YouTube: entertaining us since 2005.

All sorts of videos took us by storm on YouTube: music, DIY videos, how-tos, product reviews, movies, events, gaming, fitness workouts, travel, vlogs, and many more. Both individuals and brands managed to find a place on Youtube. 

YouTube is also an ads platform, this is how Google ends up making money, but we’ll talk about this a bit later.

Until then, let’s go through some yummy YouTube statistics! We’ve got several categories:

1. YouTube statistics: the basics
2. YouTube demographics
3. YouTube engagement statistics
4. YouTube’s most popular creators and videos
5. YouTube for creators
6. YouTube as an advertising platform

At the end of the article, there’s a huge list of all the sources used to create this article.

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YouTube statistics: the basics

YouTube turned 17 back in February 2022. It is now the second-largest social media platform in the world, being outranked by Facebook.

Back in 2005, YouTube revolutionized the way information was spreading on the internet. This is why, in 2006, it received “The invention of the year” award by Time magazine.

Google acquired YouTube in October 2006 for $1.65 billion. 

• Fast forward to 2022, according to the DataReportal report, 58.4%  of the world population are active social media users. Here’s how the interest goes:

• What’s exciting is that the social media networks growth is still double-digit. The year-on-year active social media user growth was 10.1%. (Data Reportal)
• YouTube is the second most preferred content for millennials to consume online video content after Netflix. (HootSuite)

YouTube demographics

• The active YouTube users from India, the United States, and Indonesia represent 33% of YouTube’s audience.
• India has a lot of potential as YouTube users growth. Right now, India has the largest number of active users, but it also has a very small YouTube penetration: 37%. There’s room to grow. The countries with the largest YouTube penetration are The Netherlands, South Korea, and New Zealand.
• Youtube is available in 80 languages in more than 100 countries.
• 62% of YouTube users in the United States accessed the video platform on a daily basis in the third quarter of 2020, while 92% are using YouTube weekly. (Audience Project)
• Youtube has also gained traction among older adults. From 2019 to 2021, the share of Americans ages 50 to 64 who say they use YouTube increased from 70% to 83%. Among those 65 and older, YouTube usage increased from 38% to 49%. Meanwhile, the younger age groups have remained fairly stable in their use of YouTube. 
• 53.9% of global YouTube users are male.
• 46.1% of global YouTube users are female.
• YouTube now has at least 2.56 billion active users, which equates to roughly 88% of the latest Facebook total. (Data Reportal)

YouTube engagement statistics

• In 2022 TikTok will surpass YouTube in terms of time spent by their respective adult users in the US. TikTok will record 45.8 minutes per day from its average adult user, edging out YouTube, at 45.6 minutes. (eMarketer).
• 3 in 4 adults are watching Youtube at home on their mobile devices (YouTube Cross-Screen Survey).
• The top four content categories watched by YouTube users are comedy, music, entertainment/pop culture, and “how to.” (YouTube Cross-Screen Survey)
• 500+ hours of content are uploaded every minute (Youtube official news), meaning that YouTubers upload about 720,000 hours of fresh video content per day.
• Between 2014 and 2020, the number of video hours uploaded grew by about 40%.
• 53% agree that watching creators or artists livestream helped them feel connected to other people. (YouTube trends)
• 85% of people have watched a live stream over the past 12 months. This was in May 2021. (YouTube trends)
• 82% watch videos that help you learn how to do something about once a month or more often.  (YouTube trends)
• Channels with at least 250,000 subscribers account for 70% of the overall uploaded video content on the platform. Of that percentage, 10% of these channels accounted for 79% of all video views. (Earthweb).
• In 2020, YouTube launched the Shorts feature to users in India. YouTube Shorts are no longer than 60 minutes in length. Yes, there is a time restriction on these videos. This new feature has become popular after being launched to all audiences in 2021. Today, it’s achieving over 15 billion views each day. (The Motley Fool)
• Views of videos related to chess have grown over 100% in the last 12 months compared to the 12 months prior. (YouTube trends). Might this be the effect of “The Queen’s Gambit”?  
• Sports viewership on YouTube is expected to reach 90 million by 2025, a 26% projected increase. (Think with Google).
• Between 2019 and 2020, the YouTube watch time on TV screens nearly doubled, with over 120 million people watching every month. (Think with Google)

YouTube’s most popular creators and videos

• 72% of people have posted video content online over the past 12 months. (YouTube trends).
• The top two YouTube searches in 2021 were  “Song” and “Songs”.  

