Vendor reportCreatorIQ, 2025

TikTok was creators’ top platform for content performance

Organic reach & algorithm

Share of creators ranking each platform No. 1 for content performance

Share of creators ranking each platform No. 1 for content performance
Platform	Share of creators ranking it No. 1 (%)
TikTok	33%
Instagram	22%
YouTube	21%
Facebook	15%
Twitch	3%
Snapchat	3%
X	2%
Pinterest	1%
Threads	1%
Substack	1%
LinkedIn	0%
Reddit	0%

Reader Note:: This chart asks creators to rank the platform that performs best for their content. TikTok ranks No. 1 for 33% of creators, ahead of Instagram at 22%, YouTube at 21%, and Facebook at 15%. This is based on creators’ own ranking of platform performance rather than platform analytics supplied in the report.
Evidence:: Self-reported behaviour
Vendor interest:: High — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Survey of 1,723 respondents: 747 brands, 676 agencies, and 300 creators across 17+ industries and 9+ regions, conducted by Sapio Research in July 2025, with additional CreatorIQ research in August 2025.

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A rough sense of size and direction, and deciding what to look at first.

Not for

Exact numbers, or saying that one thing caused another.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
The source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.

Mentioning other accounts lifts Instagram reach most for tiny accounts: +108%, vs +4% for huge accounts

Instagram reach increase from mentions by account size
Account Size	Reach Increase (%)
Tiny	108%
Small	37%
Medium	31%
Big	9%
Huge	4%

Platform algorithm changes were creators’ biggest growth barrier

Share of creators naming each top barrier to growing their creator business
Barrier	Share of respondents (%)
Platform algorithm changes or volatility	18%
Lack of consistent brand deals	17%
Low pay or undervaluation of creator content	16%
Limited access to tools or analytics	13%
Poor communication or unclear expectations from brands	13%
Burnout or creative fatigue	11%
Other	1%
No significant barriers / I am growing without issues	12%

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TikTok grew fastest of any social channel: 62% more teams used it this year, with LinkedIn up 53% and Twitter/X up 43%

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27%

of the variation in LinkedIn follower counts is explained by profile data, against 99% for promotions

Instagram posts with hashtags got 32% fewer views and 34% fewer interactions than posts without them

Instagram post performance with vs without hashtags (Views & Interactions)
Metric (avg per post)	With hashtags	Without hashtags
Views	14,185.68	20,768.37
Interactions	478.22	723.41

Nationality and ethnicity carried almost no weight in predicting promotions or followers, while age mattered a little for follower count and not at all for promotions

TikTok was creators’ top platform for content performance

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