24 Latest YouTube Statistics (2024 User And Revenue Data)

How many YouTube channels do you follow?

Hopefully, it’s more than one as YouTube is one of the largest video platforms on the web as well as one of the largest sources of entertainment in the world.

In fact, it has been since it was founded in 2005.

It’s also one of the most-visited websites in the world as well as one of the most popular mobile apps.

That’s what makes this post so interesting. It contains a collection of YouTube statistics that reveal what makes the platform tick, its impact on the economy and more.

We’ve organized these stats into a few different categories, including general statistics, marketing statistics and more.

Let’s get into it.

General YouTube statistics

1. YouTube generated over $29.2B in ad revenue in 2022

According to the Q4 edition of Google’s financial reports for 2022, the company generated $29,243,000,000 from YouTube ads alone in 2022.

This was a $398M increase from 2021.

This revenue accounted for 10.34% of Google’s total revenue of $282.8B for 2022.

It’s also worth noting that YouTube gives 55% of ad revenue to creators and 70% of the revenue from channel memberships, super chats during livestreams and ads from Shorts.

Source: Google’s Q4 Financial Report

2. YouTube is a Top 10 mobile app in the App Store

As you know, YouTube can be viewed in a browser or various apps on numerous devices, including iOS devices.

YouTube ranks as the #7 free app on the App Store for iPhones and #2 for iPads.

It’s behind TikTok and Instagram.

This is a big indicator that internet users still rely on YouTube for video content.

The app ranks as the #26 free app on Google Play, which is available for Android devices.

It’s behind TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

Note: These positions change frequently.

Source: App Store Charts

3. YouTube creators added more than $25B to the United States GDP in 2021

In 2022, YouTube teamed up with Oxford Economics, a research company that specializes in global economic forecasting and econometric analysis.

They produced The State of the Creator Economy, a report on YouTube’s impact on the economy as well as its creators’ quality of life.

They discovered that money generated from YouTube and its creators contributed more than $25B to the US GDP in 2021.

This was the equivalent of 425,000 full-time jobs in 2021.

Source: Oxford Economics

Note: If you’d like to learn more, check out our post on the top creator economy statistics.

4. YouTube Music is a Top 100 app in the App Store

While the YouTube app itself is a top performer in the App Store, YouTube Music is much less fortunate.

It’s #100 in the App Store for iPhones and doesn’t even rank for iPads. It’s also well behind Spotify, which holds the #18 position.

The app is #78 on Google Play.

Note: These positions change frequently.

Source: App Store Charts

YouTube usage statistics

5. YouTube receives over 30B visits per month

According to YouTube statistics collected by Similarweb, YouTube receives over 30 billion visits every month.

In December of 2022 alone, the site had an average visit duration of 19 minutes, a bounce rate of 20.6% and an average number of 11.03 pages viewed per visit.

Source: Similarweb¹

6. 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

Statista has been tracking the number of hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute since mid-2007.

While that number was as low as six in June of 2007, over 500 hours of video have been uploaded to YouTube every minute since May of 2019.

That’s 30,000 hours of video uploaded every hour, 720,000 uploaded every day, 5.04 million uploaded every week, 21.9 million uploaded every month and 262.8 million uploaded every year.

Source: Statista¹

7. The average length of a YouTube video is 11.7 minutes

According to Statista, the average length of a YouTube video is 11.7 minutes, as of December 2018.

That number changes by category:

• Gaming – 24.7 minutes
• Film & Animation – 19.2 minutes
• Entertainment – 12.9 minutes
• Other – 9.5 minutes
• People & Blogs – 8.4 minutes
• Music – 6.8 minutes

Source: Statista²

8. YouTube Shorts receive over 50B views daily

YouTube Shorts is Google’s answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels. It’s a feature you can use right within the YouTube app itself.

It functions in the same way TikTok and Instagram Reels do: infinite scrolling through portrait-mode video clips.

YouTube launched Shorts in mid-2020, and Statista has been tracking their daily views ever since.

They surpassed 30 billion daily views in June of 2021 and 50 billion daily views in February of 2022.

