90%.
That means most viewers are entirely engaged for almost all of the provided content.
In addition to that, it means that users interested in sports content are much more likely to continue tapping through multiple stories of a single account.
It’s no secret that all kinds of sports have extremely dedicated fanbases.
When it comes to sports on social media, these fans come out in droves and consume as much content as they can.
(EarthWeb)
The Relationship Between IG Stories and Brands
A majority of Instagram’s user base is made up of everyday people posting personal moments from their lives.
They’re an important part of IG’s ecosystem as a whole, but some of the most influential figures on the platform are brands.
Whether they’re small or large, IG pages for brands add a dose of personality that you don’t really find outside of social media.
This has led to many creative endeavors from brands on Instagram, and there are no shorts of branded content on IG stories.
You have more than likely engaged with a brand at least once on Instagram, but some people follow brands for their IG content alone.
The following subsections will dive into a few statistics that focus on how brands interact with Instagram stories.
6. Brands Know How to Drive Numbers
While there’s a fine line between posting too much and too little, brands aren’t worried about that for the most part.
It’s important that they’re seen as often as possible.
Some brands take this quite literally and post to their social media all throughout the day.
Data tells us that ⅓ of the stories that are the most viewed come from brand accounts.
This is likely due to the amount of effort that some brands put into their content.
Of course, the other aspect is that they sell products and services, which entices people in itself.
They’re some of the most viewed partly due to marketing dollars, brand loyalty, and high-quality content.
You won’t find that this is the case with every brand, but it’s an approach that has proven to be effective time and time again.
Even brands that don’t have a lot of money in marketing find creative ways to drive up their numbers on their posts and stories on Instagram.
(EarthWeb)
7. How Many Stories Should You Post within 24 hours?
This is a question that boggles the minds of many users on the platform.
How much content is the right amount? People ask this question because if you flood your IG with content every day, it could cause a negative reaction from your followers.
Due to this sentiment, it’s best to find a sweet spot.
You can get an idea of where this sweet spot might be based on the data in the chart below.
Even if it seems like a small difference, it’s in a brand’s interest to optimize their content strategy.
To summarize, less is more in most cases.
Posting a few times throughout the day is more than enough to satisfy viewers and help grow your account.
When brands spam content, they’re bound to develop a negative relationship with many potential customers.
(Buffer)
8. Commerce is Growing on Social Media
Traditionally, most people would visit a website and order a product if they wanted to buy something alone.
This is still the norm for the most part, but there are many other avenues to make a purchase nowadays.
Instagram, alongside many other social apps, has integrated features that make it easy for people to make purchases using the app as a medium.
For example, you can shop for products directly through Instagram or visit a brand’s website by clicking the link in their bio.
When you look at commerce as a whole on Instagram, the percentage of people buying products and services on social media is increasing.
In the list below, you can find the percentage of people who made at least one purchase through Instagram. The data covers individuals who are 14 and up and covers 2019 through 2025, offering some future projections as well.
- 2019 = 21.6%
- 2020 = 29%
- 2021 = 37.6%
- 2022 = 41%
- 2023 = 43%
- 2024 = 45.3%
- 2025 = 47.5%
You’ll see a pretty drastic jump between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to Covid and lockdown restrictions.
During this timeframe, most people were forced to order many things online.
However, this led to new trends in commerce as a whole.
Over time, many people found they preferred shopping online, even if it was for simple everyday necessities.
(Hootsuite)
9. Brands Post the Least
Surprisingly, brands actually post the least out of many other popular types of Instagram accounts.
This somewhat ties into what was said earlier about posting too much or too little.
Fewer yet high-quality posts seem to be an optimal strategy for most Instagram users.
While most Instagram users post during 10.4 days out of the month, brand accounts are a bit less than that.
The list below highlights popular account categories on IG and how many days they post throughout any given month on average.
- Sports = 13.7 days
- Average user = 10.4 days
- Entertainment = 9.7 days
- Media = 9.6 days
- Brands = 8.7
This isn’t necessarily a negative take on brand accounts; it just shows their general strategy and behavior on Instagram.
Considering it’s in a company’s best interest to satisfy their existing and potential customers, conscious brands will be tactful with their content on IG.
(Buffer)
10. Not Enough Brands Use Stories for Marketing
The data tells us that there are many people who are well aware of the power Instagram stories hold.
However, those who have yet to catch on to the feature are a much larger demographic of users.
From individuals to content creators and brand accounts, small and large, only a fraction of the user base consistently utilizes the stories feature.
In regard to brands specifically, only 36% of them use the feature for promotion and marketing material.
This number should be much higher considering the supporting data behind the effectiveness of IG stories.
