YouTube Statistics 2026: 100+ Verified Stats and Facts

YouTube statistics in 2026 describe a platform that has quietly become television. YouTube earned $40.4 billion from ads in 2025, passed $60 billion in total revenue with subscriptions, and took a record 14.2% of all US TV viewing in July 2026, more than any other media company.

This page collects more than 100 figures on YouTube's scale, revenue, audience, creators, Shorts, podcasts, advertising and AI. Every number was checked against its original publisher in September 2026: Alphabet's SEC filings, YouTube's own blog, Nielsen, Pew Research Center, Ofcom, Edison Research and others. The period of each figure is stated, and where a number is an estimate or comes from a company measuring its own product, we say so. We also checked the most repeated YouTube "facts" and found several are years out of date.

YouTube statistics at a glance

• $40.37 billion in YouTube ad revenue in 2025, up from $36.15 billion in 2024 (Alphabet)
• $60 billion+ in total YouTube revenue across ads and subscriptions in 2025 (Alphabet)
• 14.2% of all US TV viewing in July 2026, a record and the most of any media company (Nielsen)
• 1 billion+ hours of YouTube watched on TV screens every day (YouTube)
• 200 billion average daily Shorts views (YouTube)
• 20 million+ videos uploaded every day (YouTube)
• 84% of US adults use YouTube, more than any other platform (Pew Research Center, 2025)
• $100 billion+ paid to creators, artists and media companies over four years (YouTube)
• 1 billion+ monthly podcast viewers (YouTube)
• 3 million+ creators in the YouTube Partner Program (YouTube, 2026)

YouTube revenue statistics

All revenue figures come from Alphabet's quarterly earnings releases and its 2025 annual report filed with the SEC. Alphabet reports YouTube advertising separately; subscription revenue is grouped with other Google products.

1. YouTube ad revenue was $40.37 billion in 2025.
2. That compares with $36.15 billion in 2024 and $31.51 billion in 2023, growth of roughly 15% and then 12% a year (our calculation from Alphabet's figures).
3. Ad revenue grew by $4.2 billion from 2024 to 2025, driven first by direct response ads and then by brand ads, according to Alphabet.
4. YouTube's total revenue across ads and subscriptions topped $60 billion in 2025.
5. Quarterly YouTube ad revenue over the last four reported quarters:

Quarter	YouTube ad revenue	Year on year
Q3 2025	$10.26 billion	up from $8.92 billion
Q4 2025	$11.38 billion	+9%
Q1 2026	$9.88 billion	+11%
Q2 2026	$11.06 billion	+13%

6. Q2 2026 was the fastest year-on-year growth of the four quarters, at 13%.
7. Google's subscriptions, platforms and devices revenue, which includes YouTube TV, YouTube Music and Premium and NFL Sunday Ticket, was $12.91 billion in Q2 2026, up 15%.
8. The same line grew $7.7 billion in 2025 to $48.03 billion, driven mainly by paid YouTube and Google One subscriptions.
9. In the US, YouTube Shorts now earn more revenue per watch hour than traditional in-stream YouTube videos, according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai (Q3 2025).

YouTube subscription statistics

10. Alphabet reached 350 million paid subscriptions across its consumer services in Q1 2026, with YouTube and Google One the key drivers. This is a company-wide figure, not YouTube alone.
11. That was up from 300 million in Q3 2025 and over 325 million at the end of 2025.
12. YouTube Music and Premium reached 125 million subscribers including trials, as of March 2025, the latest official count.
13. That was up from 100 million in February 2024.
14. YouTube Music and Premium posted its largest-ever quarterly increase in non-trial subscribers in Q1 2026.
15. The main YouTube TV plan costs $82.99 a month for 100+ networks, with genre plans from $54.99 (February 2026).
16. NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube hit its highest paid subscriber number ever in the 2025 season. YouTube does not publish the count.

YouTube TV and living room statistics

YouTube's biggest shift is to the television screen. The share figures below come from Nielsen's monthly Media Distributor Gauge, which measures all US TV viewing.