Source: Statista³

9. 20.75% of YouTube’s traffic comes from the United States

According to YouTube statistics collected by Similarweb, most Youtube users are located in the United States.

In fact, 20.75% of the platform’s traffic comes from the US, which is a vast majority.

5.78% comes from Russia, 4.5% comes from Brazil, 4.09% comes from India and 4.04% comes from Japan.

The other 60.84% comes from countries around the world.

Source: Similarweb²

10. 60.59% of YouTube’s audience is male

60.59% of YouTube’s total user base is male, according to YouTube statistics collected by Similarweb.

Source: Similarweb³

11. 56.66% of YouTube’s audience are millennials or Gen Z

According to the same YouTube statistics as before, 56.66% of viewers on YouTube are from the millennial or Gen Z age demographics.

30.19% are between the ages of 25 and 34 while 26.47% are 18-24.

Source: Similarweb³

12. Over 20 million YouTube accounts are subscribed to YouTube Premium

According to Statista, there were over 20 million users paying for YouTube Premium, YouTube’s subscription plan, in 2020.

That number is expected to grow by eight million in 2024 for a rough total of 27.9 million subscribers.

YouTube Premium offers ad-free experiences of both YouTube and YouTube Music as well as the ability to enjoy YouTube content offline by downloading it.

Source: Statista⁴

13. Video games are the top category on YouTube

Similarweb’s data states that the gaming category on YouTube incites the highest amount of interest, specifically “Video Games Consoles & Accessories.”

Tech-based categories are next.

“News” is the top topic, followed by “google,” “search,” “games” and “online.”

However, our next stat disputes this.

Source: Similarweb⁴

14. 25% of video views are in the Entertainment category of YouTube

According to Statista’s statistics on YouTube’s distribution of video views, 25% of all video views on the platform go to the Entertainment category.

While 22% go to the “Other” category, 20% go to Music, 19% go to People & Blogs, and 7% go to Film & Animation and Gaming each.

Source: Statista⁵

YouTube marketing statistics

15. 72% of creative entrepreneurs say YouTube ads are an important source of income for them

When Oxford Economics surveyed 6,000 creators for their report, they found that 72% of them agreed that they earned a substantial amount of money from the ads that play throughout their videos.

This is great as it demonstrates the ability for many creators to earn an income just from making YouTube videos.

Source: Oxford Economics

16. 85% of small businesses believe YouTube helps them reach new audiences

Social media platforms like YouTube make great marketing platforms for a variety of different reasons.

One of those is the way in which they have their own built-in audiences.

When you only use your website for marketing, you have to build your audience yourself.

While you should do this anyway so you don’t have to rely on third-party platforms, you’ll have to spend a lot of time building that audience.

That’s probably why 85% of small businesses agreed that YouTube helps them reach new audiences when Oxford Economics surveyed over 6,000 creators.

Source: Oxford Economics

17. 75% of small businesses believe having a presence on YouTube helped their businesses sustain the impact of COVID-19

When COVID-19 brought the world to a halt due to government-imposed shutdowns, businesses around the world had to adapt in order to survive.

One of the ways businesses adapted was by building an online presence across multiple social media platforms, namely YouTube and TikTok.

In Oxford Economics’ survey, 75% of businesses agree that using YouTube throughout the pandemic helped their business through the ordeal.

83% agree using YouTube throughout the pandemic helped their organization adapt.

Source: Oxford Economics

18. 79% of small businesses use YouTube for staff training

YouTube is a cost-effective way to get a lot of things done.

These days, it’s a common way for small businesses to offer staff training for tasks that don’t require hands-on training.

Oxford Economics’ survey revealed that 79% of small businesses use YouTube as a cost-effective alternative for staff training.

Source: Oxford Economics

YouTube creator statistics

19. Over 5,500 YouTube channels in the US have at least 1M subscribers

Oxford Economics’ The State of the Creator Economy report revealed that over 45,000 YouTube channels in the US have at least 100,000 subscribers, as of December 2021.

More impressively, they found that more than 5,500 channels have at least 1M subscribers.

