The average time spent on a website can indicate how valuable and captivating content is and how engaged visitors are.

So which social media platforms hold our attention most?

B2B Marketplace DesignRush analyzed website traffic data via Similarweb to reveal the staggering time spent on social networks according to the number of monthly visitors and average time on site.

YouTube ranks first, with 34.1 billion visits and the longest average visit duration. Users stay on site for an average of 20 minutes and 23 seconds, the highest of all social media platforms. Analysis of traffic data reveals we spend an eye-watering 1.3 million years, or 482 million days, on YouTube monthly.

YouTube Kids, despite a relatively low traffic volume of 44.1 million, has the highest time on-site compared to any other top social platform. Kids spend 20 minutes and 40 seconds per visit, even higher than YouTube, with around 1,733 years of screen time across all visits. Figures suggest that children who visit daily and spend the average time on site will have spent over five days per year on the platform. If the time on site rises to one hour per day, the maximum experts recommend for ages 2-5, that rises to over 15 days spent per year.

Facebook ranks second. We visited Facebook 17.4 billion times last month, spending 10 minutes and 34 seconds on average. By calculation, this equates to an estimated 349,589 years monthly across all visitors.

Twitter, or X.com, is third, with 6.5 billion monthly visits and an average of 10 minutes and 43 seconds per visit. Data suggests around 132,449 years are spent on Elon Musk's social network monthly.

WhatsApp users spend the fourth-longest time online. WhatsApp sees around 55.5 billion minutes of screen time, or around 107,648 years, on-site every month. This estimate is derived from its 3 billion monthly visits and average time on site of 18 minutes 52 seconds, the third-highest visit duration.

Instagram ranks fifth. Despite having 6.8 billion monthly visits, far higher than Twitter and WhatsApp, its average visit duration is much smaller at 8 minutes and 14 seconds. This equals a similar amount of screen time as WhatsApp, around 106,476 collective years of monthly browsing.

Assuming a user accesses the top five social media platforms daily for a combined average visit duration of over 68 minutes, the user would spend approximately 4.77% of a lifetime on social media, or 3.81 years over an 80-year lifespan.

Reddit takes the sixth spot. Reddit gets 1.8 billion monthly visits and 8 minutes 39 seconds average time on site, equating to 29,623 years of exploring the platform's various communities.

LinkedIn ranks seventh at 1.7 billion monthly visits and 7 minutes 23 seconds average duration, or around 23,880 years of monthly screen time.

Twitch takes eighth place with 1.1 billion monthly visits and 9 minutes and 19 seconds average time on site, an estimated 19,484 years spent each month.

TikTok ranks ninth. While the website receives 2.3 billion visits, TikTok users spend the shortest time per visit, at just 3 minutes and 48 seconds. This still results in an impressive 16,629 years of scrolling through video content on the website each month.

Pinterest ranks tenth. Around 1.1 billion users visit the website monthly and spend an average of 6 minutes and 4 seconds each time, or a collective 12,695 years.

Gianluca Ferruggia, General Manager at DesignRush commented on the findings: 

“This data offers a fascinating insight into the ‘stickiest’ sites in the world, and there are lots of lessons for entrepreneurs looking to ensure websites for their own businesses keep people engaged as long as possible. Ensuring your site has high-quality content is important, but it means nothing if that content is difficult to find, read, or disrupted by intrusive page elements. This highlights the importance of a clean, well organized, and beautifully designed website for anyone keen to attract and retain customers.”

The study was conducted by DesignRush, which provides valuable data on relevant trends that help businesses make educated decisions, coming from their years of experience in the B2B community.