Flickr’s 2024 figures show a photography community using thousands of capture devices, favoring both newer mirrorless cameras and older phones. The year’s data also highlights street photography, landmark images, upload timing, group activity, and Flickr’s longer development from 2004 onward. The figures below are reported by Flickr for the stated periods; historical items retain their original source framing.
Contents
- Camera rankings in 2024
- Device diversity and photographic styles
- Growing tags and photographed landmarks
- Places, dates, and metadata
- Groups and World Photography Day
- Flickr’s development over time
Camera rankings in 2024
Flickr’s 2024 Year in Review separated the most popular non-phone cameras from the overall camera ranking. Canon occupied half of the non-phone top 10, while Sony and Nikon also placed multiple models. The ranking was based on Flickr users in 2024, not a general market-sales ranking.
Most popular non-phone cameras
| Rank | Camera | Source-reported position |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canon EOS R5 | No. 1 non-phone camera |
| 2 | Canon EOS 5D Mark IV | No. 2 non-phone camera |
| 3 | SONY ILCE-7M3 | No. 3 non-phone camera |
| 4 | NIKON D850 | No. 4 non-phone camera |
| 5 | Canon EOS R6 | No. 5 non-phone camera |
| 6 | NIKON D750 | No. 6 non-phone camera |
| 7 | Canon EOS 5D Mark III | No. 7 non-phone camera |
| 8 | SONY ILCE-7M4 | No. 8 non-phone camera |
| 9 | Canon EOS R7 | No. 9 non-phone camera |
| 10 | Canon EOS R6m2 | No. 10 non-phone camera |
The Canon EOS R5 led the non-phone list, followed by the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. The SONY ILCE-7M3 was third, and the NIKON D850 fourth. Canon EOS R6, NIKON D750, and Canon EOS 5D Mark III filled positions five through seven. The SONY ILCE-7M4, Canon EOS R7, and Canon EOS R6m2 completed positions eight through 10. These names and positions come from Flickr’s 2024 Year in Review.
The overall ranking included phones as well as dedicated cameras. Apple models occupied the first nine positions, with the Canon EOS R5 appearing at No. 10. Apple iPhone 13 was No. 1, followed by Apple iPhone 14 Pro, Apple iPhone 13 Pro, and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple iPhone 11 ranked fifth; Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max sixth; Apple iPhone 15 Pro seventh; Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max eighth; and Apple iPhone 12 ninth. Flickr reported these as its most popular cameras overall in 2024.
That split gives two useful views of Flickr activity. The overall list describes the devices appearing most often across the service’s camera data, while the non-phone list isolates dedicated cameras. Neither list should be read as a forecast of future camera sales or as a measure of image quality.
Device diversity and photographic styles
Flickr members used nearly 7,000 different kinds of image capture devices in 2024, according to Flickr’s 2024 Year in Review. The device data went beyond cameras and phones: Flickr identified drones, trail cams, scanners, video cameras, apps, and screenshot-capture programs as additional categories. Those six categories show why a Flickr device count covers a broad range of image-making and image-capturing tools.
The data also includes a small but striking longevity detail: about 900 Flickr users were still using an iPhone 3G in 2024. That figure is an approximate count reported by Flickr, so it should be understood as “about,” rather than an exact total.
Flickr users identified street photography as the fastest-growing photographic style in 2024, with 30% growth versus the prior year. The comparison is year over year, and the measure applies to the style as reported by Flickr. It does not establish how many street-photography images were uploaded or how many photographers participated.
Several details point to a community where current hardware and long-lived devices coexist. Mirrorless and DSLR models dominate the dedicated-camera ranking, while the broader device list includes old phones, specialized capture equipment, software tools, and scanners. The nearly 7,000-device figure is therefore best read as a measure of variety across Flickr’s recorded capture devices.
Growing tags and photographed landmarks
Flickr’s 2024 Year in Review listed six tags among its top five growing tags: Red, Green, 2024, United States, Sport, and Art. The supplied ranking statements identify each of these as part of the top-five group, while also identifying “2024” as the top growing tag. Because the source statements do not provide growth percentages or a complete ordered list for all six labels, the tags are reported here without adding an unsupported ranking beyond the stated top position for “2024.”
The tag mix spans color, place, time, activity, and creative subject matter. Red and Green are color terms; United States is geographic; Sport describes an activity; Art describes a broad creative subject; and 2024 identifies the calendar year. Flickr’s figures establish their growth-list presence, but not the number of images behind each tag.
