TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world, with nearly 2 billion monthly active users. It is particularly popular among younger audiences and known for its authentic, unfiltered content.
For influencer marketers, TikTok is a place where brand messages can travel fast, content goes viral quickly, and people form close bonds with the creators they follow. This article covers the latest TikTok statistics to help you plan campaigns in 2026.
Authenticity and fast reach have made TikTok one of the most influential platforms in the world, particularly among younger audiences. It's also now becoming popular with older age groups and influencing shopping trends.
Here are the key TikTok statistics for 2026.
TikTok was founded in China by ByteDance in September 2016 and entered the international market in 2017. Originally, users shared short, fun and creative videos on the platform. With the acquisition of Musical.ly, TikTok's user base grew significantly, particularly in the US. By 2019 and 2020, TikTok had become a cultural phenomenon across generations.
The platform's ownership became a major talking point in recent years due to national security concerns in the US. Following a Supreme Court ruling in January 2025, TikTok was briefly banned from US app stores before a divestiture deal was finalised on 22 January 2026. TikTok's US operations were transferred into a new entity called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, majority-owned by US-approved investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and UAE-based MGX, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake.
In the UK, no ban has been introduced, and TikTok continues to operate normally. For European brands and influencer marketers, the platform remains fully accessible with no immediate regulatory disruption on the horizon.
TikTok's user base grew rapidly from 2019 onwards, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. TikTok was downloaded 301 million times in Q1 2020 alone, a 58% increase on the previous quarter. This is likely because people from a variety of countries turned to the platform for entertainment and connection during lockdown.
In the UK specifically, TikTok's user numbers grew from 2.1 million in 2018 to 17.7 million in 2020, according to figures provided by TikTok to the ICO. This is one of the sharpest growth trajectories among social platforms in the UK market.
According to Statista, TikTok's monthly active user base has grown rapidly since launch:
TikTok now has approximately 1.92 billion monthly active users worldwide, making it the fifth largest social media platform globally.
As of October 2025, Indonesia, the US and Brazil had the largest TikTok audiences globally, according to Statista.
Here are the top ten countries by TikTok users:
The UK ranks in the top ten globally, with approximately 26.8 million TikTok users, nearly half the UK's total population. For European influencer marketers, the UK remains the largest TikTok market on the continent.
TikTok has quickly transformed from a newcomer to one of the top social media platforms. In the first quarter of 2020, the app was downloaded 313 million times from the iOS and Google Play Stores, according to Statista.
The brief US ban in January 2025 and India's ban in 2020 had a considerable impact. But since then, TikTok has been reinstated in US app stores, and downloads have recovered quickly. In the first quarter of 2026, the app has significantly fewer downloads, at around 159.2 million worldwide.
TikTok remains the most-engaging major social media platform by a significant margin. According to Statista, TikTok's average engagement rate reached 3.7% in 2025. That is more than seven times Instagram's average of 0.48% and nearly 25 times Facebook's 0.15%. Between 2024 and 2025, TikTok is the only platform to see an increase in average engagement rate.
Engagement also varies significantly by account size. Nano and micro-influencers with under 100K followers have engagement rates of 7.5% to 12%. This significantly outperforms larger accounts and reflects TikTok's engagement-driven model, in which content quality and momentum matter more to the algorithm than follower counts.
This makes TikTok particularly valuable for influencer marketing. Brands can work with smaller, niche creators at lower cost and at larger scale to build stronger audience connections and higher engagement rates than with equivalent partnerships on Instagram or Facebook.
On Kolsquare, engagement rate is calculated by dividing the sum of interactions, such as likes, comments and shares, by the number of views, then multiplying it by 100. This gives an accurate picture of how content is actually performing.
The TikTok creator economy has grown significantly since the platform launched. While exact figures vary by source, the platform hosts millions of active content creators across all follower tiers. According to Statista, there were over 100,000 TikTok influencers with more than 1,000 followers as of 2022, and the number has grown considerably since then.
Nano-influencers, with under 10,000 followers, now account for the vast majority of TikTok creators and consistently deliver the highest engagement rates on the platform, making them particularly valuable for brands running targeted campaigns.
Kolsquare currently tracks 1,606,045 TikTok KOLs on its platform, giving brands access to detailed performance data across influencers with over 5K followers in all niches.
The most followed creators on TikTok globally are:
You can use the Kolsquare database to search and filter TikTok creators by follower count, engagement rate, audience location and credibility score to find the right fit for your next campaign.
The number of minutes we spend on social media each day has increased significantly in recent years. And TikTok has won the attention game.
According to EMarketer, the average TikToker spends 52 minutes per day on the app. Moreover, most TikTok users open the app nine times a day, the majority at least once. Young people aged 18 to 24 spend an average of 77 minutes per day on the app.
People across all age groups use TikTok, but it is significantly more popular among younger generations. Gender distribution varies significantly by region, with female users more prevalent in Europe and North America.
For global audiences, the 18 to 24 age group forms the largest single cohort on TikTok, followed by 25 to 34-year-olds (Statista). There is an even gender distribution of women (46%) and men (54%). Generation Z is generally the most represented, but the app has started to appeal to older age groups. Adults aged 55 to 64 are forecast to increase their daily time on TikTok by 6.3% in 2025, reaching an average of 39 minutes per day.
In the US, women (58%) use the application more than men (42%), which is important for brands there.
The age distribution is as follows:
TikTok has approximately 26.8 million users in the UK, representing nearly half the UK's adult population, according to Statista. Over the past few years, the platform's rapid growth has expanded well beyond its original Gen Z audience, with older demographics now making up a significant share of the global user base.
The short videos with entertaining and funny content have made the app a success. This also makes it particularly interesting for brands that want to appeal to a young, interactive target group. The promise of virality is generally high. On TikTok, there are many new trends happening quickly, which is why you should trust the influencers – they know what’s hot right now. In general, the most popular content is:
TikTok Shop has become a huge shopping platform. For brands and influencer marketers, platforms like this have a strong appeal. They have turned social media into a full-funnel sales platform.
Here's how TikTok Shop has grown:
Some brands are just starting to appear on the app, while others have been there since the beginning. As a brand, you can have a presence on the platform and let your creativity run wild. Another way to increase your brand awareness on the app is, of course, to collaborate with influencers.
No matter what sector you come from, increasing visibility, generating more traffic, demonstrating expertise, and developing unique branding should be your ultimate goal.
Here are some examples of inspiring brands:
You can check TikTok analytics by switching to a TikTok Business or Creator account, both of which are free. Once switched, tap your profile, go to the menu in the top-right corner, and select Creator Tools, then Analytics. From there, you can view data across four tabs: Overview, Content, Followers, and Live.
The key metrics available include:
For brands running influencer marketing campaigns on TikTok, native analytics only show data from your own account. To access performance data across creator accounts, an influencer marketing platform like Kolsquare provides engagement rates, audience credibility scores, follower demographics, and estimated reach for any TikTok creator without requiring access to their personal analytics.
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
As a Certified B Corporation, Kolsquare leads the way in promoting Responsible Influence, championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations that inspire positive change.
Since October 2024, Kolsquare has become part of the Team.Blue group, one of the largest private tech companies in Europe, and a leading digital enabler for businesses and entrepreneurs across Europe. Team.Blue brings together over 60 successful brands in web hosting, domains, e-commerce, online compliance, lead generation, application solutions, and social media.
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