Nevertheless, even with such proof, some people just aren’t in tune with what IG and social media have to offer a business.
In other cases, some business owners simply don’t care.
Whatever the reason may be, a lot of it comes down to sheer education.
There are still many business owners who don’t understand the nuances of how social media and its specific features work. It takes a little marketing know-how and creativity to drive engagement.
(EarthWeb)
Trends, Demographics, and Predictions
The stories feature on IG will go through waves over the years, but the company has also continuously adapted the feature.
It’ll continue to change based on a variety of factors, but it’ll continue to play an important part in the engagement factor on IG.
Some people may not find the point in posting to their story, but trends, demographics, and predictions show us that the feature carries a lot of weight.
As time goes on, IG stories will more than likely see increased adoption as more users and businesses start to utilize the feature.
11. Distribution of Instagram Users (Global)
As with any social platform, young people tend to make up a majority of the user base.
When you take into account the sheer size of IG’s user base, their demographic data makes more sense.
Due to so many users, Instagram’s user base is made up of essentially every age group you can think of.
Here’s how the data breaks down:
Age Group | % of Userbase |
13-17 | 8% |
18-24 | 30.8% |
25-34 | 30.3% |
35-44 | 15.7% |
45-54 | 8.4% |
55-64 | 4.3% |
65+ | 2.6% |
It’s pretty clear why young people make up the majority, but Instagram is a social platform that’s used by every generation.
This wasn’t always the case, as it took years before older generations started to transition from Facebook to Instagram.
The reality is that any new social platform comes with a learning curve that takes some people longer to get through than others.
(Statista)
12. Almost 1 Billion in Potential Ad Audience
Circling back on brands using Instagram to market their goods and services, the ad reach on the platform is substantial.
When it comes to IG stories, the potential audience reach is 996 million.
While you won’t be able to land your content in front of every single one of those users, you can get pretty far.
There are many factors that play into ad reach, and ad spend is a big factor.
No matter how much you spend, you have the potential to easily reach millions of people in a single day.
Instagram’s main feed can pull in an ad audience of 1.32 billion, but this can be a much more competitive space.
Stories are great for bite-sized content as people scroll through.
While many of them will swipe right through the ad, there are plenty of others who will stick around for the message or visuals.
(Hootsuite)
13. Feed Posts Will Always Offer Better Engagement
Stories can be an easier way to dish out varying types of content, but they usually don’t perform as well as posts on the main feed.
This is true regardless of the size of your account.
Interestingly, accounts with 10,000 followers or less tend to do better in engagement than larger accounts.
In accounts up to 200k followers, stories have a reach rate that ranges from 0.9% to 4.8%.
With posts on the main feed, the reach rate for accounts in this range is 5% to 16.3%.
Keep in mind that the higher percentages are found in accounts with fewer followers.
This is likely due to the niche content and audiences they have.
When IG accounts start to get larger, their audience diversifies and can include many people who aren’t necessarily the target audience.
(RivalIQ)
14. Why Less is More
Many users think the more they post, the more reach they’ll get.
Although this is very possible with the right approach, it isn’t usually the norm.
Data shows that 30% of all activity on IG stories lands on a single frame.
Users who post on their stories 12 times throughout the day won’t get much engagement on most of those.
This is why posting one to three times per day on your story is optimal for the best reach and engagement.
This same take of “less is more” can be applied to almost any aspect of Instagram.
From the way you structure your content and how often you post or engage with others can heavily affect how your account grows.
(EarthWeb)
15. The Correlation Between Industry and Reach
Even if you make the highest quality, most entertaining content ever, you may be hindered merely by your industry’s audience.
The truth is that a few industries have a chokehold on Instagram audiences across the board.
There’s nothing wrong with having a niche audience, but this can heavily affect how your content is received on Instagram.
Serving your specific community is a good starting point, but there’s a chance most people may not be interested in what you’re selling.
Data proves that the potential reach of IG stories also heavily relies on the industry in which these accounts operate.
With the right marketing, you can reach all kinds of audiences, but there’s no guarantee they’ll resonate with what you’re pushing.
A simplified example is that entertainment will be much more popular on Instagram than an account focusing on rare wildlife species.
(EarthWeb)
Final Thoughts
Regardless of what kind of account you run on Instagram, making use of the stories feature is essential for growth.
There was a time when this feature wasn’t as popular.
Now that it has evolved and offers so many unique sub-features, it has become quite popular with most users.
From a business perspective, posting and marketing through Instagram stories can generate a lot of positive results.
This article highlights many Instagram stories statistics to show just how much weight the feature carries among users and brands.