17. YouTube took a record 14.2% of all US TV viewing in July 2026, the highest of any media company.
18. A year earlier, in July 2025, it had 13.4%.
19. YouTube's monthly share of US TV viewing in 2026:

Month (2026)	YouTube share of US TV viewing
January	12.5%
March	13.2%
April	13.4%
May	13.8%
June	13.8%
July	14.2%

20. Nielsen's February 2026 release did not report a YouTube share, and August 2026 had not been published at the time of writing.
21. Streaming as a whole reached 49.0% of US TV viewing in July 2026, with YouTube the largest single platform.
22. Viewers watch more than 1 billion hours of YouTube on TV screens every day, according to YouTube.
23. US viewers watch over 200 million hours of YouTube a day on living room TVs (Q1 2026).
24. TV is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the US, according to YouTube.
25. In the UK, daily YouTube viewing on TV sets more than doubled, from 9 minutes in 2022 to 19 minutes in 2025 (Ofcom).
26. 46% of in-home YouTube viewing in the UK was on a TV set in 2025, up from 27% in 2022 (Ofcom).

YouTube usage and audience statistics

From the Pew Research Center, surveying US adults in 2025 and US teens in late 2025:

27. 84% of US adults use YouTube, more than any other platform.
28. By age: 95% of 18 to 29 year olds, 92% of 30 to 49s, 85% of 50 to 64s and 64% of those 65 and over.
29. 86% of US men and 83% of US women use YouTube.
30. 33% of US adults visit YouTube several times a day, and about half visit at least daily.
31. About nine in ten US teens aged 13 to 17 use YouTube, the most-used platform among teens.
32. Roughly three quarters of US teens use YouTube every day.
33. About one in five US teens say they are on YouTube almost constantly.
34. 32% of US adults regularly get news on YouTube, up from 23% in 2020 (2024 data).

From Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026, covering Americans aged 12 and over:

35. 90% have ever used YouTube.
36. 84% use it monthly and 78% weekly.

From Ofcom's Online Nation 2025 and Media Nations 2026 reports:

37. YouTube reaches 94% of UK online adults, who spend an average of 51 minutes a day on it, excluding TV sets.
38. UK 18 to 34 year olds spend 1 hour 28 minutes a day on YouTube, more than double 35 to 54s at 43 minutes.
39. 96% of UK children aged 8 to 14 use YouTube.
40. UK individuals watched 41 minutes of YouTube a day at home across all devices in 2025, up 24% from 2022.
41. YouTube accounted for 15% of all in-home video viewing in the UK in 2025, and 23% among 16 to 34 year olds.
42. UK children aged 4 to 15 watch the most YouTube at home, at 61 minutes a day.

Ad reach estimates from DataReportal, based on YouTube's own ad planning tools. These measure how many people advertisers can reach, not official user counts:

43. YouTube ads could reach 2.53 billion people worldwide in January 2025.
44. India is YouTube's largest market by ad reach, at 491 million, followed by the US at 253 million and Brazil at 144 million (January 2025).
45. YouTube ads reached 254 million people in the US in late 2025, or 78.4% of US internet users.
46. 59% of YouTube viewers now see YouTube ads on connected TVs, second only to mobile at 89.7% (mid 2026).
47. Marketers can reach 84.6% of YouTube's US audience with connected TV ads.

YouTube platform scale statistics

48. More than 20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every day, according to YouTube's press page.
49. YouTube has localised versions in more than 100 countries across 80 languages.
50. YouTube describes its audience as billions of logged-in monthly users and no longer publishes an exact figure.
51. Over 1.7 billion unique viewers watched FIFA World Cup 2026 videos on YouTube.
52. People watch more than 40 billion hours of sports content on YouTube each year (mid 2025).
53. YouTube's first live NFL broadcast, from Brazil in September 2025, drew more than 19 million fans and set a record for concurrent live stream viewers.
54. Over 30% of daily logged-in viewers watched live content in Q2 2025.
55. Over 2 billion logged-in viewers watch music videos on YouTube each month.

YouTube Shorts statistics

56. YouTube Shorts averages 200 billion daily views.
57. That is up from 70 billion+ in March 2024.
58. More than 10 million channels publish Shorts every day (March 2026).
59. In the US, Shorts earn more revenue per watch hour than traditional in-stream videos (Q3 2025).
60. More than 25% of Partner Program channels were earning from Shorts revenue sharing one year after it launched (March 2024).
61. 45% of YouTube Shorts users are not on TikTok, and 65% are not on Instagram Reels, according to Think with Google (February 2025).
62. 96% of US Gen Z watch both short-form and long-form video on YouTube (Think with Google, 2023).

