According to Sensor Tower Corporation research, Instagram, owned by Meta, will be the most downloaded mobile app worldwide in 2023, breaking TikTok’s record.
Instagram experienced a 20% increase in app downloads compared to the previous year, reaching 768 million, while TikTok only witnessed a 4% increase, totaling 733 million.
The shift in positions reflects the increased pressure TikTok has been receiving from US regulators about national security issues, with some congressmen concerned that TikTok could pose a threat to US security.
According to Abraham Yousef, Senior Insights Manager at Sensor Tower, the app’s popularity stems from the combination of the Reels feature and the rest of the standard social media functions. Instagram rolled out the Reels function in 2020, similar to the style of TikTok, which is also to grab the Gen Z audience.Instagram and TikTok competed for supremacy in 2021 and 2022, with Instagram eventually displacing TikTok as the top social media platform in 2023.
