There\u2019s been a lot of change at X (formerly known as Twitter) in the last 18 months. So what\u2019s the current state of affairs?<\/p>\n
This freshly updated inventory of X (Twitter) stats reveals that the platform presents some unique opportunities for brands \u2013 if you know your audience.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFree 30-Day Trial<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Tha means 30% have heard nothing about the change and might not know what you mean if you refer to X alone. It\u2019s a tricky linguistic road to navigate, which is why we usually still include the original name when we talk about the platform.<\/p>\n It certainly makes it harder to write about the platform, research the platform, and even talk about the platform. Most conversations and reports about the platform now call it X (formerly Twitter), or some variation of this wording for clarity.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Bonus<\/strong>: Find out what people really<\/em> want from brands on social\u2014including why they follow, engage, buy, and even unfollow them\u2014in The Social Media Consumer Report<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The new X\/Twitter owner overtook former U.S. President Barack Obama as the most followed account after purchasing the platform.<\/p>\n As of this writing, Musk has 179.2 million followers, while Obama has 131.9 million.<\/p>\n Justin Bieber, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Rihanna round out the top 5.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that Musk\u2019s takeover of the platform has been a divisive topic for Twitter\u2019s user base, with some users applauding his decisions and others disagreeing.<\/p>\n For now, the platform is disliked by 26% of the public, with 19% holding a neutral opinion.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>YouGov<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Pew Research Center found <\/a>that 22% of Americans say they ever use Twitter, compared to 68% for Facebook and 47% for Instagram.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Pew Research Center<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n For marketers, this may mean that X is not the top priority for social marketing. (And we\u2019ll share some statistics on Twitter usage by brands later on that bear that out.)<\/p>\n However, the most important thing is to understand whether your specific target market<\/a> uses X. If they\u2019re active on the platform, it\u2019s worth your time, regardless of how popular it is with other groups.<\/p>\n That\u2019s down from 259 million<\/a> in November 2022, but up from the 225 million X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the platform had<\/a> in November 2023.<\/p>\n While there may have been an initial drop in user profiles after Musk shook up the platform in October 2022, things seem to be recovering. Marketers will need to keep a close eye on Twitter user statistics over the next year to see how this all shakes out.<\/p>\n For now, keep a close eye on your X (Twitter) analytics<\/a> using a tool like Hootsuite<\/a> to see how your engagement rates<\/a> and ROI<\/a> compare to the results you\u2019re getting on other platforms.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Edison Research<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n We just said that X usage appeared to be evening out, but this is not the case for American users specifically. American users on the platform have dropped 30% since 2023.<\/p>\n But again, if the Americans still using the platform are your target market, you shouldn\u2019t worry too much about that drop. Audience research<\/a>, testing<\/a>, and reporting<\/a> are your keys to weathering this change.<\/p>\n Again, the lesson here is to ensure data is guiding your social media marketing strategy<\/a>. It\u2019s easy to assume that Gen Z<\/a> only cares about TikTok, but they\u2019re by far the largest generation on X.<\/p>\n The next-largest group of users is 30- to 49-year-olds, who make up 27% of the American X user population.<\/p>\n In combination with the next item in our list of Twitter stats, this indicates that marketers specifically targeting a male audience may wish to invest more effort in the platform.<\/p>\n 60.9% of users worldwide are male, and 39.1% of users are female (no other gender options were presented). X also has the largest share of male users of any social network.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Statista<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s the largest percentage of any income group. Still, it pales in comparison to the 68% of Americas in this income category who use Facebook and 54% who use Instagram.<\/p>\n X use is not hugely varied across income categories. Between 18 and 21% of Americans in all income categories under $99,999 also use the platform.<\/p>\n That\u2019s nearly double the usage of those with high school or less, 15% of whom use the platform.<\/p>\n Along with 25% of those who live in cities. Only 13% of rural Americans use the platform.<\/p>\n Compare that to 20% of those who lean to the right. This is one of the larger gaps in use among political affiliations of all the social platforms (except Instagram).<\/p>\n Combine all of the above statistics about Twitter users and you can start to build a persona<\/a> of the most common X user: A college-educated left-leaning man who has a college degree and lives in the suburbs.<\/p>\n Learn more in our post on X (Twitter) demographics<\/a>.<\/p>\n That explains the recovery from the drop in total users. We\u2019ll be keeping a close eye on this trend to see if it continues (and you should, too!).<\/p>\n Video views increased 35% year-over-year, while the average time spent watching videos increased by 17%.<\/p>\n You may not have thought of Twitter as a video platform, but X is leaning hard into video this year. If you\u2019re not already testing video performance on X, you may want to start.