On April 23, 2005, a young entrepreneur by the name of Jawed Karim uploaded an awkward and underwhelming 18-second video of himself standing in front of elephants at a zoo.
“Alright, so here we are, in front of the elephants.
The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really, long, um, trunks.
And that’s, that’s cool. And that’s pretty much all there is to say.”
– First-ever YouTube video by Jawed Karim, YouTube co-founder (2005)
Jawed uploaded the video to a new online website called YouTube – the first on a platform he was launching with co-creators Steve Chen and Chad Hurley.
Source: YouTube
Roughly 18 months later, Jawed and his partner Chad sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion.
By May 2010, YouTube was serving over 2 billion views per day, and by 2013 was hosting 1 billion monthly active users.
Today, YouTube boasts 2 billion active monthly users and nearly 100% of people under the age of 24 use the platform.
Marketers – this article is for you.
Find out how different generations use YouTube, how people watch YouTube, and what’s topics are in high demand this year.
Bookmark this article today so you can get back here quickly when you need reliable, organized YouTube statistics!
Who’s On Youtube?
1. 2 billion people login to YouTube each month.
2. Every day, YouTubers watch one billion hours of video.
3. Every day, YouTubers watch 250 million hours of YouTube on TV screens.
4. 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute
5. 83% of U.S. adults use YouTube:
6. 83% of U.S. men use YouTube.
7. 83% of U.S. women use YouTube.
8. 75% of adults watch YouTube on mobile devices.
9. Over 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices.
10. 70% of YouTube viewers default to horizontal viewing when watching from their phones.
11. Users are twice as likely to pay attention when watching YouTube than they are when watching TV.
$$$ What income bracket do YouTube users fall into? $$$
The following data applies to users in the U.S.
12. 89% of people earning $100K + use YouTube
13. 82% of people earning $80 – 100K use YouTube
14. 80% of people earning $60 – 80K use YouTube
15. 81% of people earning $30 – 60K use YouTube
16. 83% of people earning under $30K use YouTube
Urban vs. rural YouTubers
17. 84% of people living in urban areas use YouTube.
18. 79% of people living in rural areas use YouTube.
How Different Generations Use YouTube
19. 85% teens use YouTube.
20. 96% of internet users ages 18 – 24 use YouTube.
21. 80% of 18 – 49 year-olds watch YouTube at least monthly
22. 51% of internet users over 75 years old use YouTube.
Why Generation Z Watches Youtube
23. 24% of Gen Z’ers say YouTube has the best user experience on the web.
24. 70% of Gen Z’ers feel more connected when they watch YouTube videos with other people.
25. 80% of teens say YouTube has helped them become more knowledgeable about something
26. 70% of teens say YouTube has helped them gain valuable skills.
27. Did you know? The average Gen Z’er watches 68 YouTube videos per day.
28. 68% of baby boomers watch YouTube for entertainment.
29. 1 in 3 baby boomers watch YouTube to learn about a product or service.
30. 70% of millennials watch YouTube to learn about something.
31. Almost 60% of millenial women are likely to remember a brand that’s LBGTQ-friendly.
32. Millenials are almost 3X more likely to learn by watching YouTube than reading a book.
33. 45% of millenials say something they saw on YouTube inspired a life change.
34. 47% of millenials say they’ve watched YouTube videos to improve their physical or emotional health.
How Often People Watch YouTube
35. 12% of internet users in the U.S.access YouTube once a day.
36. 26% of internet users in the U.S. access YouTube several times a day.
37. 16% of internet users in the U.S. access YouTube at least once every couple days.
Why People Watch YouTube
38. The top 2 reasons people watch YouTube are to relax and to feel entertained.
39. 4,505 games are streamed on YouTube every day.
40. Half the U.S. Population consumes Music On YouTube.
41. 50% seek out content that gives them “new perspectives” on life.
42. 51% seek to better understand and connect with others through YouTube videos.
43. Over 50,000 video creators uploaded titles that included the phrase “Day in the Life” during 2018, videos that show what a typical day is like in their life.
For example, Sienna Santer’s “A Day in the Life of a Harvard Student,” published April 2019, received over 3 million views.
People watch YouTube to relax.
44. Videos related to “relaxing” increased by over 70% between June 2017 and June 2018.
45. Videos related to stress management have increased by over 60% in the past five years.
People watch YouTube to discover new products.
46. 70% of shoppers are open to learning about brand products on YouTube.
47. 2X more people watch videos about which products to buy than last year – this figure doubles each year.
48. “Shop with Me” style mobile videos grew 10X between 2015 and 2017.
80% of shoppers who watched a YouTube video about a product – watched at the beginning of the shopping process.
What’s Trending on YouTube
49. The top 4 content categories on YouTube are:
- Comedy
- Music
- Entertainment/pop culture
- How to
Sustainable Fashion and Clean Beauty
50. Uploads of videos with the words “sustainable hauls” in the title increased by 190% in 2018.
For example, one UCLA student started a thrift-store-haul channel named “bestdressed” that now has nearly 2 million subscribers.
53. Clean Beauty: views of videos with the words “clean beauty” in the title increased 7X last October.
Sustainable Living on YouTube
54. Views of videos with sustainable-living tips doubled in 2018 from the previous year.
55. Videos related to van life experience, a form of sustainable living, increased by more than 4.5X between 2017 – 2018.
56. The #1 all-time biggest YouTube debut video of all time, to date, is the TV store “Rings” prank – 200 million views in the first 24 hours.
57. Apartment & Home Tour Videos: Over 7,300 years worth of apartment and home tour videos was uploaded to YouTube between 2016 – 2018.
58. Reviews: Over 50,000 years of product review videos were watched on mobile devices between 2016 – 1018.
59. Product education: YouTubers are 3X more likely to prefer a YouTube product tutorial than a written manual.
Youtube Business Statistics
60. $2 billion – that’s how much YouTube has paid out to partners (people who’ve monetized with content ID) over the last 5 years.
61. 9000 partners are signed up with YouTube content ID.
62. $3.36 billion = YouTube’s net revenue last year.
63. YouTube was the most-downloaded iOS app in 2018.
64. As of December 2018, YouTube installed on 5 billion Android devices.
65. 62% of viewers pay attention to YouTube ads, but only 45% pay attention to television ads.
YouTube for Everyone
Everyone of all ages enjoy YouTube, and we’d love to hear how you’re using YouTube to promote your brand. Let us know about it in the comments below!
