Facebook Users Liked, Loved, and Hahaed Over 300 Billion Times in 2016

It was February 24 of 2016 that Facebook implemented new “reactions” for the social media site. Instead of simply “liking” a post as had been the standard for years, users could now choose from “Haha,” “Love,” “Sad,” “Wow,” and “Angry.”

One year later, Facebook is reporting that users took advantage of reactions more than 300 billion times – and that’s not counting standard likes. That works out to a little over 800 million reactions every single day. When you consider that an estimated 1.2 billion people use Facebook every day, that comes to about one reaction for every two people.

The site rolled out reactions when they realized that many people were sharing all details of their life on Facebook, good and bad, and people needed a way to better express their feelings about a status. For example, if someone posted about their mom passing away before reactions, the only way to acknowledge that on Facebook was liking it. Now, users have the option to tap “sad.”

In addition to simple numbers, Facebook also revealed what reactions were the mos popular. “We have also analyzed and are now able to share the most commonly used reactions and the times/places they are used most,” the social media giant said, “providing insight about how Facebook’s more than 1.8 billion users express themselves on Facebook and beyond.”

“Love” was the site’s most popular reaction, accounting for more than 50% of uses. The day with the single largest number of reactions was Christmas Day 2016, again with love leading the way.

When it comes to what countries used reactions the most, Mexico topped the list. Chile, Suriname, Greece and Paraguay rounded out the top five spots. America ranked number eight.