As of February 2025, India was the country with the largest YouTube audience by far, with approximately 491 million users engaging with the popular social video platform. The United States followed, with around 253 million YouTube viewers. Brazil came in third, with 144 million users watching content on YouTube. The United Kingdom saw around 54.8 million internet users engaging with the platform in the examined period. What country has the highest percentage of YouTube users? In July 2024, the United Arab Emirates was the country with the highest YouTube penetration worldwide, as around 94 percent of the country's digital population engaged with the service. In 2024, YouTube counted around 100 million paid subscribers for its YouTube Music and YouTube Premium services. YouTube mobile markets In 2024, YouTube was among the most popular social media platforms worldwide. In terms of revenues, the YouTube app generated approximately 28 million U.S. dollars in revenues in the United States in January 2024, as well as 19 million U.S. dollars in Japan.

The number of Youtube users ranking is led by India with 637.1 million users, while Russia is following with 95.38 million users. In contrast, Iceland is at the bottom of the ranking with 0.26 million users, showing a difference of 636.84 million users to India. User figures, shown here regarding the platform youtube, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

As of January 2023, YouTube videos from the popular K-pop boyband BTS were among the most-viewed K-pop videos on YouTube. Over the past year, Japanese viewers made up the largest share of watchers with around 918 million views on the band’s videos, followed by 778 million views from India and 658 million views from Mexico. In June 2019, BTS videos accounted for around 21 percent of all K-pop videos viewed around the world on YouTube. BTS has two official YouTube channels, “Hybe Labels” from its agency BigHit Music, as well as their own “Bangtan TV”.

Who is BTS?

BTS is a K-pop group consisting of seven South Korean men, first formed in 2013 by what was then a small agency, Big Hit Entertainment. Now BTS and its members are widely considered the most popular K-pop artists. They regularly break their own records to set new records in album sales and YouTube viewership. Furthermore, they set a new record by becoming the first K-pop group to address the United Nations. BTS is still gaining fans around the world, and these fans formed the “ARMY”. The continuous growth of their fandom is a major driving force behind BTS’ record-setting. The group’s successes also benefited its agency, Big Hit Music. On the brink of bankruptcy just a decade ago, Big Hit returned to making a profit thanks to BTS and had the highest operating profits among the Big 4 entertainment companies in South Korea. The agency has since formed a corporation by the name of HYBE, and has acquired several more labels.

Secret to BTS’ popularity

BTS started to gain popularity abroad with their music, which offers something for everyone and covers diverse topics such as mental health and contemporary social issues. They also post a large amount of content on YouTube, Twitter, and other social media platforms, such as the standard “official music videos”, behind-the-scenes videos, and variety shows. Exceptional choreography also attracted and held the eyes of the band’s audience, especially drawing in teenagers for whom the lyrics in BTS’ songs struck a chord. BTS has gathered a sizeable fanbase in the Americas where traditionally K-pop had struggled to break into the mainstream. YouTube played a major role in this success. They are also popular in many other countries, with Japan, India, and Mexico contributing the most in terms of YouTube views in 2022.

As of February 2025, Saudi Arabia was the country with the highest YouTube penetration, at approximately 95.8 percent. Israel ranked second with a reach of 93.3 percent, followed by Singapore with a reach of 91.8 percent. The global YouTube reach in February 2025 was 39 percent.

The statistic presents the number of K-pop group GOT7 YouTube channel views from August 2017 to August 2018, sorted by country. During that period, around 29.55 million views of GOT7's YouTube channel came from Thailand, followed by the U.S. with 5.48 million views.

As of February 2025, Sweden had approximately 8.65 million YouTube users, while Denmark had around 4.7 million. This substantial user base highlights the platform's significance in the region's digital landscape, where it serves as a key source of entertainment and information for millions across Scandinavia. Norway had approximately 4.34 million YouTube users, while Iceland had approximately 313,000 YouTube users as of the examined period. Gender balance and usage patterns YouTube's appeal is relatively balanced between gendered demographics in the Nordic region. In Denmark and Finland, women accounted for 50 percent of the platform's audience. In Norway, YouTube’s reach appears particularly strong, with almost one-third of internet users reporting daily access to YouTube in the fourth quarter of 2023. This frequent engagement underscores the platform's integration into daily media consumption habits across the region.

YouTube content creators Nordic countries foster a vibrant YouTube creator ecosystem, with local channels garnering significant attention. Despite reducing his online presence recently, Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie has been a trailblazer for global content creators. In June 2024, PewDiePie’s channel counted around 111 million subscribers, still ranking among the most popular content creators in his native Sweden. Despite his global popularity, Swedish audiences have started preferring channels with content specifically tailored to their language or comedy style, such as the trio IJustWantToBeCool2 and Familjen Lundell, which ranked as the most popular channels in Sweden for reach and user engagement.

According to data on the popularity of K-pop based on YouTube views, South Koreans showed the highest ratio of views per capita, with each Korean viewing on average 51.5 videos on YouTube over a one-year period. The people of Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand followed with around 31 to 34 views over the same period.

