Meta claims Instagram Reels is now the top short-video platform in India

Instagram Reels has turned five, and Meta claims it’s more popular than ever.

Meta, through a recent study, claims that Instagram Reels has emerged as India’s leading short-form video platform, surpassing TV, YouTube, and other competitors. This milestone coincides with Reels completing five years in India. The IPSOS study, commissioned by Meta, surveyed over 3,500 people across 33 centres in India, examining user preferences, engagement, and the cultural relevance of Reels.

Instagram Reels has been around for over 5 years now. (Unsplash )

By Shaurya Sharma

Shaurya Sharma is the Technology Editor at Hindustan Times Digital Streams, where he oversees technology coverage across digital and social platforms. With over eight years of experience across editorial, video production, and digital media, his work focuses on smartphones, AI, consumer gadgets, and shaping audience-first content strategies for modern tech consumers.

He began his career in 2018 as a fashion cinematographer before turning his lifelong passion for technology into a profession. From spending his childhood immersed in tech magazines, video games, and the latest gadgets to covering the global consumer tech industry today, technology has remained a constant throughout his journey.

Over the years, Shaurya has worked with some of India’s leading media organisations, including CNN-News18, Sportskeeda, and Guiding Tech, where he led video initiatives that combined strong editorial storytelling with engaging visual and social-first execution.

A graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication from Manipal University, Shaurya has reviewed hundreds of products across categories including smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, cameras, and wearables. Beyond work, he is passionate about animal welfare, environmental causes, and automobiles, particularly turbo-petrol cars

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According to the findings, short-form video is now India’s number one choice for daily video consumption. The study revealed that 97% of respondents watch short-form videos on some platform at least once a day, and 92% of them prefer Reels as their platform of choice. Meta further states that Reels is the top video-viewing platform among Gen Z and NCCS A and B audiences.

Meta Claims Reels Is Top Choice for Brand Discovery And Creator Engagement

“We are now the top platform for brand discovery, with 80% of Indians saying they discover new brands on our platforms,” Meta said. It added, “Reels ads also deliver 2x stronger top-of-mind recall and 4x stronger message association compared to long-form video ads, while being 1.5x more effective in driving brand metrics as compared to long-form skippable video ads.”

At the same time, Meta says that to unlock the full potential of Reels, marketers can focus on scaling attention, capturing it, and deepening it. This can be done by creating social-first creatives designed specifically for the Reels format. They can also collaborate with creators to bring cultural relevance and authenticity to their narratives.

Meta also highlighted the platform for creator engagement, drives ~33% higher engagement than other surveyed platforms.

“Reels drive cultural conversations, leading consumption across genres, with users watching more content on fashion/trends and styles (+40% vs other platforms), beauty and makeup (+20% vs other platforms ), and music/movies (+16% vs other platforms”,” Meta said.