YouTube Statistics Marketers Should Note

Similar to its massive website visit numbers, this popular platform boasts similarly impressive numbers across other metrics.

This is especially apparent if you look into YouTube’s user base and the amount of time people spend watching YouTube videos.

YouTube statistics show that it has 2.49 billion monthly active users as of 2023.

While studying YouTube statistics is useful for understanding the platform, it’s also crucial to review the social media stats of other sites for a more comprehensive picture of the social media landscape.

There are around 122 million daily active YouTube users. Of this number, the average daily watch duration of YouTube users is around 48.7 minutes long.

Recent YouTube statistics show that around 500 hours of content are uploaded every minute, which is equivalent to around 30,000 hours of YouTube content uploaded per hour.

As if the sheer amount of content was not enough, the platform also has variety on its side. A YouTube videos can be about an infinitely wide range of topics and content categories, meaning there is content for almost any demographic or niche.

There are popular niche content topics that YouTube statistics show typically gain over a billion views. Here are a few of them.

• Gaming
• Music
• Travel Vlogging
• Fitness
• Education
• Sports
• Comedy
• Animals

YouTube content diversity is clear, from K-pop music videos from South Korea to how-to videos for any DIY project.

This diversity is a hallmark of the platform that other social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, have dabbled in replicating.

The billions of YouTube video content available in a wide range of niche topics also make it a platform that can influence pop culture and trends.

This includes viral videos and even career-launching videos.

Viral videos can impact people and society a lot more than the phrase “15 seconds of fame” may let on.

The multi-billion views these videos attain can impact pop culture and raise awareness on issues.

Other than the social impact and influence that a viral Youtube video can have, it can help businesses grow and earn. Both content creators and separate businesses marketing on the platform can benefit from using Youtube.

There were around 266 YouTube creators in the United States with more than 10 million subscribers in 2022.

For marketers, Youtube brings opportunities to earn through ad revenue, sponsorships, or even direct selling.

The largest age group that watches YouTube videos is the 25 to 34 age group, followed by the 35 to 44 and 18 to 24 age groups in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. This largest age group combination makes up 55% of the YouTube user base.

When it comes to gender split, the Youtube audience is relatively even but slightly skewed toward males. 54.3% of YouTube users are male, while the other 45.7% on YouTube are female.

YouTube stats has set India as the country with the largest group of users in the world with 476 million users. T-Series is its largest YouTube channel with around 268 million subscribers.

The second largest group of users in the world is the United States with 238 million users, followed by Brazil with 147 million and Indonesia with 139 million users.

The average daily session of watching a YouTube video is around 48.7 minutes. This average session length on YouTube has increased by 9 minutes, or around 23%, since 2019.

The most popular topics for a YouTube video include niches like gaming and music.

With regards to format, YouTube Shorts has become the most popular and engaging video format on the platform.
This shift can largely be attributed to the rise in adoption of smartphones, where the YouTube mobile app for iPhone and Android users makes it ideal to make vertical short-form videos.

As YouTube is a free-to-use platform, it embeds ads into videos to earn money. The platform starts paying the YouTube channel when it gets at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours.

Brands who want to advertise to a YouTube channel’s audience will typically sponsor videos, which gives the channel extra income.

Merchandise sales are an even more direct way for the YouTube channel to earn money.

The biggest success story of YouTube success would be Mr. Beast, who also happens to be the most subscribed YouTube channel, with over 302 million subscribers and counting as of July 2024.

His success can be attributed to his YouTube content going viral in 2018. This attracted a combination of wealthy sponsors that gave him more money to make videos, which in turn generated more income.

In 2023, Mr. Beast had the highest earnings for any YouTube channel, earning around $82 million. His most viewed YouTube video is his Squid Game recreation video, which has over 600 million views.

The main benefit of collaborations is that both creators can tap into the key YouTube viewers of the other channel. This then encourages more people to subscribe to both channels.

Having this cross-promotion may also offer a break from the usual content of both channels, which can help the audience feel like the content has more variation.

One notable example is the Slow Mo Guys and General Electric. This success came from their ability to get high quality footage of magnetic liquids that only GE could provide. The video gained 14 million views and 147 thousand likes.

Another successful example was trick shot channel Dude Perfect and Pringles. The videos involved performing trick shots into Pringles cans, and generated around 20 million views.

Skippable ads can be effective even if many users choose to skip them. The key to making it effective is putting the crucial information in the first few seconds of the ad to hook the audience.

Non-skippable ads function slightly differently. The first part of the ad needs to have an interesting hook to keep the viewers’ attention, and then the important ad information can be relayed.

Bumper ads are similar to non-skippable ads in that they cannot be skipped, but they only last for 6 seconds. Viewers can perceive this format as less annoying, but it can still display relevant advertising.

Overlay ads used to run as text in a window over a video. On the other hand, sponsored cards were similar overlay ads, but placed in the upper right-hand corner.

Both of the above formats were removed in 2023 due to their inefficiency.

In Q4 2018, the advertising revenue globally was $3.6 billion. This grew to a staggering $8.1 billion as of the first quarter of 2024. That’s 125% growth in only 6 years!

Data from YouTube stats shows that an AI advertising firm Tenlira spent over $29.4 million on advertising, making it the biggest U.S.-based spender by far from September to October 2023.

The next biggest ad spender was Walmart with nearly $12.8 million. Historically, the other largest spenders have included companies like PayPal, Apple, and Disney.

Many brands collaborate and sponsor YouTube creators to more organically reach out to their users.

YouTube creators typically have a sense of expertise with their viewers, which makes their audience more likely to listen to what they have to say.

The YouTube creator in the United States with the most sponsorships and collaborations was Unbox Therapy. They collaborated with a whopping 45 brands from January to December 2022.

The best way to calculate return on investment for a YouTube ads campaign is by plugging in total campaign cost, audience reached, engagement rate, conversion rate, and average order value into a formula.

Here is a step-by-step process for calculating return on investment

1. Calculate Leads: Audience Reached x Engagement rate
2. Calculate Conversions: Leads x Conversion rate
3. Calculate Revenue Generated: Conversions x Average order value
4. Calculate ROI(%): (Revenue Generated – Total campaign cost) / Total campaign cost

Any value above 1 indicates greater revenue per dollar spent on the campaign.

Any value under 1 indicates that more money was lost than gained on the marketing campaign.