For more on the format across platforms, see our short-form video statistics.

YouTube creator statistics

From the YouTube Official Blog and YouTube's economic impact reports with Oxford Economics:

63. YouTube paid over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the four years to 2025.
64. That is up from $70 billion over three years, reported in March 2024.
65. More than 3 million creators are in the YouTube Partner Program (August 2026).
66. From 1 February 2027, new Partner Program applicants will need 8,000 watch hours in 365 days or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days.
67. From the same date, creators need 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days to share in Shorts ad and subscription revenue.
68. Creators receive 55% of the subscription revenue pool for long-form and 45% for Shorts, distributed by watch time and views.
69. YouTube paid over $8 billion to the music industry in the 12 months to June 2025.
70. More than 50% of channels earning five figures in 2024 made money from sources other than ads and Premium.
71. Channel memberships grew more than 40% in 2024.
72. More than 1.3 million creators are in the YouTube Shopping affiliate program, which has driven 13x growth in gross merchandise volume over two years (September 2026).
73. YouTube's creative ecosystem contributed $60 billion+ to US GDP and supported 540,000+ full-time equivalent jobs in 2025.
74. That is up from $55 billion and 490,000 jobs in 2024.
75. 77% of creators with a media and entertainment career say it started on YouTube (2025).
76. In India, the number of channels earning six figures or more in rupees is up more than 30% year on year.
77. In Pew's 2019 study of popular channels, 10% of channels produced 70% of all videos. The study is old but remains the most cited measure of how concentrated output is.

YouTube podcast statistics

78. YouTube has more than 1 billion monthly active podcast viewers.
79. Viewers watched over 700 million hours of podcasts on living room devices in October 2025, up from 400 million a year earlier.
80. YouTube Premium users watched over 800 million hours of podcasts in April 2026.
81. YouTube is the most-used podcast service in the US at 31%, ahead of Spotify at 27% and Apple Podcasts at 15%, according to Edison Research (2024 data).
82. In the UK, YouTube at 29% passed Spotify at 28% as the most-used podcast platform for the first time (Edison Research, 2026).
83. For the first time, as many weekly podcast consumers watch as listen: 82% watch video podcasts and 78% listen to audio only (Edison Research, 2026).
84. 57% of Americans aged 12 and over have both listened to and watched a podcast (Infinite Dial 2026).
85. 84% of Gen Z monthly podcast listeners consume podcasts with a video component (Edison Research, 2024).

YouTube advertising and marketing statistics

From Think with Google. These are Google's own measurements of its own ad products, so treat them accordingly:

86. YouTube drives 86% higher incremental long-term return on ad spend than paid social (2022 to 2024 data).
87. YouTube Select drives 1.9x higher return on ad spend than linear TV (2021 to 2023 data).
88. YouTube reached 244 million+ US adults, or 91% of the adult population, in November 2025.

From marketer surveys:

89. 82% of businesses that use video upload it to YouTube, the most-used video platform, according to Wyzowl's 2026 survey of 266 respondents.
90. 69% of video marketers say YouTube is effective for them (Wyzowl).
91. 76% of marketing teams post videos on YouTube, second only to LinkedIn at 81%, according to Wistia's 2026 State of Video report.
92. 41% of companies share social clips on YouTube (Wistia).
93. Short-form video is the top ROI-driving content format for marketers at 49%, ahead of long-form video at 29%, according to HubSpot's 2026 State of Marketing.
94. 76% of consumers are on YouTube, and 84% of Gen Z have an account, according to Sprout Social (2024 fieldwork).
95. 24% of users turn to YouTube for product discovery (Sprout Social).