<\/p>\n More than half of those users are Gen Z. So what exactly is immersive video? It\u2019s X\u2019s take on full-screen vertical vids. It\u2019s a potential new surface for sharing the types of videos you\u2019re already creating for TikTok and Instagram Reels.<\/p>\n And 12% regularly get news from the platform. That makes it the fifth-most-popular social network for news consumption in the United States.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Pew Research Center<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Men are much more likely to get their news on X than women are. 62% of regular X news consumers are men, compared to 36% women.<\/p>\n Either way, X is still a relatively important social platform for news.<\/p>\n Note: While we don\u2019t specifically have numbers for Canadians getting news on Twitter, we can extrapolate from the American figures that Twitter may be one of the most important social platforms for Canadian news dissemination, since Meta platforms block news in Canada.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFree 30-Day Trial<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n That equates to 3.6 hours per week or more than 15 hours per month. It\u2019s an increase of 13%<\/a> since last year.<\/p>\n Mobile time spent has increased 17% since September 2023. With mobile time spent increasing faster than desktop time, it\u2019s worth testing mobile-first content on the platform.<\/p>\n That\u2019s an increase of 10% from 2023. X data <\/a>shows much of the recent growth in time spent comes from video and Communities products, with people spending more than 300 million minutes<\/a> on Communities daily.<\/p>\n Communities<\/a> are discussion channels similar to Facebook Groups. If you have valuable niche expertise and thought leadership, you may wish to look for Communities to contribute to, or even consider starting your own.<\/p>\n It makes sense that people willing to shell out the $8\/month for X Premium are the platform\u2019s power users.<\/p>\n It ranks fifth on this front, behind Facebook (46%), Instagram (19%), TikTok (13%), and Snapchat (6%). That means most X users are spending the bulk of their social media time elsewhere.<\/p>\n But for those 5%, X is where it\u2019s at. This is further evidence of the importance of testing your cross-platform strategy to see what resonates (and where) with your audience.<\/p>\n There are significant differences in usage between the two versions of the X mobile app.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>X iOS app usage via data.ai<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Source: <\/em>X Android app usage via data.ai<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n X\u2019s ad reach isn\u2019t the biggest, nor is the platform the right fit for all types of businesses. But if your people are on X, you should be too.<\/p>\n Learn the ins and outs of the Twitter algorithm<\/a> and how to create a winning Twitter marketing strategy<\/a> to push your business to new heights.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Hootsuite 2024 Social Trends Report<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s a 23% decrease from the previous year.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Hootsuite 2024 Social Trends Report<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n This helps explain why\u2026<\/p>\n Brands tend to flee from uncertainty, and this was a year full of uncertainty and speculation for the platform previously known as Twitter.<\/p>\n For brands to return in force to X, they\u2019ll need to gain more confidence in their ROI. Use a tool like Hootsuite Advanced Analytics<\/a> to track your own ROI on the platform and use the results to determine how much effort you put into your X organic (and paid) strategy.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the highest rate among all available industries tracked in Hootsuite Analytics Industry Benchmarking tool<\/a>. The lowest engagement rate by industry is 0.88% for food and beverage.<\/p>\n Not to fear: It\u2019s easy to beat 0.88% with the right X content strategy, networking efforts, and time. (And you can always run ads for a boost if needed.)<\/p>\n Not sure what your average engagement rate is? Find out with our free engagement rate calculator<\/a>, or try Hootsuite<\/a> and let it crunch your numbers and tell you how to improve \u2014 automatically.<\/p>\n Elon Musk made this announcement in late March. Previously, the only way to get premium features was to pay $8\/month.<\/p>\n Going forward, all \ud835\udd4f accounts with over 2500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free and accounts with over 5000 will get Premium+ for free<\/p>\n \u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n We\u2019ve already said that Premium users spend more time on the platform. This is added incentive for brands to aim to increase their Premium follower base.<\/p>\n mWhat? <\/em>Twitter defines a monetizable monthly active user (mMAU) as an account that has physically logged in on a monthly basis and isn\u2019t a bot.<\/p>\n These users are monetizable because they see Twitter ads after they log in. So, this is the potential advertising audience for ads you place on the social media platform.<\/p>\n This new ad format also sees a 10% incremental increase in reach, and 14% lower CPM.<\/p>\n We already talked about the increase in time spent on immersive video, the organic version of this format. If you see success with organic vertical videos on X, consider adding budget to test them as ads, too.<\/p>\n X attributes this increase in part to changes in the algorithms<\/a>. More engagements are good for advertisers. If you\u2019ve been disappointed with your X ads engagement in the past, it may be time to try again.<\/p>\n That may not sound like much, but it follows a major drop in Twitter\u2019s revenue in 2023 (down 55%<\/a>).<\/p>\n That\u2019s according to estimates by eMarketer<\/a>, which notes that the platform is actively trying to bring in new advertisers in the small-to-medium business category.