YouTube has drastically evolved from its early days as a simple video platform. What started as a way for people to upload clips of themselves is now a powerhouse in social media marketing. YouTube offers a way for brands to get in front of large audiences at scale, either through their own channels or by partnering with influencers and creators. Not only is the platform now one of the largest search engines in the world, but the company also generates billions in annual revenue.
What does all of this mean for your YouTube marketing and social listening strategy? Let’s look at some key YouTube statistics and how you can use them to grow your YouTube channel, revenue, and brand image.
Table of Contents:
General YouTube Statistics
YouTube Demographics
Subscription YouTube Stats
YouTube Money Stats
Video Statistics YouTube
YouTube Usage Statistics
General YouTube Statistics
Let’s start with an overview of YouTube. This video-first platform emerged in 2005 as a tiny startup with the goal of making anyone and everyone the star of their own show, figuratively speaking. Founded by two engineers and a designer who met while working at PayPal, the platform has completely transformed content marketing as we know it.
Here’s a closer look at some of the most impressive YouTube stats.
How many YouTube channels are there?
YouTubers have made more than 51 million YouTube channels to date. YouTube has shown strong channel growth over the last couple of years, growing 36% since last year alone! (Tubics)
That said, there’s still plenty of room for brands to make a splash with their own content channel. Learn more in our blog post on how to create and manage a YouTube channel.
How many people use YouTube?
- YouTube has more than 2 billion monthly logged-in users who generate billions of views. (YouTube)
- Ads on the platform have the potential to reach more than 2.5 billion people. (DataReportal)
How much content is uploaded to YouTube every day?
Video marketing has certainly taken over the digital space. Currently, active users are uploading 500 hours of video content to the platform every minute! That equals about 12,000 hours of content per day. (YouTube)
How many users does YouTube have?
YouTube is the second most visited website in the world with 14.43 billion total visits. Google takes the number one spot with nearly triple the number of total visits. (DataReportal)
How much YouTube do people watch each day?
YouTube's logged-in users rack up more than one billion hours of video watch time each day. (YouTube)
YouTube Demographics
The top stats about YouTube mean very little if you don’t also understand the platform's audience. Who is using YouTube, and how are they using it? How much time do they spend here? What do they like and engage with the most? Read on for more stats YouTube marketers can use.
YouTube demographics statistics
- 54% of YouTube users are men. Looking back, we see a slight shift as more women are using YouTube. In 2020, for example, 56% of users were men. (Statista, Hootsuite)
- 81% of U.S. adults use YouTube. Broken down by gender, roughly 82% of all U.S. adult males and 80% of all U.S. adult females rely on the platform. (Pew Research Center)
- YouTube is popular with younger audiences, but it boasts a healthy user base spanning all ages. For instance, 95% of individuals between the ages 18-29 and 95% of individuals ages 30-49 use YouTube, as well as 49% of users who are 65+. By comparison, other social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram haven’t caught on as much with older audiences. (Pew Research Center)
- YouTube is available in 91 countries and offers content in 80 different languages. It’s one of the largest global social media platforms, which helps to make it more attractive to more people. (YouTube)
YouTube user statistics
- YouTube is the second most used social media platform in the world, trailing Facebook by about 398 million users. The third most used social media platform is WhatsApp, which has about 500 million fewer users than YouTube. (Statista)
- 54% of YouTube users are visiting the platform daily and more than a third visit several times a day. The video platform has one of the most engaged audiences of all social media! (Pew Research Center)
- 79% of YouTube users are also using Facebook, while 72.4% also use WhatsApp and 77% also use Instagram. There’s a lot of overlap between audiences of the most common social media platforms, which is something marketers should think about when creating content. (DataReportal)
YouTube usage statistics
- One-third of users have watched a YouTube tutorial or how-to video this week. (DataReportal)
- More than one in five users stream YouTube videos via mobile device. Those who use mobile are visiting twice as many pages on YouTube. (DataReportal)
- 30% of internet users watch at least one live video stream each week. (DataReportal)
- 14.7% of internet users rely on vlogs (video blogs) to conduct brand research. Using social networks for brand research is especially popular in Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
YouTube target audience statistics
- Gaming-related content is immensely popular, as is sports content. Live sports digital viewership is expected to reach 90 million viewers by 2025. Meanwhile, 74% of sports fans visit YouTube several times each week. (Think With Google)
- YouTube content for kids is also booming. 80% of parents with kids ages 11 or younger say they let their children watch YouTube. There is also tons of kid-friendly content, including Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes, which is one of the top five most popular channels. (Pew Research Center/Social Blade)
Subscription YouTube Stats
YouTube lets users subscribe to channels so they never miss new content from their favorite creators. Subscriptions also help the YouTube algorithm serve users relevant recommendations. Here’s the state of YouTube subscriptions in 2022.
