Global cellular data traffic used for apps 2025, by category

As of February 2025, video apps accounted for around 76 percent of global mobile data usage every month. Second-ranked social networking accounted for eight percent of global mobile data volume. The two categories, though, can easily overlap, as users can watch videos via video applications, as well as on social networking applications.

Most popular social media platforms with video content

Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram were among the most popular social networks in the world, as of October 2021. Each of these platforms allow to post, share, and watch video content on a mobile device. One of the fastest growing global brands, Tiktok, is also a social media platform where users can share video content. In September 2021, the platform reached 1 billion monthly active users.

Leading types of mobile video content in the U.S.

The United States was the third country in the world based on the number of smartphone users as of May 2021, with around 270 million users. Therefore, mobile content usage in the country was one of the highest in the world, and a big part of it was video content. As of the third quarter of 2021, more than 80 percent of survey respondents in the United States reported watching YouTube on their mobile devices. Social media videos were the second most popular type of content for mobile audiences, with almost six in 10 respondents watching videos on social media platforms like TikTok and Twitter.