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.
Editor’s top picks – YouTube statistics
- YouTube Music is a Top 100 app in the App Store. (App Store Charts)
- YouTube receives over 30 billion visits every month. (Similarweb)
- Over 20 million YouTube accounts are subscribed to YouTube Premium. (Statista)
- MrBeast is the most-subscribed YouTube channel run by an individual or individual personality. (SocialBlade)
- “Baby Shark Dance” by kids’ channel Pinkfong Baby Shark – Kids’ Songs & Stories is the #1 video on YouTube with over 12 billion views. (Statista)
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.