Who is the most subscribed YouTuber?
If we’re looking at individual YouTubers, PewDiePie takes the lead with 111 million subscribers. PewDiePie, better known as 32-year-old Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, is famous for his video game entertainment and has a net worth of $40 million. At last count, PewDiePie’s channel features 4,467 videos. (Social Blade)
Which YouTuber has the most subscribers?
If you’re looking at the brand channel with the most subscribers, that designation goes to T-Series, an Indian music label and film production company. As of April 2022, T-Series had 213 million subscribers and more than 16,600 uploaded videos. Learn how to grow your channel with our tips on how to grow subscribers on YouTube. (Social Blade)
YouTube Money Stats
YouTube launched its monetization strategy in 2006, just shortly over a year after the platform emerged. By 2009, it offered seven ad formats to help users monetize their channels. Here’s a closer look at what YouTubers are earning these days and other YouTube money stats.
What were YouTube's profits last year?
In 2021, YouTube made $28.8 billion in ad revenue. (Social Media Today)
How much is YouTube worth?
YouTube profits and annual revenue have been on the up and up for years, going from $8.1 billion in 2017 to $19.7 billion in 2020. Its current worth is estimated to be anywhere between $160 billion and $300 billion. Fun fact: Google bought YouTube in 2006 for a cool $1.65 billion. (Business of Apps)
What is the top YouTuber's income?
Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, was the estimated highest-paid earner for YouTube in 2021 with $54 million in revenue. Gamer Jake Paul took second place with $45 million. (Statista)
What is the top YouTuber net worth?
Based on overall net worth and not just 2021 earnings, the highest-earning YouTuber is Jeffree Star with an estimated net worth of $200 million. (Slice.ca)
How much money does the average YouTuber make?
The average YouTube channel generates about $18 in revenue for every 1000 ad views. However, earnings aren’t based on the number of views, but rather the actions taken on ads. If users watch your videos but don’t click on the ads, your channel doesn't earn any money. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
How much does YouTube pay content creators?
YouTube pays out about 68% of the revenue generated through AdSense. So, if a video earns $100 in ad revenue, the publisher will receive $68. (Google)
Video Statistics YouTube
From gaming walk-throughs to music videos, product reviews to beauty tutorials, YouTube is a bevy of content for everyone. But what are people actually watching, liking, subscribing to, and (perhaps most importantly) buying? These YouTube usage stats can help add some clarity.
What is the most-viewed song on YouTube?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most-viewed song on YouTube is the "Baby Shark Dance." It has earned more than 10 billion views, the first YouTube video to ever do so. (YouTube/Guinness World Records)
What are the most popular videos on YouTube?
Though not all YouTube content is based on music, its most popular videos seem to be. The "Baby Shark Dance" is the most-watched video, followed by "Despacito" with 7.71 million views. (Variety)
YouTube Music Stats
- The word “song” is the top search query on YouTube, followed by “songs” as the second most searched term. In fact, music-related terms dominate the top 10 search queries on YouTube. (Hootsuite)
- YouTube is the most popular music streaming service. It has a user base of more than 2 billion people who use the platform specifically for music. (YouGov)
YouTube’s size and scope hold a lot of potential for brands to provide value to their video-hungry audience. Meltwater supports your YouTube marketing strategy with data-driven insights into the content your customers love. From topics of interest to who is leading the conversation, Meltwater empowers your content ideation to help you form better connections with your viewers.
Learn more when you schedule a demo!
