Internet in Russia: the results of 2022

Publication date: 09 Mar 2023

In 2022, 81% of Russians used the Internet. At the same time, 78% of Russians went online every day. This data is contained in the Mediascope study “Internet audience in 2022”.

Most of all (95%) users are at the age of 18 to 24 years, a little “behind” with 94% and 92% respectively are Russians aged 25-34 years and 35-44 years.

• Find out also, Which Internet sources do Russian trust?

On average, Russians spend 3 hours and 46 minutes a day on the Internet. This figure decreases during the summer months. By the end of 2022, people over the age of 55 became spending more time online.

Top devices for Internet access in 2022

• Mobile devices account for 90% of all time spent online.
• Meanwhile, 59% of the audience at least occasionally go online from their desktop, while 35% go daily.
• The most daily users are: 68% of 25-34 year olds use mobile devices and 41% of 18-24 year olds use the desktop.

Russians most frequently visit:

• 21% – social networks;
• 18% – video services;
• 15% – messengers;
• 10% – games;
• 3% – online shopping.

Russia’s largest social networks in 2022

• The largest social network in Russia in 2022 was Vkontakte. 79% of Russians visit it daily and 40% at least once a month;
• TikTok is viewed daily by 25.5% and monthly by 71.7%;
• Odnoklassniki: 16.6% access it every day and 66.9% at least once a month;
• Instagram*: 13.4% every day, 65.8% every month;
• Facebook*: 2.8% use the social network at least once a month, 62.6% once a month.

Furthermore, Vkontakte continues to grow its audience (+13% over the year), including due to the overflow of users from blocked social networks.

TikTok and Odnoklasniki are relatively stable (+/-1%). On the other hand, Instagram* and Facebook*, according to Mediascope, have lost a significant part of the Russian audience: on average -80% each.

The most popular messengers among Russians are WhatsApp, Telegram and Viber.

• WhatsApp is the leader in terms of daily audience reach: about 65% of the population.
• Telegram comes in first place in terms of time spent on the site. In 2022, Russian residents spent 40 minutes a day on this messenger. Nevertheless, a significant part of their time is spent reading Telegram channels rather than communicating.

Russia’s Top Internet Resources: Most Visited Websites

The major Internet sites by number of visitors in 2022 are: Yandex, Google, Youtube, WhatsApp messenger and the social network VKontakte. This top five list, with different variations, but has remained unchanged throughout the year.

Among search engines, Yandex (78.1% of monthly audience and 51.9% of daily audience) and Google (75.9% and 46.8%, respectively) are in the lead.

YouTube is the largest video resource in Russia without any significant competition. About 40% of the country’s population visits the service daily and spends up to 1.5 hours.

By mid-2022, Instagram* and Facebook* have dramatically reduced their positions and almost dropped out of the top. The Telegram messenger rose on their backdrop, as well as due to increased interest in news.

For the first time, the Zen platform was included in the top of Russia’s largest resources. The site is visited by 59.1% of its audience every month and 18.3% every day.

*Instagram and Facebook are owned by Meta, a corporation deemed extremist in Russia. They have been blocked in Russia since March 2022 by court order.