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Vendor reportAspire, 2026

YouTube leads with an average engagement rate of 23.16%, much higher than TikTok and Instagram

Channel validation



Average engagement rate by platform: YouTube vs TikTok vs Instagram

Average engagement rate by platform: YouTube vs TikTok vs Instagram
PlatformAverage engagement rate (%)
YouTube23.16%
TikTok4.8%
Instagram2.15%
Reader Note:
Aspire's platform data for 2025. The report says only that it aggregated average engagement rates across channels, and never states what engagement is divided by — which matters more here than the gap itself, because a rate computed against views on YouTube and against followers on Instagram would produce exactly this shape. No post counts or base sizes are given per platform. The three figures are YouTube 23.16%, TikTok 4.80% and Instagram 2.15%, and they are not safe to read as a like-for-like comparison.
Evidence:
Observed behaviour
Vendor interest:
High — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:
Mixed methods: Aspire internal platform data from creators and campaigns, plus surveys of nearly 900 marketers and creators; exact split and sampling method not disclosed.

Good for

Comparing yourself against a similar segment, and choosing what to test next.

Not for

  • Saying that one thing caused another, or predicting what you would get.
  • This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
  • The source never says how this number was measured.
  • This is an aggregated or average number that covers very different cases. Real results in a particular segment may differ.
  • The source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.

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