Telegram Updated Statistics In 2024 | Everything You Need To Know

Key Takeaways

• While privacy features attract many loyal users, Telegram’s open network also enables some illegal behavior – emphasizing its challenge to strengthen protections without closing the platform.
• While Telegram’s strong privacy protections include features like end-to-end encryption, its open network architecture has also allowed illicit activities to occur.

This article will explore updated statistics demonstrating Telegram’s continued growth and popularity in 2023. Key metrics will be examined, including Telegram’s monthly and daily active users, regional usage trends, top channels, and how Telegram is used worldwide.

Telegram Statistics: Overview

Telegram has reached impressive milestones in 2023, with 700 million monthly active users and a projected 1 billion users by 2024. Daily, 55.2 million users use the app, sending over 15 billion messages. 

Telegram is among the top 5 downloaded apps globally. Users spend an average of 3 hours per month on the platform. Valued at $30 billion, Telegram is the world’s 8th most popular social platform and has secured funding from notable investors such as Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners.

Telegram Statistics: Active Users

Monthly Active Users

Telegram’s user base continues to soar, reaching an impressive milestone of 700 million monthly active users, as reported by corporate figures. This marks a remarkable 40% increase since the beginning of 2021, reflecting the platform’s sustained growth. 

Over three and a half years, Telegram has attracted 350 million new users, showcasing its widespread appeal. The platform experienced a significant surge in January 2021, with an astonishing 25 million new users joining Telegram within 72 hours. 

This translates to an average of approximately 8.33 million new signups each day during that period, highlighting the platform’s rapid expansion. Since its establishment in 2013, Telegram’s user base has grown over 40% yearly, solidifying its position as a leading messaging platform. 

Daily Active Users

Based on the latest available data, Telegram currently boasts 55.2 million daily active users (DAUs), representing a remarkable increase of over 30% since November 2020. In March 2014, Telegram had an estimated 15 million DAUs, showcasing substantial growth over the years. 

A notable event that fueled Telegram’s user influx occurred on October 4th, 2021, during the downtime of Facebook and Instagram. During this period, Telegram reported a staggering surge of 70 million users in just one day, highlighting its appeal as an alternative messaging platform. These insights are based on information provided by Telegram, Apptopia, and TechCrunch.

Usage time of Telegram users

The average Android user of Telegram spends approximately 2.9 hours per month on the application, which is nearly 3 hours. Among different countries, Russian users stand out with an average monthly usage of around 5.1 hours on Telegram, the highest among all nations. 

Singapore follows closely in second place, with an average monthly usage of 4.7 hours. Telegram’s average usage time slightly surpasses the 2.7 hours per month spent on Meta’s Facebook Messenger.

Telegram Statistics: Demographics

The largest age group using Telegram is 25-34, making up over 31% of users. People aged 18-24 comprise the second largest group at 22% of the user base. As of 2023, Telegram’s user base is 58.6% male and 41.4% female. 

Asia accounts for the highest percentage of Telegram users at 38%, followed by Europe at 27% and Latin America at 21%. The Middle East and North Africa comprise 8% of Telegram’s global user base. 

In January 2021, when Telegram was the most downloaded app worldwide, India had the highest number of installations at 24%, while Indonesia was second with 10%. That same year, Telegram was the top downloaded social media app across 20 countries. According to a 2018 report, only 1.4% of American internet users had Telegram. 

Using Telegram, Brazil has one of the highest adoption rates at 29.4% of the population. The Central Asian country of Uzbekistan currently has around 18 million Telegram users. Lifetime app installations in Hong Kong have risen above 1.8 million users.

Telegram Statistics: Specific Regions

North and South America Specific Statistics

The penetration rate of Telegram users in the United States reached 3% in 2020, showing improvement from 2019, when the rate was only 1.85%, according to Statista. A separate Statista report found that approximately 10 million people in the U.S. access Telegram every month. 

In Brazil, around 23% of the population uses Telegram daily, as reported by Mobile Time. The same source noted that only 3% of Brazilians have never used the Telegram platform. Statista data indicates about 5% of Canadians are regular Telegram users.

Europe-Specific Statistics

Telegram has been adopted by 8% of the people in the Netherlands, compared to only 3% penetration in the UK. Ukraine leads European countries with the most Telegram downloads, reaching 7 million installations as of August 2022, according to Statista. 

Italy has seen strong Telegram uptake, with a 32% penetration rate reported by Statista. Around 25% of Spain’s population uses Telegram regularly, as found by Statista. Separately, Elogia found that 32% of Spanish millennials utilize the platform. 

The penetration rate in Austria is 11%, as Statista data indicates. In Finland, part of the Nordic region, 6% of users have adopted Telegram based on Statista’s statistics.

Asia Pacific Statistics

Telegram has seen strong adoption rates across many countries and regions worldwide, with Russia reported to have 31.62 million monthly active users, according to VimpelCom data. Usage is also prominent in Europe, with Ukraine achieving over 7 million downloads as of 2022, per Statista.

Italy has witnessed 32% penetration, while over 25% of Spaniards regularly use the platform, as per Statista reports. Usage in Asia is led by Indonesia at 28.5%, according to DataReportal, while Singapore has achieved 30.1% penetration. As found by VimpelCom, the Middle East regions also see high engagement, such as 40% of Muscovites aged 25-34 regularly using Telegram. 