YouTube AI statistics

96. Over 1 million channels used YouTube's AI creation tools every day on average in December 2025.
97. More than 140 million users engaged with the AI-powered Ask YouTube feature on the watch page in June 2026.
98. That was up from 20 million users in December 2025.
99. YouTube auto dubbing is available to everyone in 27 languages (February 2026).
100. More than 6 million daily viewers watched at least 10 minutes of auto-dubbed content (December 2025).
101. For dubbed videos, more than 40% of watch time comes from viewers choosing a dubbed language (2024).
102. 63% of video marketers have used AI tools to create or edit marketing videos (Wyzowl, 2026).

YouTube viewer behaviour statistics

103. 87% of viewers say YouTube introduces them to new things they would not find on their own (Think with Google, early 2026).
104. 73% of US Gen Z viewers prefer content from their favourite creators over studio shows or movies (Think with Google).
105. 83% of US viewers say YouTube is the most entertaining video platform (Think with Google).
106. Over 60% of organic watch time on the top 1,000 brand channels came from videos older than 30 days (May 2025). Good YouTube videos keep earning long after launch.
107. 73% of 14 to 44 year olds say YouTube is the best place to explore their interests in depth (YouTube Culture and Trends, April 2026).
108. The average video from popular channels ran about 12 minutes in Pew's 2019 study, the most recent independent measure.

YouTube myths we checked

These figures still circulate widely, including in AI answers. Here is what the sources actually say.

"500 hours of video are uploaded every minute." This was YouTube's own figure around 2019 and 2020. It no longer appears on YouTube's press page, which now says over 20 million videos are uploaded daily. The two measure different things, hours and videos, so they cannot be compared directly.

"YouTube is the world's second largest search engine." This traces back to US comScore search data from 2008, when YouTube queries were broken out within Google's sites. comScore no longer publishes that breakdown, and neither YouTube nor Google makes the claim. It is 18 years old and unsupported.

"YouTube has 2.7 billion users." This is not a YouTube figure. It comes from third-party estimates based on ad reach. YouTube's last official count was more than 2 billion monthly logged-in users, in 2020, and its press page now just says billions.

"People watch 1 billion hours of YouTube a day." This was a February 2017 figure for the whole platform. YouTube now says viewers watch over 1 billion hours a day on TV screens alone.

"Shorts get 70 billion daily views." That was the March 2024 figure. It is now 200 billion.

"YouTube has paid creators $70 billion." That was over three years, reported in 2024. It is now over $100 billion over four years.

"You need 4,000 watch hours to join the Partner Program." True until the rules change on 1 February 2027, when new applicants will need 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views.

What the YouTube statistics mean for brands

Three things stand out. First, YouTube is now a television channel as much as a website. It leads every media company in US TV viewing, and in the UK nearly half of in-home YouTube viewing happens on a TV set. Videos made for a phone screen alone are missing where much of the watching now happens.

Second, long-form and Shorts work together rather than competing. Shorts drive discovery at enormous scale, while over 60% of brand channel watch time comes from videos more than a month old, which is the long-form library doing its job. Most brands that grow on YouTube publish both.

Third, output volume is the constraint. Twenty million videos are uploaded every day, and the channels that grow publish consistently. For most businesses that is an editing problem, not an ideas problem. Our comparison of the best video editing services for YouTube creators covers the options.

How we verified these YouTube statistics

Each figure was taken from the publisher's own page, filing or report, not from another roundup. Revenue comes from Alphabet's SEC filings and earnings releases. TV share comes from Nielsen's monthly releases. Audience data comes from Pew Research Center, Edison Research and Ofcom. Platform figures come from YouTube's official blog, press page and Alphabet's earnings remarks.

A few cautions. YouTube no longer publishes an exact user count, so any single "users" number you see is an estimate. DataReportal figures are ad reach, not users. Think with Google figures are Google measuring its own ad products. Wyzowl's survey has 266 respondents. Where a figure is older than 2025, such as Pew's 2019 channel study, it is labelled and kept only because nothing newer measures the same thing. For B2B-specific video data, see our B2B video marketing statistics.

Where Pixel8 fits

Pixel8 Production is a video editing agency for B2B brands, SaaS companies and agencies publishing on YouTube. We do not film. We edit the footage you already have into long-form videos, Shorts and thumbnails on a monthly plan, which our YouTube video editing service covers. Pricing is a $900 one-time trial, then $2,000 to $3,200 per month; see pricing.