YouTube - statistics & facts
From family videos to MrBeast’s elaborate challenges - YouTube has forever changed the entertainment industry. The Alphabet-owned social video launched a new class of celebrity creators, and with it a new type of content consumer. With the addition of YouTube Shorts – the platform’s own short-form vertical video feature – YouTube kept adapting to users’ demands. Launched globally in June 2021, Shorts reached 70 billion daily views in October 2023.
When sizing up YouTube’s business, direct sales are only a part of YouTube’s financial success: the ads business accounts for approximately 10 percent of the company’s revenue – and it is one of the flagship brands operated by the internet giant, after its Google Cloud services. In 2023, YouTube generated global advertising revenues of more than 31.5 billion U.S. dollars. This put the video platform back on its previous growth track, with an increase in revenue of eight percent year-over-year compared to the mere two percent experienced in 2022.
In 2024, YouTube counted over 2.5 billion global viewers. The platform’s user base was composed of more men than women, with around 12 percent of YouTube total users being men aged between 25 and 34 years, and approximately nine percent in the same age group. In January 2024, India counted the largest YouTube audience by far at almost 470 million users, followed by the United States with 240 million users on the popular video platform.
Ads and premium content: YouTube’s business pillars
YouTube Music and YouTube premium subscribers keep growing, reaching 100 million paying users in 2024. The United States represented the largest market for the platform in January 2024.When sizing up YouTube’s business, direct sales are only a part of YouTube’s financial success: the ads business accounts for approximately 10 percent of the company’s revenue – and it is one of the flagship brands operated by the internet giant, after its Google Cloud services. In 2023, YouTube generated global advertising revenues of more than 31.5 billion U.S. dollars. This put the video platform back on its previous growth track, with an increase in revenue of eight percent year-over-year compared to the mere two percent experienced in 2022.
A large audience enjoys a little bit of everything
Between a variety of professional and user-generated content – YouTube users can access videos that range from music and gaming to DIYs and educational clips. YouTube has become a launching platform for corporate media content such as official music videos: in 2021, BTS music video “Butter” went viral within a matter of hours and reach 100 million views in less than one day.In 2024, YouTube counted over 2.5 billion global viewers. The platform’s user base was composed of more men than women, with around 12 percent of YouTube total users being men aged between 25 and 34 years, and approximately nine percent in the same age group. In January 2024, India counted the largest YouTube audience by far at almost 470 million users, followed by the United States with 240 million users on the popular video platform.
