Social Rocket
Instagram has further extended its lead over Facebook in the EU. According to Meta's latest transparency report under the Digital Services Act, Instagram reached around 297 million monthly active users in the EU in the first half of 2026, while Facebook reached around 264 million.
Instagram is therefore now roughly 33 million users ahead of Facebook. For comparison: in the first half of 2025, Meta had still reported around 281,8 million Instagram and 263,6 million Facebook users in the EU. Instagram thus grew significantly, while Facebook remained almost flat.
Instagram approaches the 300 million mark
The trend is not new, but it is becoming clearer. Instagram had already overtaken Facebook on EU reach 2024. The gap has continued to widen since then.
For brands and social media teams, this is above all a reason to regularly review old assumptions about how budgets are placed. Facebook remains a very large platform with more than 260 million monthly active EU users. However, if you plan your Meta spend across the board from Facebook and treat Instagram only as a secondary placement, you should check actual results by platform and placement.
The DSA figures are reach metrics, not a statement about how long people use the apps or how well campaigns convert. The EU Commission requires platforms to update their average monthly user numbers in the EU every six months. Very large platforms are also subject to semi-annual transparency reports on moderation and other key figures.
Threads reaches 41 million EU users
Threads now also appears with a relevant, but significantly smaller, European reach. Meta reports around 41 million users in the EU. Globally, Meta says Threads already has more than 500 million monthly active users.
The European market for Threads thus remains small compared to Instagram and Facebook. For brands watching X alternatives, however, the development is still interesting – especially since X has recently continued to lose users in the EU.
Meta reduces the number of moderators
Alongside the user figures, Meta's report also includes information on moderation. According to Social Media Today, the number of employees Meta reports for EU moderation fell from around 7.700 in March to about 5.900 in the current report.
The lower headcount alone does not tell us whether moderation works better or worse. Meta is increasingly relying on automated systems, while the DSA reports also require information on moderation teams and automated systems, among other things.
For social media marketers, the combination is therefore what matters: Instagram continues to grow, while Meta is at the same time automating its moderation processes more heavily. TikTok shows similar shifts, now reporting 189 million monthly users in the EU and likewise relying heavily on automated moderation.
At the same time, Instagram is tightening individual platform rules. The app now labels AI profiles more clearly and can limit their reach if labelling obligations are not met.
What the figures mean for media planning
The 297 million users are no argument for shifting Facebook budgets wholesale to Instagram. They are, however, a good reason to stop treating your own Meta performance as a single channel. What counts are placement analyses, target audience, creative format and conversion data from your own account.
For reach campaigns in Europe, one thing is clear: Instagram is now the larger of the two classic Meta platforms and continues to grow faster.