Source: Oxford Economics

20. MrBeast surpassed Pewdiepie as the most-subscribed YouTube creator with over 112 million subscribers

According to BBC and several other news outlets, MrBeast became the most-subscribed YouTuber in November of 2022 when he surpassed Pewdiepie’s 111 million subscriber count.

Pewdiepie held the title since August of 2013. Now, MrBeast has over 134 million subscribers while Pewdiepie’s subscriber growth has all but halted.

While channels like T-Series, YouTube Movies, Cocomelon and SET India technically have more subscribers than MrBeast, channels like these are corporate-owned and operated.

This makes MrBeast the most-subscribed YouTube channel run by an individual or individual personality.

Source: SocialBlade¹

21. T-Series has the most video views with over 215 billion views

T-Series is one of the largest music labels in India.

The T-Series YouTube channel is a hub for the label’s music videos.

The channel has received over 215 billion video views from over 18,700 videos.

Other most-viewed YouTube channels include Cocomelon with 151B views, SET India with 139B views, Sony SAB with 92B views, Kids Diana Show with 88B views, Like Nastya with 87B views and WWE with 74B views.

Source: SocialBlade²

22. Cocomelon is the most-subscribed channel from YouTube Kids

YouTube first separated its regular content from content made for kids when it launched the YouTube Kids app in 2015.

This app lets kids watch YouTube in a restricted environment that has child-friendly content and inactive comment sections.

Cocomelon, a channel that produces animated videos for kids, is the most-subscribed channel of this kind.

They have 154 million subscribers and more than 152 billion video views.

Other top channels include Kids Diana Show with 108M subscribers, Like Nastya with 104M subscribers, and Vlad and Niki with 93.7M subscribers.

Source: SocialBlade³

23. “Baby Shark Dance” is the most-viewed video on YouTube with over 12 billion views

“Baby Shark Dance” by kids’ channel Pinkfong Baby Shark – Kids’ Songs & Stories is the #1 video on YouTube with over 12 billion views.

That’s 4 billion more views than the #2 video, “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee.

“Baby Shark Dance” is a lighthearted video that features two kids singing a catchy song against an animated, two-dimensional underwater background.

Other top videos include “Johny Johny Yes Papa” by LooLoo Kids, “Bathsong” by Cocomelon, “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran, and “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth.

Source: Statista⁶

24. 80% of creative entrepreneurs say YouTube provides opportunities they wouldn’t get from traditional media

The digital era has made it easier for creatives to get their work seen when in the past, these types of opportunities were confined to traditional media, an industry rife with gatekeeping and red tape.

The publishing industry is a great example of this.

In the past, authors had to get an agent and submit their book to a dozen or more publishers before they got a “yes.”

Today, anyone can self-publish a book and market it themselves.

That’s exactly what YouTube lets you do, in a sense.

In fact, according to Oxford Economics’ survey, 80% of entrepreneurs in the creative space agree that where YouTube makes it possible to create content and earn an income from it, traditional media typically says no.

Source: Oxford Economics

YouTube statistics sources

Final thoughts

While these statistics provide key information about YouTube in the form of facts and figures, it’s important to remember that YouTube, like many social media platforms these days, is operated by an algorithm.

This makes it an incredibly unpredictable platform, not to mention next to impossible to determine how well your channel is performing or can perform.

It’s different for everyone.

What you can do is review your own numbers, come up with a few strategies to improve them, implement those strategies, then review your numbers again to see how everything is going.

The amount of money you’re able to generate from ads differs depending on where your viewers are located, what niche you’re in, how long your videos are, how many views you receive, etc.

We do recommend studying other channels in your niche to see what’s working for them, but above all, worry more about creating good content and less about numbers if you don’t want to endure creator burnout.

For additional reading:

• The Best Times To Publish YouTube Videos
• How To Make Money On YouTube
• How To Promote Your YouTube Channel
• How To Use YouTube to Grow Your Blog Traffic
• The Best Video Hosting Sites
• 33 Ways To Promote A YouTube Video
• The Best WordPress Video Gallery Plugins