Average watch time on Instagram Reels grew 118% in 2026, while views grew just 2%

Organic reach & algorithm

Reels metric (average)	2025	2026	Change 2026 vs 2025 (%)
Views	22,689.63	23,074.09	2%
Avg Watch Time (ms)	3,914.5	8,521.5	118%
Total View Time	38,898,471.25	93,022,731.9	139%

Instagram Reels: Views, Avg Watch Time, and Total View Time, 2025 vs 2026

Reader Note:: Average watch time went from 3,914.50ms to 8,521.50ms and total view time rose 139%, while views per Reel moved from 22,689.63 to 23,074.09. Watch time roughly doubled at every account size.
Evidence:: Observed behaviour
Vendor interest:: Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: 24,364,803 Instagram posts from 375,118 accounts worldwide, covering January and February 2025 and January and February 2026 — a two-month window, not a full year. Accounts with zero publications were excluded, as were posts with zero impressions or zero interactions, so every average in the study is computed over posts that got at least one interaction. Accounts were segmented by follower size into Huge (1M+), Big (100K-1M), Medium (10K-100K), Small (2K-10K) and Tiny (0-2K). Outliers were not removed. Growth has a non-obvious definition: an account counts as having grown only if it crossed into a higher follower tier, so an account that went from 3K to 9K followers is not counted as having grown, and the study's own methodology notes that crossing Tiny to Small takes far fewer new followers than crossing Medium to Big — growth rates are therefore not comparable across tiers.

Good for

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

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.
This is an aggregated or average number that covers very different cases. Real results in a particular segment may differ.

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

TikTok was creators’ top platform 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%

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

Our Substack turns the data behind these cards into full breakdowns: what changed, why, and what to do about it.

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%

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

27%

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