Reels are winning: Instagram’s Adam Mosseri says video drives more reach and engagement

It has been five years since Reels became an integral part of Instagram’s digital experience. While data analyses over the years have shown that Reels outperform static posts, Meta has rarely been vocal about the real advantage of Reels over other post formats. A recent analysis by social media management firm Buffer revealed that Reels achieve 36% more reach than other types of posts, including carousels and single-photo posts.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram at Meta, confirmed that Reels get more traction than static posts while attending the first World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit in Mumbai on Friday.

“What we're trying to do is always help them (users) connect with the content that they're interested in... so we don't try to boost... [one] type of content or suppress another... but in general we do see patterns... On average, video gets more likes, more views, more watch time, and therefore we're doing better in ranking and with reach but that's not true for all creators,” said Mosseri.

Mosseri, however, noted that engagement also depends on a creator’s genre, with some receiving more traction on posts than on Reels.

With affordable data, India has emerged as one of the primary growth markets for Instagram, which had over 414 million users in the country as of early 2025, according to the data platform Datareportal. Speaking about why India is a key growth market, Mosseri noted that the country sees significantly higher levels of sharing and engagement compared to the rest of the world, driven by its diverse cultural landscape. “Actually, most of the time spent on Instagram is watching video... that simply works here,” Mosseri added.

During its latest investor relations earnings call, Meta revealed that the platform saw double-digit year-on-year growth in video, with the Asia-Pacific region and video content driving an overall 5% increase in impressions for Meta in the first quarter.

“Data here (earlier) was expensive and (it had low bandwidth) networks and that is changing dramatically over the last five to seven years, both in terms of availability but most importantly in terms of cost... we've seen an immense amount of growth now,” says Mosseri.

Bollywood actor Shraddha Kapoor, who joined Mosseri for a fireside chat, said that Instagram creators can achieve better engagement by staying authentic and real on the platform. 

“Authenticity is also less exhausting, because when you're inauthentic, you have to constantly think like someone you're not—and that takes a lot more effort,” she noted.