Various reports indicate that South American countries also demonstrate sizeable user bases, including 29.4% of Brazilians and 22% of Filipinos. Downloads in India have surpassed 71.28 million, and parts of Western nations report smaller but growing adoption, like 4% penetration in Australia and 5% in Canada.

African Statistics

Telegram has achieved widespread popularity across several African nations, according to data from DataReportal. The platform sees the highest level of engagement in Nigeria, where it is used by over half of the population at 56.3%. Ghana also has a sizable user base of 40.8%, according to DataReportal. 

South Africa demonstrates significant yet slightly lower adoption of Telegram, with 19.7% of South Africans reportedly using the messaging app.

In summary, the statistics indicate Telegram has been warmly accepted in these significant African countries, providing evidence of its growing footprint and engagement levels on the African continent.

Telegram Statistics: Channel Statistics

Telegram channels have become a hugely popular feature since their introduction in 2015, allowing users to broadcast messages to large audiences. The “Telegram Tips” channel is currently the most followed on the platform, with over 7.5 million subscribers sharing helpful tips for using the app. 

The second most followed channel is “Telegram News,” with 6.1 million followers, sharing news updates on the platform. Movie and entertainment channels also see high engagement, with tracks like “Bollywood HD Movies Latest” and “Movies Temple” having millions of followers each. Cryptocurrency and finance is another widely discussed topic, with the “Crypto Trading Bitcoin” channel having over 2.9 million subscribers interested in cryptocurrency news and trading. 

A survey found that information, entertainment, political, and education channels are the most common, with influencers and public figures maintaining highly engaged audiences on Telegram. Prominent political leaders in countries like Brazil and Turkey count their official channels’ subscribers in the hundreds of thousands. 

Telegram provides analytics for media over 1,000 users, showing popular book and gaming channels in Russia and Ukraine attract subscriber numbers reaching the hundreds of thousands.

Popular Channel Categories

• News channels: These include channels that share news updates from various sources and publications. News-related channels are the most widely visited category. 
• Entertainment channels: Channels sharing movie trailers, celebrity news shows, and comedy content fall under this category. Entertainment channels are also viral. 
• Political channels: Discuss issues, share commentary, and analyze candidates/policies. Political media see high engagement given people’s interests. 
• Education channels: Channels dedicated to academics, science, careers, language learning, etc., are famous for knowledge-seeking users. 
• Industry news channels: Specialized technology, business, and healthcare channels keep professionals updated.

Telegram Statistics: E-commerce

Telegram has become a popular platform for facilitating online commerce and financial exchanges. According to statistics, Chinese goods topped the list of most popular product categories sold via Telegram, generating over $12 million in total e-commerce sales. 

Digital equipment and consumer loans followed as the next highest categories. While food delivery saw the lowest revenues at $57,000, it still demonstrated Telegram’s utility for transactional services. Additional data found that over 30% of Spanish internet users used the app to shop online. 

Peer-to-peer loans and swaps also occur commonly on Telegram, with the consumer loans segment valued at $3.1 million in sales. Telegram’s payments functionality further enables these commerce and transaction capabilities, with version 2.0 supporting transactions across 84 global currencies ranging from a minimum of $1 to a maximum of $10,000 per transfer. 

These metrics illustrate how Telegram has developed into a multifaceted platform for messaging, e-commerce, and money transfers between individuals and businesses.

Telegram Statistics: Revenue

Telegram has been growing its revenues through in-app purchases on its platform. After generating $218,000 in June 2022, their monthly income increased, reaching over $1 million from in-app purchases in October 2022. The messaging app initially aimed to commercialize its network and achieve financial sustainability through its blockchain-based cryptocurrency called Gram. 

However, after receiving $1.7 billion in funding in 2018 for Gram’s development and failing to properly register an early $1.7 billion token sale with regulators, Gram’s launch was ultimately abandoned in 2020. This resulted in Telegram facing an $18.5 million fine from the SEC for an unregistered securities offering and having to repay $1.2 billion to investors as part of penalties.

It is estimated that a successful launch of Gram could have potentially generated around $4 billion in profits for Telegram. While plans for its cryptocurrency faced hurdles, Telegram’s revenues have demonstrated steady growth when derived from in-app purchases instead.

Telegram Statistics: Web & Security 

Telegram prides itself on providing secure messaging capabilities to over 700 million active users worldwide each month. While the service collects only limited identifying information such as IP address, phone number, contacts list, and user ID from users, Telegram’s open network architecture has allowed some illicit activities to increase. 

For example, in a troubling incident, a deepfake bot targeted over 680,000 females on the platform in an apparent fake pornography scheme, with most users linked to this bot located in or near Russia. 

However, independent cybersecurity analysts continue to recognize Telegram as among the most secure of popular messaging apps regarding encryption and privacy protections for lawful communications. 

Telegram’s openly accessible web platform serves over 247 million visitors each month, according to website traffic analytics. Russia generates the highest percentage of traffic at 27.30%, underscoring Telegram’s widespread popularity within the country for maintaining communications free of government censorship. 

Bottom line

Many opt for Telegram due to privacy concerns with large tech companies. Telegram offers security features like end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages. This assures users their data remains private. As Telegram expands globally, its future user and development statistics should provide impressive insights.