<\/p>\n Our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL<\/a> (that\u2019s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X\/Twitter!<\/p>\n \u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n And another 19.8% from retail.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>eMarketer<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n If you operate in travel and tourism or automotive, this means you\u2019re facing much less ad competition on the platform. There\u2019s potential to stand out from the crowd.<\/p>\n Does anyone need more? In all seriousness, X has a few limits<\/a> to help reduce potential bot spam.<\/p>\n Want to get the maximum reach from all those posts? Use Hootsuite\u2019s Best Time to Publish<\/a> feature to schedule your X content at the optimal times for your audience to see it and engage.<\/p>\n There were more than 4 billion posts about sports<\/a> alone on the platform in 2023.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re operating in one of these industries, consider putting a ![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Inpost-CTA-Planner.png?ssl=1\"\/)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t#1 Social Media Tool\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\nGeneral X (Twitter) stats<\/span><\/h2>\n
1. 70% of U.S. adults have seen or heard about Twitter\u2019s name change to X<\/a><\/h3>\n
2. 43% of Twitter users<\/a> said it was a mistake to change the name to X<\/h3>\n
3. The most followed<\/a> Twitter account is @ElonMusk<\/h3>\n
4. Only 40% of people<\/a> have a positive opinion of X<\/h3>\n
![\"X](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-6-620x312.png?resize=620%2C312&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n5. X is the 9th most popular <\/a>social platform in the United States<\/h3>\n
![\"graph](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-3-620x421.png?resize=620%2C421&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nX (Twitter) user statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n
6. About 250 million people<\/a> visit X every day<\/h3>\n
7. About 55 million Americans<\/a> aged 12 and up use X<\/h3>\n
![\"X](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-9-620x293.png?resize=620%2C293&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n8. 42% of American X users are aged 18-29<\/a><\/h3>\n
9. 26% of American men use X<\/a>, but only 19% of women<\/h3>\n
10. X has the largest gender gap<\/a> of any social platform<\/h3>\n
![\"Graph](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-7-620x408.png?resize=620%2C408&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n11. 29% of Americans who make $100,000 per year<\/a> or more use X<\/h3>\n
12. 29% of Americans who have a college degree<\/a> use X<\/h3>\n
13. 26% of Americans who live in the suburbs<\/a> use X<\/h3>\n
14. 26% of left-leaning Americans<\/a> use X<\/h3>\n
15. X sees an average of 1.7 million users sign up<\/a> per day<\/h3>\n
X (Twitter) usage statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n
16. 80% of X user sessions<\/a> include watching video<\/h3>\n
17. Immersive video on X<\/a> has more than 100 million daily active users<\/h3>\n
18. 23% of Americans get news from X<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"news](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-4.png?resize=464%2C716&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t#1 Social Media Tool\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n19. The average user spends 30.9 minutes per day <\/a>on X<\/h3>\n
20. In total, people spend more than 8 billion active minutes<\/a> on X per day<\/h3>\n
21. X Premium subscribers spend an average of 3 times longer<\/a> on the platform than other users<\/h3>\n
22. X is the most-used social platform<\/a> for just 5% of Americans aged 12+<\/h3>\n
23. The X iOS app is most-used by Americans<\/a>, while the Android App is preferred by those in India<\/h3>\n
iOS<\/h4>\n
![\"iOS](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-10-620x373.png?resize=620%2C373&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nAndroid<\/h4>\n
![\"Android](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-11-620x363.png?resize=620%2C363&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nX (Twitter) for business stats<\/span><\/h2>\n
24. 66% of brands<\/a> have a presence on X<\/h3>\n
![\"Most](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-2-620x207.png?resize=620%2C207&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n25. Only 30% of social marketers<\/a> are confident they get positive ROI from X<\/h3>\n
![\"Brands](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-1.png?resize=429%2C449&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n26. X saw a 7% drop in brand use<\/a> in 2024<\/h3>\n
![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-12-620x465.png?resize=620%2C465&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n27. The average organic X engagement rate is 1.66%<\/a> for the entertainment and media industry<\/h3>\n
![\"Industry](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-8-620x216.png?resize=620%2C216&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n28. X accounts with more than 2,500 verified followers<\/a> qualify for X Premium at no cost<\/h3>\n
\n
X (Twitter) advertising stats<\/span><\/h2>\n
29. X has 528.3 million<\/a> monetizable monthly active users (mMAU)<\/h3>\n
30. Vertical video ads on X see a 7x greater engagement rate<\/a> than home timeline ads<\/h3>\n
31. X ads saw a 22% increase in total engagements<\/a> in 2023<\/h3>\n
32. X\u2019s ad spend revenue<\/a> will drop 2% this year and 4% in 2025<\/h3>\n
\n
33. 32.4% of X\u2019s ad spend<\/a> comes from the media sector<\/h3>\n
![\"Over](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/twitter-statistics-5.png?resize=537%2C566&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nX (Twitter) Tweet statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n
34. You can post on X up to 2,400 <\/a>times per day<\/h3>\n
35. The top 4 conversation topics<\/a> on X in 2023 were sports, gaming, music, and food<\/h3>\n