The type of media that people consume and the manner in which they choose to consume it can often change dramatically from year to year. The past few years have seen some seismic shifts on this front, thanks in large part to the pandemic followed by the supply chain crises and widespread inflation that it lead to. The US Media Consumption Tracker by Attest can shed some light on what trends are becoming apparent.
First things first, some platforms saw significant gains in the fourth quarter of 2022 whereas others lost some of their viewership. For example, the number of daily active users that Instagram had declined by as much as 8.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone. Print newspapers also saw a decline in readership, with 5.7% fewer weekly readers paying attention to what they had to say.
If we widen the lens to look at all social media platforms instead of just Instagram, things don’t start to look a whole lot better. Facebook’s daily active users fell by 7 points as well, with just 56% of Americans say that they use it on a daily basis. Snapchat also saw a decline of over 7 points, which meant that 50.9% of Americans stated that it was an app that they use on the daily.
Even TikTok wasn’t exempt from the mass exodus from daily social media usage that so many Americans participated in during Q4 2022. Its usership fell to 61.1%, which suggested a decline of 6.9 points with all things having been considered and taken into account.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that not all social media platforms appear to be suffering the same fate. BeReal may have a long way to go in terms of market penetration, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it saw a whopping 12.5 point increase to reach 27.7% for the very first time.
Moving on from social media, the world of streaming seems to be going relatively well for the most part. Both Netflix and Amazon Prime were able to escape some of the heavier losses that their counterparts ended up having to deal with. Disney+ was used at least once a week by 32.3% of Americans who responded to this survey, which is down 5.4 points from the 37.7% that said this in the previous quarter.
It seems like the so-called “Netflix killers” aren’t doing a very good job. The streaming platform is currently being used by 68.3% of Americans, with only Amazon Prime coming anywhere close with 46.8%. Hulu is also not that far behind, since 42.% of Americans said that they use it at least once a week, which puts Disney+ at a distant fourth place for now.
Audio media consumption also registered a broad decline in the same quarter. Radio listenership decreased to 34.7%, a 3 point drop, whereas music streaming platforms also saw a similar decline to dip below 40% for the first time in years.
All in all, it seems like Americans are getting oversaturated with media. This will obviously lead to them exploring other options.
Read next: Researchers release a list of top apps Americans want to keep and delete
First things first, some platforms saw significant gains in the fourth quarter of 2022 whereas others lost some of their viewership. For example, the number of daily active users that Instagram had declined by as much as 8.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone. Print newspapers also saw a decline in readership, with 5.7% fewer weekly readers paying attention to what they had to say.
If we widen the lens to look at all social media platforms instead of just Instagram, things don’t start to look a whole lot better. Facebook’s daily active users fell by 7 points as well, with just 56% of Americans say that they use it on a daily basis. Snapchat also saw a decline of over 7 points, which meant that 50.9% of Americans stated that it was an app that they use on the daily.
Even TikTok wasn’t exempt from the mass exodus from daily social media usage that so many Americans participated in during Q4 2022. Its usership fell to 61.1%, which suggested a decline of 6.9 points with all things having been considered and taken into account.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that not all social media platforms appear to be suffering the same fate. BeReal may have a long way to go in terms of market penetration, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it saw a whopping 12.5 point increase to reach 27.7% for the very first time.
Moving on from social media, the world of streaming seems to be going relatively well for the most part. Both Netflix and Amazon Prime were able to escape some of the heavier losses that their counterparts ended up having to deal with. Disney+ was used at least once a week by 32.3% of Americans who responded to this survey, which is down 5.4 points from the 37.7% that said this in the previous quarter.
It seems like the so-called “Netflix killers” aren’t doing a very good job. The streaming platform is currently being used by 68.3% of Americans, with only Amazon Prime coming anywhere close with 46.8%. Hulu is also not that far behind, since 42.% of Americans said that they use it at least once a week, which puts Disney+ at a distant fourth place for now.
Audio media consumption also registered a broad decline in the same quarter. Radio listenership decreased to 34.7%, a 3 point drop, whereas music streaming platforms also saw a similar decline to dip below 40% for the first time in years.
All in all, it seems like Americans are getting oversaturated with media. This will obviously lead to them exploring other options.
Read next: Researchers release a list of top apps Americans want to keep and delete
