TikTok vs Instagram Reels

A new infographic on Marketing Land pits TikTok against Instagram Reels and ponders whether Instagram Reels will ever become a genuine rival for TikTok.

Doing just that would be one hell of an ask - TikTok has enjoyed absolutely massive growth over the past couple of years. In fact, the platform is projected to reach 1.2 billion users over the course of the present year. That's all despite TikTok losing one of its biggest user markets in India, and even when it had to overcome the threat of a total ban in the US. The latter of those two threats remains on the table, although it's highly unlikely as things stand.

However, TikTok isn't the only platform in the genre making ground. Instagram says Reels is growing and continues to add new discovery tools and features to make it a more appealing option to more users. It's working hard to tempt both creators and viewers onto its app instead. Whether Insta Reels has got what it will take to make those efforts pay off is hard to say.

Recently, The Influencer Marketing Factory conducted a study aimed at getting an idea of comparative engagement and performance on Reels and comparing that to TikTok clips. The study only looked at sixty active profiles on each of Reels and TikTok, so the results may not be entirely indicative, but they do provide some interesting insights, specifically with regard to relative view counts versus engagement in each app.

Here's an infographic from The Influencer Marketing Factory showing the comparative engagement and performance of TikTok versus Instagram Reels.