Instagram’s Q3 engagement drop led by lack of sports

Instagram saw the biggest decline in engagement of any of the major platforms in our SPI analysis, with a drop of 12 percent. 

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Sports content still dominated despite big drops in engagement
• Hashtags are used far less frequently than on TikTok
• Standout viral moments proved that lighter content can still make the top posts

Despite leading, ESPN and Bleacher Report drop big

Looking at the chart above, you’d be forgiven for thinking Bleacher Report and ESPN had a bumper quarter, with both comfortably achieving more than 100 million engagements with their content. 

While out of context this is true, and it’s hard to argue it was a success, the combined 270 million engagements does represent a steep drop from the pair’s combined total of 360 million engagements on the platform in Q2. 

Much of this is likely just driven by a relative dearth of sports content over the summer, with it being an off year for the World Cup and off-season for most of the major US and UK sports which normally drive so much engagement. With sports being back in earnest in Q4, you’d expect an uptick for these publishers, but if we don’t see that in Q4 there may be something deeper going on. 

Hashtags are used less frequently on Instagram than on TikTok, but are more common on Reels

TikTok and Instagram co-exist in many people’s minds, serving slightly different age groups and demographics. Instagram’s Reels competes directly with TikTok, with content from one often repurposed onto the other.

But the way content is presented is not that similar strategically. First off, Instagram is actually mainly still a photo-first platform. Of the top 1,000 posts, 748 were photos, while only 252 were Reels. 

And when it came to hashtag usage, they are used on Instagram a fraction of the amount that were used on TikTok. The top 1,000 posts on TikTok had around 3,000 hashtags, while on Instagram that number was just 510, with over half of the top posts using zero hashtags.

There was, however, a considerable difference between the two types of posts on Instagram, with the average Reel having 1.5 hashtags. For comparison, the average photo had just 0.16, meaning they were barely used at all on photo posts.

This is likely to add to Reels’ discoverability, as they are often served algorithmically to non-followers, while photos are more likely to be seen by people who go directly to a publisher’s feed or already follow that account. 

Vogue stuns with visual content

Aside from the two big sports publishers, the clear winner in Q3 on Instagram was Vogue Magazine. Though famed editor-in-chief Anna Wintour announced she was stepping down at the end of June, the publisher went from strength to strength.

The publisher posted on Instagram just 561 times, making it only the 31st most frequent poster in Q3, but clocked in at third for engagement level—a significant overperformance. 

This was driven by striking visuals, often drawing on red carpet events and exclusive interviews. The publisher mixed photos and Reels at a slightly higher rate than the average, with about two thirds of its content being photos and one third being Reels.

For more insights from our Social Publishing Index, read our toplines blog.