• So, music is the main reason people go to YouTube. And, the most popular song is…drums please: “Baby Shark Dance” by Pinkfong, the Korean education brand. It surpassed 10 billion views in January 2022, making it the most-viewed video of all time. The second one is “Despacito”. 

• The top 10 channels by subscribers and number of video views are as follows:

• The top five live channels on YouTube right now include Lofi Hip Hop Radio, Typical Gamer, Jackfrags. The Body Coach, and ESL Counter-Strike. This means that music, gaming, and fitness are running the show.
• 79% of people say YouTube has sports content that can’t be found on other platforms. (Think with Google)
• YouTube is the most-mentioned platform for learning something new among 78% of baby boomers. (Think with Google)

YouTube for creators

• The YouTube Partner Program was launched 15 years ago. 
• The YouTube Partner Program reached 2 million members in august 2021. 
• In order to qualify for the program, creators need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of overall watch time on their channel in the past 12 months. They can earn money through ads, subscription fees, donations, live streaming, and YouTube Premium revenue.
• The number of new channels joining the program in 2020 more than doubled when compared to 2019, and the number of YouTube channels making six figures or more in revenue is up 35 percent year over year. (Neal Mohan, chief product officer at YouTube)
• Between 2019 and 2021, YouTube has paid out $30 billion to creators as advertising and merchandising revenue. (The Motley Fool & YouTube blog)
• Only 9% of small businesses have their own Youtube channel. (Brandwatch).
• Youtube was used in 30% of influencer campaigns in 2020. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
• Nano-influencers made an average of $315 per YouTube video, while “power” influencers (with followings between 30,000 and 500,000) made $782 per video, on average, in 2019. (Klear)

YouTube as an advertising platform

• YouTube accounts for over 50% of ad-supported streaming watch time on connected TVs among people ages 18 and up.  (Google blog)
• 55% of marketers are investing in YouTube.
• 88% of people purchase from a brand after seeing it in a video. (Wyzowl)
• In a 2020 MMM meta-analysis with Nielsen, YouTube ROI was 1.2 times greater on average than TV ROI for total CPG MMMs that measured YouTube, Other Digital, and TV.7 And that’s regardless of creative, regardless of their strategy, regardless of whether the brand is more accustomed to TV than digital. (YouTube blog & Nielsen).
• YouTube takes a 45% cut of video ad sales. (The Motley Fool)
• The biggest advertiser on YouTube back in 2020 was Apple Inc, having spent $237.15 million.
• Between 2017 and 2021, YouTube’s advertising revenue as a percentage of Google’s global revenue rose from 7.3% to 11.2%. (Alphabet annual report 2021)

• YouTube’s ad revenue in 2020 was reported to be $19.7 billion, while in 2021, it was $28.8 billion. (Alphabet annual report 2021, page 33)
• YouTube’s ad revenue was up 49% in the year-ago period and increased 46% for the full year of 2021. In the first quarter of 2021, that growth slowed down. The growth reached $6.87 billion — missing Wall Street expectations by more than $600 million. (Variety)
• Males aged 25-34 are YouTube’s sweet spot in terms of advertising audience. (Hootsuite)
• Ads on YouTube reached in Dec 2021 more than 2½ billion users, with that figure increasing by a hefty 11.9 percent (+271 million users) over the past 12 months. (Data Reportal)
• YouTube premium plans allow users to have an ads-free experience, as well as video and music downloads. The number of YouTube Premium subscribers was around 20 million in 2020 and is expected to grow to 27.9 million by 2024 (eMarketer). 

You can find out more info on how to make money on YouTube, here. There’s also a calculator that helps you estimate revenue based on daily video views.

Here are the sources used for the article:

• Data Reportal – Digital 2022: Global Overview Report
• Data Reportal – YouTube’s Ad Reach Passes 2.5 billion
• eMarketer – In a first, TikTok will beat YouTube in user time spent
• YouTube Press
• Think With Google – Video Consumption Trends
• Think with Google – Sports viewership changes
• Statista – Media usage in a minute as of August 2021
• Statista – Top YouTube video views
• Hootsuite – the Global State of Digital
• The Motley Fool
• Earthweb – How Many Videos Are Uploaded To Youtube A Day in 2022?
• Audience Project – New study: Instagram climbs the ladder, TikTok has a long way to go
• YouTube blog – Building the YouTube of the future for viewers, creators, and advertisers
• Google blog – YouTube brandcast 2022
• Variety – YouTube Ad Revenue Growth Slows Dramatically in Q1, Alphabet Misses Expectations
• Alphabet Annual Report
• Influencer Marketing Hub – The State of Influencer Marketing 2021
• State of Video Marketing 2022