YouTube continues to see consistent growth and change in
trends as older generations adopt the platform and younger generations grow alongside
it.
While conducting research for this blog post, we were
fascinated by different user behaviours among demographics and decided to dive
deeper into those to better understand what differentiates each segment.
This blog post contains 61 YouTube statistics that were
exclusively picked for marketers, businesses, and creators to leverage, with
the purpose of providing an understanding as to how YouTube is being used and
what we can expect in the future.
YouTube User Stats
1. YouTube has over 1.9 billion monthly active users.
2. Over one-third of the internet is a YouTube user.
3. Over one billion hours of YouTube videos are watched daily.
4. Information-seeking is one of the top three reasons why people watch YouTube.
5. YouTube has localized their platform in more than 91 countries.
6. Navigate YouTube in 80 different languages.
YouTube Demographic Stats
7. Greater than 50% of YouTube’s audience is female.
8. YouTube users are more likely to have a college degree compared to the general population.
9. 41% of monthly YouTube users in the U.S. are ethnically diverse.
10. 81% of parents who watch YouTube are likely to act after seeing a video ad that addresses back-to-school topics relevant to them.
11. Majority of ethnically diverse YouTube viewers use the platform at least once a day.
12. 91% of dads watch YouTube at least monthly.
Baby Boomers Stats (Born 1944 – 1964):
13. 33% use YouTube to learn about a product or service.
14. 68% watch YouTube videos to be entertained.
15. Most-watched categories on YouTube are entertainment, music, and news.
16. 1.3X more likely to prefer watching a YouTube tutorial than reading instructions.
Generation X Stats (Born 1965 – 1979):
17. 75% choose to watch YouTube videos that relate to past events or people.
18. 60% visit YouTube for music-related content at least once per week.
19. 68% watch YouTube videos to stay on top of news and pop culture.
20. 73% watch YouTube videos to learn how to do something.
21. Gen X accounts for over 1.5 billion views every day on YouTube.
Millennial Stats (Born 1980 – 1994):
22. 70% watch YouTube to learn how to do something new.
23. 6 of 10 women on YouTube are more likely to remember a brand that’s LGBT-friendly.
24. 65% of parents watch YouTube videos to share parts of their own childhood with their children.
25. YouTube has helped 39% of millennial users see the world differently or go through life-changing moments in the past year.
26. U.S. black millennials watch 73% more YouTube mobile content per person than the general population of the same age.
27. 86% of dads use YouTube for guidance on key parenting topics
Generation Z Stats (Born 1995 – 2015):
28. 80% proactively share YouTube videos with parents or other adult family members.
29. 70% say watching videos with others helps them feel more connected.
30. 68% say YouTube has helped improve or gain skills that helped them prepare for the future.
31. YouTube is the #1 platform Gen Zers turn to when they want to relax or cheer up.
YouTube Usage Stats
32. Watch time of YouTube content on TV screens doubled year-over-year.
33. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
34. YouTube was the most downloaded iPhone app of the year in 2018.
35. 66% of users watch YouTube on a second screen while watching TV at home.
36. During the Super Bowl, 48% of people looking for ads went to YouTube.
37. 68% of YouTube users watched YouTube to help make a purchase decision.
38. Top two reasons viewers watch YouTube are “to relax” and “to feel entertained".
39. 4X as many people prefer watching video on YouTube as on social platforms that are less video-centric.
40. 70% of YouTube viewers use the platform for help with a problem related to work, studies, or hobbies.
YouTube Mobile Stats
41. YouTube mobile users are two times as likely to pay close attention while watching YouTube compared to TV users while watching TV.
42. On mobile alone, YouTube reaches more adults 18+ during prime time than any cable network does.
43. 75% of adults report watching YouTube at home on their mobile devices.
44. More than 50,000 years of product review videos watched on mobile in the past two years.
45. 60% of overall YouTube watch time comes from mobile.
YouTube Business Stats
46. Over 90% of people say they discover new brands or products on YouTube.
47. 70% of shoppers are open to learning about products on YouTube from brands.
48. Over 40% of global shoppers have purchased products they discovered on YouTube.
49. From 2016 to 2018, watch time for shopping-related videos on YouTube grew by more than 5X.
50. Watch time grew by 6X for “holiday” shopping content on YouTube over the past two years.
51. Mobile searches for “Top or best brands” have grown over 95% in the past two years.
52. 65% of people who took their vehicle in for service first heard about the service centre through video.
YouTube Advertising Stats
53. Relevant video ads get 3X the attention compared to the average video ad.
54. YouTube mobile advertising is 84% more likely to receive attention than TV advertising.
55. People who saw the U.S. Navy’s YouTube ads at least twice were 19% more likely to search for U.S. Navy keywords.
56. Attention paid to video ads on YouTube were 1.8X higher than on other social media platforms.
57. 62% of YouTube mobile advertising receives attention, compared to TV with 45%.
YouTube History Stats
58. YouTube was created by PayPal employees and the domain was activated on Monday, February 14, 2005.
59. First video was uploaded to YouTube on April 23, 2005 titled “Me at the zoo” by user “jawed”, also known as YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim.
60. In 2006, Google acquired YouTube for US$1.65 billion in stock, which was Google’s second-largest acquisition at the time.
61. The most liked and viewed YouTube video as of this post is Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” with over 16 million likes and 6.2 billion views.