The top photographed landmarks in 2024 were led by Times Square in New York, United States. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also in New York, ranked second, followed by the Empire State Building in third. The Eiffel Tower in Paris ranked fourth, and Seattle’s Space Needle ranked fifth.
London’s Big Ben ranked sixth. Rome appeared twice in the next two positions: the Colosseum ranked seventh and the Trevi Fountain eighth. Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia ranked ninth, and Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo ranked 10th. Flickr’s landmark list is a ranking of photographed landmarks on the service in 2024, not a count of tourist visits.
The list covers 10 landmarks across the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Japan. New York supplied three entries: Times Square, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Empire State Building. Rome supplied two. The remaining five entries came from Seattle, Paris, London, Barcelona, and Tokyo.
Places, dates, and metadata
Flickr’s Vatican City callout paired a small resident population with much larger Flickr activity. Vatican City had a population of 764 in the year-in-review callout, while over 2,300 unique Flickr users visited the location in 2024 and uploaded 24,368 photos. These are separate measures: the population figure describes the place, while the user and photo figures describe Flickr activity associated with it.
| Vatican City measure | Flickr-reported figure | Period or context |
|---|---|---|
| Population in the callout | 764 | Flickr 2024 Year in Review |
| Unique Flickr users | Over 2,300 | Visitors in 2024 |
| Photos uploaded | 24,368 | Those visitors in 2024 |
Upload timing and capture timing did not produce the same “most popular” date. September 30 was Flickr’s most popular day to upload photos in 2024. January 1 was the most popular day on which photos were taken when Flickr respected date metadata. Flickr also identified May 11 as the top day to actually take photos in 2024 when date settings were correct. The distinction matters because an image can be captured on one date and uploaded on another.
The year-in-review data also contained extreme metadata values. Flickr included photos dated March 16, 9095, highlighting a future timestamp, and photos dated April 27, 1524, highlighting a historical timestamp. These examples demonstrate unusual dates in the metadata; they are not evidence that the photographs were literally made in those years.
Groups and World Photography Day
Community activity appeared in several different forms in Flickr’s 2024 figures. World Photography Day 2024 was Flickr’s fastest-growing group. FRIENDLY CHALLENGES was the most popular group by discussion activity. WONDERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN GENERAL was one of the most active non-prize groups by new members, while Unlimited Photos: No Rules was one of the most active non-prize groups by photo activity.
These labels describe different measures, so they should not be combined into a single overall group ranking. Growth, discussion activity, new-member activity, and photo activity each capture a different kind of participation. Flickr’s statements identify the leading or active group for each stated measure without supplying comparable totals for all of them.
The World Photography Day 2024 contest had over 12,500 participants and over 30,000 submissions, according to Flickr’s 2024 in Review. The contest was part of Flickr’s 20th-birthday celebrations in 2024. The participant and submission figures are both reported as “over,” so they are lower-bound descriptions rather than exact counts.
Flickr also launched Photo of the Day in 2024. The feature spotlighted one photo each day from the Flickr Social group on Instagram. During the same year, Flickr refreshed its website with a modern and vibrant redesign and updated albums with new search, reorder, and sorting-preservation tools.
Flickr’s development over time
Flickr launched in February 2004. Flickr’s 20 Years of Significant Moments in Flickr’s Development records that the service passed the 2 billion photos mark just over two years after Yahoo acquired it in March 2005. In January 2008, Flickr Commons launched with the Library of Congress as its first partner.
Language support expanded in June 2007, when Flickr added seven languages: French, German, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese. Flickr released its first iPhone app in September 2009. Camera Roll and Desktop Auto-Uploadr were introduced in May 2015.
SmugMug acquired Flickr in April 2018. In March 2019, Flickr removed the Yahoo account requirement, allowing members to register with any email address. In December 2019, Flickr tripled the maximum image resolution for Pro members to 6K.
More recent milestones include Flickr expanding Pro Stats to 36 weeks in November 2023. In December 2023, Flickr achieved Certified Evergreen and Climate Neutral certifications. The Flickr Foundation was established in 2022 to safeguard Flickr and its photo collection for 100 years. That foundation statement describes a long-term preservation aim, not a forecast of future membership or upload totals.
Together, these milestones place the 2024 figures in a longer timeline: a service launched in 2004, reached 2 billion photos shortly after the 2005 Yahoo acquisition, added Flickr Commons in 2008, and continued changing its account, resolution, statistics, and album features through 2024. The source for the 2024 rankings and activity measures is Flickr’s 2024 Year in Review; the historical milestones are from Flickr’s 20 Years of Significant Moments in Flickr’s Development and Flickr Foundation’s “Meet the photographers!”.