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The stats should give you an idea of what’s trending online, what platforms are the most popular, and how Talkwalker’s tools can help you find value in the social jungle.
Before diving into individual social media stats, let’s briefly review Saudi Arabia’s population.
Population of Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Arabia currently has a population of 35.59 million
- Median age of the population in Saudi Arabia is 27.5, compared to 30.3 in the UAE
- Life expectancy is 74.8 years
- Population grows at a rate of 1.63% per year
Let’s have a quick look at the age and language distributions on social media, using Talkwalker’s Quick Search.
Age distribution of social media users in Saudi Arabia
Age distribution on social media in Saudi Arabia
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
As can be seen in the graph, the age group of 25-34 makes up the largest proportion of social media users, 45.8%. The runners-up are 18-24 year olds with 43.2%. Completing spot three and four are 35-44 year olds (9%) and 45-54 year olds (1.7%) respectively.
Language distribution of social media users in Saudi Arabia
Language distribution on social media in Saudi Arabia
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
Arabic makes up a staggering 98.5% of Saudi Arabia’s online conversations. Far behind is English with 1.2%. Even less common languages are Persian, Urdu, and French.
General social media stats
- Saudis spend an average of 3 hours and 24 minutes on social media daily, 9.7% increase year-over-year
- 29.3 million active social media users in Saudi Arabia, 82.3% penetration, 5.4% year-over-year increase
- 27.66 million users accessing social media from a mobile in Saudi Arabia
- The average number of social media accounts per internet user in Saudi Arabia is 10.4
- The region of Tabuk had the highest number of social network users in the country at 97.1% of its population
Facebook stats
- 11.4 million Saudis are on Facebook, where 23.8% are female and 76.1% male
- Growth has been negative mainly due to Meta's reforms in reporting their audience base
- ‘Page photo posts’ show the highest engagement rate (0.03% VS page fans)
- It is the sixth most active social media platform in the country
- Nearly 18% of all posts were pictures
- Mohamad al-Arefe is the most followed Saudi-based page on Facebook while Religious Education TV channel Khawatir is second
- Top 5 Industries on Facebook are Retail, Airlines, FMCG, Automotive, and Finance
- Average number of fans/followers is 865,825
- Number of Facebook users are predicted to reach 17M by 2023
- One of the most engaging posts in 2022 so far came from gaming influencer "MjrmGames"
Top 10 Facebook influencers in Saudi Arabia
- 1. Ennahar tv
- 2. Matar Page
- 3. ElWatan News
- 4. Ahlam Mostghanemi
- 5. Benguennak
- 6. beIN SPORTS
- 7. Halab Today TV
- 8. Elbotola
- 9. Amr Khaled
- 10. Alafasy
Instagram stats
- 15.45 million people can be reached by Instagram ads
- 41.6% of users are female and 58.4% male
- 43.4% of all Saudi adults can be reached via Instagram
- Quarter-on-quarter growth has been negative by 2.8%
- 60% of internet users say they use Instagram
- 98.2% of the Saudi population owns a smartphone: 40.8% own an Android OS and 35.01% own an iOS
Top 10 Instagram influencers in Saudi Arabia
- Ahlamalshamsi
- ahmadalshugairi
- model_roz
- saudinews50
- lojain_omran
- bin_odahx
- sheraz.tjarb
- turkialshik
- shein_ar
- darin00013
Twitter stats
- 14.10 million Saudis are on Twitter
- 50.4% of all adults can be reached via Twitter
- Quarter-on-quarter growth has been negative by 0.7%
- 40.5% of internet users report using Twitter
- Average number of interactions is 12,125
- 371.3K users are into fashion
- 1 million users are gamers
- Saudi Arabia accounts for over 43% of Twitter users in the MENA region
- The most engaging Tweet in 2022 so far came from @KingSalman
نهنئكم بشهر رمضان المبارك، سائلين الله أن يكون شهر خير لعموم المسلمين والعالم أجمع.
ونبتهل للمولى سبحانه أن يديم على وطننا وشعبنا كل الخير.
تقبل الله صيامكم وقيامكم، وكل عام وأنتم بخير.— سلمان بن عبدالعزيز (@KingSalman) April 2, 2022
Top 10 Twitter influencers in Saudi Arabia
- 1. @MohamadAlarefe
- 2. @Dr_alqarnee
- 3. @shugairi
- 4. @saudinews50
- 5. @sabqorg
- 5. @alwaleed_talal
- 6. @hashKSA
- 7. @alhilal_fc
- 8. @kingsalman
- 9. @battalalgoos
- 10. @thearabhash
Snapchat stats
- 13.65 million Saudis use Snapchat
- 52% of adults can be reached on the messaging app
- Quarter-on-quarter growth was negative by 15%
- 51% of Snapchat’s users are female, 47% are male
- Sixth most active social media platform in the country
- 2.3 million users are from Generation X
- 10 million users are Millennials
LinkedIn stats
- 6.1 million LinkedIn users are in Saudi Arabia
- Of all adults in the country, 17% can be reached on the social platform
- Quarter-on-quarter growth hit 5.2%
- 22.2% of users are female, 77.8% are male
- 10th most active social media platform
- 120K users are Director, 50K are VP, and 38K are CXO
Stats across all social media
Only 9.4 million unique authors were responsible for all social media activity in Saudi Arabia during 2022 so far.
">Top 10 hashtags in Saudi Arabia
- 1. #الهلال (The crescent)
- 2. #ﷺ (Peace be upon him)
- 3. #Quran
- 4. #النصر (Victory)
- 5. #Hadith
- 6. #السعودية (Saudi)
- 7. #رمضان (Ramadan)
- 8. #الرياض (Al Riyadh)
- 9. #معصيتي_راحتي (My sin is my relief)
- 10. #نشر_سيرته (sharing the prophet's biography)
Top themes in Saudi Arabia
Top themes cloud, Saudi Arabia
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
Top emojis in Saudi Arabia
Top emojis cloud, Saudi Arabia
Source: Talkwalker Quick Search
Top visited websites and search queries
According to SimilarWeb, the 5 most visited websites are:
- 1. Google.com
- 2. YouTube.com
- 3. WhatsApp.com
- 4. Twitter.com
- 5. Google.com.sa
According to Alexa, the 5 most visited websites are:
- 1. Google.com
- 2. Youtube.com
- 3. Twitter.com
- 4. Google.com.sa
- 5. Facebook.com
No surprise here, Google dominates the search engine market, maintaining an 96.6 percent market share as of February 2022.
