Deepfake Statistics - Global Data, Trends & Real Numbers

What makes a deepfake more dangerous than a regular fake photo

A deepfake is synthetic video, audio, or images where someone's likeness is convincingly faked using AI. The term mixes "deep learning" and "fake." What started as a niche in late 2017 is now on every smartphone. By 2024, over 100,000 deepfake videos were created every month. Most are used without consent. The tech threatens elections, enables fraud, and fuels non-consensual intimate imagery.

What happens when someone makes a deepfake of you

Deepfakes are no longer a technology problem restricted to celebrities. As of 2024, free tools capable of generating convincing face-swap videos are available to anyone with a smartphone. The barrier to creating one has essentially gone to zero.

Security Hero's 2024 report found that 98% of all deepfake videos are non-consensual intimate imagery - fake pornography featuring real people's faces, overwhelmingly targeting women. Victims have no reliable mechanism to remove this content. It appears on platforms that operate outside legal jurisdiction, and once published, it spreads in ways that are nearly impossible to reverse.

Beyond sexual harm, deepfakes are increasingly used for fraud. A 2024 case involved a finance employee wiring $25 million to fraudsters after a video call featuring a deepfake of his CFO. Prosecutors in multiple countries are still developing legal frameworks to address it. The technology is running significantly faster than the law.

The hardest facts: 98%, non-consensual, no path to removal

From academic curiosity to a crisis in five years

1. 2014Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) invented by Ian Goodfellow, the foundational technology
2. 2017First public deepfakes appear on Reddit; DeepFaceLab released as open-source software
3. 2018Sensity AI begins systematic monitoring; ~8,000 deepfake videos catalogued online
4. 201914,678 deepfake videos detected; congressional hearings on deepfake disinformation held in the US
5. 2020Sensity counts 85,047 deepfake videos by year-end; numbers doubling every 6 months
6. 2022Diffusion models (Stable Diffusion, DALL-E) further lower cost of realistic fake media
7. 2023Deepfake incidents grow 10× in a single year (Sumsub); face-swap deepfakes +704% within 2023
8. 2024Deepfake video call used to steal $25.6M in Hong Kong; over 100,000 deepfakes/month created globally
9. 2025~8 million deepfakes circulate online (16x vs 2023); $1.28B in verified fraud losses; Resemble AI documents 1,567 verified incidents

Deepfake volume growth: doubling every year since 2018

Deepfake creation grew from 8,000 detected videos in 2018 to over 100,000 per month in 2024, as generation tools moved from requiring powerful servers to running on smartphones in minutes.

Deepfakes within the wider AI-generated media explosion

Deepfakes are a subset of the broader AI-generated media wave. Both numbers are growing rapidly as generation tools become cheaper and easier to use.

The deepfake threat: technology, consent, and democracy

Detection and harm research: what studies measure

In perspective

How the number is calculated

The 380/hr live rate is based on Resemble AI's 2025 Deepfake Threat Report, which documented ~8 million deepfakes circulating online at point of measurement (up from ~500,000 in 2023). Annual new creation is extrapolated from this growth trajectory: ~3.3 million new deepfakes created in 2025 ÷ 365 days ÷ 24 hours ≈ 380/hr. Security Hero's 2024 baseline (100,000+ deepfakes/month = 139/hr) is the prior year anchor. Both reports count only publicly indexed content; private creation via smartphone apps is not captured.

Sources: Sensity AI - The State of Deepfakes 2020 - Sumsub - Global Deepfake Incidents Research 2023 - Home Security Heroes - State of Deepfakes Report 2024 - CyberPeace - Deepfake Pornography Report - Resemble AI - 2025 Deepfake Threat Report. Methodology →

Frequently asked questions

How many deepfake videos are created per day?

Based on Resemble AI's 2025 Deepfake Threat Report, the modelled creation rate is approximately 380 per hour, or around 9,100 per day. This is extrapolated from the ~8 million deepfakes circulating online (up from 500,000 in 2023) and covers only publicly indexed content. Private creation via smartphone apps is not captured, so the real number is likely significantly higher.

What percentage of deepfakes are non-consensual?

Research consistently finds that 96-98% of deepfake videos circulating online are non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), predominantly targeting women. A 2023 report by Security Hero found 98% of deepfakes fell into this category.

How has the deepfake landscape changed since 2018?

From late 2018 to late 2020, Sensity AI found 85,047 deepfake videos online, doubling every six months. By 2023, incidents had grown 10x in a year (Sumsub). Creation tools got cheaper and easier: what needed a server and months in 2018 now runs on a phone in minutes.

Which sectors are most affected by deepfake fraud?

In 2023, cryptocurrency/fintech accounted for 96% of all deepfake fraud cases (Sumsub). Deepfakes are increasingly used in identity verification bypass, investment scams using celebrity likenesses, and corporate fraud, including a 2024 case in Hong Kong where deepfake video conferencing was used to defraud a company of $25 million.

Can deepfakes be detected?

Current AI detection tools achieve 80-90% accuracy in lab conditions, but real-world performance is lower. Human ability to detect deepfakes averages only 57% accuracy, barely better than random guessing. Detection technology is in an arms race with generation technology.