What Indians are watching on Reels in 2026: Instagram reveals top content categories

As short-form videos increasingly gain influence due to rising viewership, a new Meta-commissioned study has revealed the content categories attracting the most attention from Indians. The study was conducted by IPSOS and compiled data from over 4,000 respondents across 23 cities and rural areas.

What are Indians watching on Reels in 2026?

As per the study, beauty and makeup and fashion and trends were the most engaged categories, with 52% of viewers engaging with Reels on those topics. Meanwhile, lifestyle and fitness videos followed with 42% engagement, while comedy videos had 39% engagement, sports had 38%, and travel had 37% engagement.

The Meta-backed study also claims that Reels delivers nearly 60% higher creator engagement than other surveyed short-form video platforms.

Reels is now defining how customers buy products:

The new report also found that creators are now playing a bigger role in influencing what people buy. The study found that Reels drives 81% of initial product discovery, influences 66% of brand consideration, and ultimately impacts 47% of final purchase decisions.

Unsurprisingly, the study claims that the impact of Reels on users’ buying decisions is even more pronounced among Gen Z users. It claims that 84% of Gen Z users discover new products and brands via Meta platforms. Meanwhile, 73% of rural users reported discovering new brands via Meta.

The study also claims that Meta leads the purchase journey in the automotive sector, accounting for 82% of discovery and influencing 50% of final car-buying decisions.

The report also talks about the growing popularity of short-form content, particularly Instagram Reels. It notes that 97% of surveyed internet users in India now watch video content on Meta platforms every single day.

The study found that daily video engagement is nearly identical across urban India (98%) and rural India (94%), suggesting that rural audiences could increasingly be watching the same content on Reels as their urban counterparts.

“India’s video boom isn’t urban-led anymore, it’s nationwide, cutting across Gen Z, women and premium audiences,” Saugato Bhowmik, Director of CPG, D2C, and Automotive for Meta India, said in a statement. “For brands, this isn’t just a content play, it’s an always-on Content-to-Commerce play.”