What are the most used social media apps among Gen Z?
Geographic scope: Italy, the UK and Spain
Maite Azkuna
Senior Analyst, Marketing Content & InsightsComscore
Gen Z is well known for being social media savvy. But not all platforms are created equal, and with new trends emerging it can be hard to keep track of where Gen Z is spending its time. In this blog, we’ll walk through the apps where you’re most likely to find this cohort scrolling, liking, and viewing, covering the following topics:
- What social media app has the highest reach among Gen Z?
- What social media app has grown the fastest among Gen Z?
- How does Gen Z’s social media usage compare to the general population?
- How does Gen Z’s social media usage compare to other age groups?
Our analysis is focused on mobile apps across Italy, the UK and Spain, and we use the 18 to 24-year-old age group to get the closest estimation for Gen Z.
What social media app has the highest reach among Gen Z?
The YouTube mobile app takes the lead across all three countries, boasting the highest reach in Spain (87%). Instagram also demonstrates strong performance with a reach exceeding 60%. Snapchat and Reddit, while popular in the UK with coverages of 51% and 23% respectively, show significantly lower presences in Italy and Spain. As for Twitter, Twitch and BeReal apps popularity are higher in Spain among the Gen-Zers than in the other two countries.
What social media app has grown the fastest among Gen Z?
From April 2022 to April 2023, BeReal was the social platform that experienced the most growth in terms of total unique visitors aged 18-24 across Italy, the UK, and Spain. In 2022, the app successfully established itself in the social media landscape.
The social media app growing the fastest among Gen Z year-over-year across Italy, the UK, and Spain Unique visitors aged 18-24 | ||
Mobile App | Country | YoY increase in unique visitors |
BeReal. | UK | +698K |
Italy | +609K | |
Spain | +552K | |
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, selected mobile apps entities: BeReal, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter and YouTube, audience aged 18-24, April 2023, Italy, UK and Spain
How does Gen Z’s social media usage compare to the general population?
Comparing Gen Z to the general digital population, Gen-Zers over-index on most social platforms, with LinkedIn and Facebook being exceptions. Some of the highest indexes are on BeReal, Twitch, Reddit, and Snapchat.
How does Gen Z’s social media app usage compare to other age groups?
For this analysis, we focused on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter which show outstanding reach among Gen-Zers. We analyzed across all three age ranges depicted in the chart: Gen Z, 25-34, and 35+. The 18-24 age cohort demonstrates the highest reach in Italy and Spain, whereas in the UK, the 25-34 age range surpasses them by 6 percentage points of coverage.
Digging deeper into Gen Z social media behavior
In this article we have just scratched the surface: while reach gives an overview of how visitation compares for these apps and age groups, metrics like time per user and cross-visitation provide further clues as to how levels of engagement vary on the different platforms, and how Gen Z travels from one platform to another. For example, while Gen Z under-indexes for reach on Facebook in Spain, they spent an average of 3 hours per person on the app in April 2023, more than on Pinterest, Reddit or Snapchat.
For a deeper look into how Gen Z is interacting with social media related to your brand or industry, reach out to us here.
To learn more about reaching Gen Z in the UK market, join us for our upcoming webinar, "Targeting Gen Z in the UK market Z," on July 11, 2023. This exclusive session will take you on a deep dive into Comscore data, unveiling more valuable insights into what truly makes the Gen Z consumer tick. Register here.