Facebook Messenger isn’t just a tool for having group chats with your cousins—it’s a powerful communications platform that marketers can use to effectively engage and convert audiences. (All that and there’s stickers? Now that’s an app we can get behind.)
With nearly a billion users worldwide, Facebook Messenger is an intriguing platform for businesses to engage with. Whether your brand is using it as a social sales tool, for customer service or experimenting with Facebook Messenger ads, it’s worth getting familiar with the numbers at play here. Read on for 19 key Messenger stats that marketers need to know in 2024.
Bonus: Find out what people really want from brands on social—including why they follow, engage, buy, and even unfollow them—in The Social Media Consumer Report.
General Facebook Messenger statistics
1. Facebook Messenger has 980 million monthly users
Worldwide, Facebook Messenger had 980 million monthly users as of January 2023, according to Statista. Though that’s a fraction of the two billion who were measured on WhatsApp in that same time period, it’s still a number just shy of a billion. In case you’re curious where WeChat stands in all this, it does beat out Messenger, with 1.3 billion users. So close, Messenger!
2. Messenger is part of a company with four billion users
Facebook Messenger is like the little kid sister of the Meta Family. Each of its other sibling platforms is an all star in its own right. Together, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger have more than four billion monthly active users of the core product.
3. 262.5 million people downloaded Messenger in 2023
Though 262.5 million people is a lot, this number is actually lower than it was the years previous… by 20%. But that doesn’t mean Messenger is necessarily entering a downward spiral. In fact…
Source: Statista
4. Facebook Messenger is the third-most popular messaging app in the world
WhatsApp and WeChat out-rank Facebook Messanger in popularity, but coming in third is still solid—if this were the Olympics, Facebook Messenger would be right up there on the podium grabbing the bronze medal, right? What’s less popular than Facebook Messenger, you ask? Smaller chat apps including Telegram, Signal and QQ are struggling to keep up.
5. Facebook Messenger is the 7th most popular social media app overall
Sure, Messenger falls far behind behemoths like Facebook, Youtube and Instagram when it comes to monthly active users, but it does still beat out some other notable players—with its 979 million users, it outranks Twitter/X (619 million users) and Pinterest (482 million users) by quite a wide margin.
Source: Statista
Facebook Messenger user stats
6. Facebook Messenger has a U.S. audience of 192 million
In the United States, Facebook Messenger has 192 million users—that’s an impressive number, but really only about 20% of the total Messenger users worldwide. The total number of Americans who have Facebook accounts is 246 million. Crunching some numbers, that means that 78% of U.S. Facebook users also use Messenger.
7. 44% of Facebook Messenger users are Millennials
If you’d like to break this stat down further (and why wouldn’t you!), the largest demographic of Facebook Messenger users is young Millennials—those aged 25 to 34 years. This age group accounts for nearly a quarter of Facebook Messanger’s users. Another 21% of Messenger’s audience is 35-44 year olds. If this is your brand’s target demo, take note and get ready to slide into some DMs.
8. 14.4% of Facebook Messenger users in the U.S. are 65 or older
Messenger isn’t just a tool for the young(ish). Almost 15% of Messenger users in the United States are aged 65 or older. Another 14.3% of Facebook Messenger users fall in the 55-64 age range.
Source: Statista
9. 54.6% of Facebook Messenger users are women
The gender split on Facebook Messenger isn’t as extreme as some of the other social media platforms (see Twitter or Pinterest), but it still is notable. More than half—54.6%—of Facebook Messenger’ user base identify as women.
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Facebook Messenger usage stats
10. More than half of U.S. users engage with the Facebook Messenger app daily
Though other social media and text messaging apps may have higher numbers of people using them overall, Messenger users are the most engaged of the bunch. Though the latest data we have is from late 2022, Messenger had more daily users than WhatsApp, Line and Discord combined.
11. Messenger has a reach of 38% among mobile users in the U.S.
Among the most popular smartphone apps in the U.S., Facebook Messenger has a reach of 38%. The Facebook app itself has a mobile reach of 78% (the second-most popular app after Youtube). Smartphone users loooove their Meta products, in other words.
12. More than 21 billion photos are sent on Messenger each month
Messenger isn’t just a place to chat: it’s a place to share visuals, too. Users send more than 21 billion photos to friends and family monthly. And while your customers might not want to see your vacation pics in Messenger, maybe there are other ways to embrace images in your convos.
Facebook Messenger stats for business
13. People and businesses send more than one billion messages between them each month
What are people and businesses talking about in the one billion messages that go back and forth between them each month on Facebook Messenger? Businesses are solving problems, making sales, offering expertise, booking appointments… anything you might typically accomplish over a call or email with a businesses, really.
14. 74% of adults feel connected to businesses they can message
According to Facebook itself, nearly three-quarters of adults say they feel more connected to a brand when they’re able to message directly… so turn on that Messenger chat option, businesses, and let the conversation start flowing.
15. For 66% of online adults, messaging is the optimal way to talk to a business
Rather than picking up a phone or sending an email, 66% of adults would prefer to message a business directly through an app like Facebook Messenger. If you don’t have a social messaging option or a website chatbot, you might miss chatting with a potential customer altogether. Give the people what they want: options!
16. Another 66% of adults are more likely to do business with companies who have messaging
Not only is messaging the preferred way to talk with a business for online adults (see above), but their decisions are actually based on whether or not messaging is available. Nearly 70% of folks surveyed by Facebook said they’re more likely to make a purchase from or do business with a business whom they can contact with instant messaging.
17. 375,000 people talk to bots on Messenger each day
More than 30,000 of bots have been installed on Facebook Messenger to help automate customer service… and people seem happy to chat with them. In fact, more than 375,000 people across 200 countries chat with Messenger bots daily. Here are some compelling chatbot examples, if you’re considering setting up a bot buddy for your own Facebook business page.
Facebook Messenger ads stats
18. For Meta’s family of apps, impressions increased by 31% last year
Okay, so this isn’t a Messenger-specific stat, but it’s as close as we can get from Meta’s reports. The whole family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger) had ad impressions go up by more than a third in 2023, all while the average price per ad dropped by 6%.
19. Adding a “Send a Message” CTA to your Facebook page boosts conversions
Getting more conversions is as easy as adding a “Send a Message” button onto your business’s Facebook Page. Adding that CTA has been shown to create 1.7x the amount of conversions, according to Facebook itself.
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