According to data on K-pop popularity based on YouTube views, only 10.1 percent of the total number of views came from South Korea, the homeland of K-pop. In terms of audience share, the country was followed by Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. K-pop's popularity in the global music market was led by BTS, Blackpink, TWICE, Momoland, and EXO, and these five artists accounted for 54.3 percent of all K-pop YouTube views. K-pop popularity world map In terms of total YouTube views, Asia and America are evenly distributed in the top 10 rankings. However, K-pop is more popular in Asia when comparing the countries by population. According to data analyzed by K-pop experts, Korea has generated the most video views compared by population, followed by Asian countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam. When analyzed by city, people in Ho Chi Minh and Bangkok were watching Korean pop music videos more than people in Seoul. Also, BTS' popularity in the Americas and Europe is high, followed by Black Pink. In Asia, Black Pink, BTS and TWICE have gained popularity. K-pop consumption around the world As users can easily access music content online, such as YouTube and Facebook, more and more people are enjoying Korean music content. Accordingly, the amount of money spent per month on K-pop content over the world has also doubled and stood at 9.2 U.S. dollars per person in 2019. People in the United Arab Emirates particularly spent the highest amount of money on K-pop content, an average of 36.4 U.S. dollars per month which is far higher than in other countries. On the other hand, in the world an average of 14.9 hours was spent monthly watching K-pop content. People in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam spent more time enjoying the same content.

The global number of Youtube users in was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 232.5 million users (+24.91 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Youtube user base is estimated to reach 1.2 billion users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of Youtube users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform youtube, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of Youtube users in countries like Africa and South America.

As of January 2023, India had the biggest YouTube audience in the Asia-Pacific region, approximately 467 million users. Indonesia had the region's second highest number of users at around 139 million.

According to data on the popularity of K-pop based on YouTube views, South Koreans made up the largest audience on YouTube for K-pop videos, followed closely by Indonesians. People from both countries saw K-pop videos more than 2.6 billion times over a one-year period respectively. Thailand viewers came in third with around 2.1 billion views.

As of February 2025, 12 percent of the YouTube global audience was composed of male users aged between 25 and 34 years, as well as around 9.7 percent of female users of the same age. Male users aged between 35 and 44 years on the platform accounted for 10.1 percent of the total, while women of the same age using YouTube had an audience share of 8.4 percent in the examined period. YouTube’s global popularity The number of monthly active users on YouTube reached almost 2.5 billion in April 2024, making it the second most popular social network on the internet. The platform's popularity spans all over the world, with India and the United States having the largest YouTube audiences. As of April 2024, the audience of YouTube in India was around 476 million, while the United States recorded a YouTube audience of around 238 million users.

YouTube’s digital revenues One of YouTube's leading monetization methods include advertising, with the company generating around 8.09 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2024. Additionally, the platform generated over 28 million dollars in the United States through in-app purchases, as well as over 19.2 million U.S. dollars in revenues from mobile app users in Japan.

The statistic presents the number of K-pop group NCT YouTube channel views from August 2017 to August 2018, sorted by country. During that period, around 2.14 million views of NCT's YouTube channel came from the U.S., followed by Thailand with 1.11 million views.

In December 2024, users in the United States amassed approximately 12 billion visits to popular social video giant YouTube. South Korea followed, with 9.2 billion visits to the video-sharing and livestreaming platform during the examined month. Users in India and Brazil amassed around 5.42 billion and 2.95 billion visits to YouTube.com, respectively.

As of January 2024, Sweden had approximately 8.5 million YouTube users, while Norway had around 4.5 million. This substantial user base highlights the platform's significance in the region's digital landscape, where it serves as a key source of entertainment and information for millions across Scandinavia. Finland had approximately 4.5 million YouTube users, while Iceland had approximately 276,000 YouTube users as of the examined period. Gender balance and usage patterns YouTube's appeal is relatively balanced between gendered demographics in the Nordic region. In Denmark and Finland, women accounted for 50 percent of the platform's audience. In Norway, YouTube’s reach appears particularly strong, with almost one-third of internet users reporting daily access to YouTube in the fourth quarter of 2023. This frequent engagement underscores the platform's integration into daily media consumption habits across the region.

YouTube content creators Nordic countries foster a vibrant YouTube creator ecosystem, with local channels garnering significant attention. Despite reducing his online presence recently, Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie has been a trailblazer for global content creators. In June 2024, PewDiePie’s channel counted around 111 million subscribers, still ranking among the most popular content creators in his native Sweden. Despite his global popularity, Swedish audiences have started preferring channels with content specifically tailored to their language or comedy style, such as the trio IJustWantToBeCool2 and Familjen Lundell, which ranked as the most popular channels in Sweden for reach and user engagement.

At the beginning of 2025, approximately 50.2 percent of YouTube users in the United States were women. By comparison, men made up around 49.8 percent of the platform's user base. From video-hosting to social media YouTube has come a long way from its early 2000s launch as a video-hosting site. As of today, thanks to its social features and the possibility to interact directly with content creators, YouTube is one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide. At the beginning of 2022, the platform counted almost 2.6 billion global users, making it second only to Facebook. A large part of YouTube’s audience is located in the United States, with the country being the second largest market for the popular video platform. In the United States, approximately eight in 10 social media users access YouTube for videos, renting movies and TV shows, live streaming sessions, as well as short-form videos. Video content creators and YouTubers With its proper introduction in English dictionaries around 2016, the term YouTuber has increasingly acquired professional recognition in the media industry. In 2020, it was estimated that YouTube facilitated or supported the creation of 394 thousand jobs in the United States, contributing to the country’s gross domestic product a whopping 20.5 billion U.S. dollars. Despite only a small fraction of content creators on the platform acquiring notoriety and fame, 78 percent of U.S. creators agreed that YouTube had a positive impact on their professional goals. In 2022, the company announced further plans to help creators monetize their efforts on the platform, including a possible marketplace for video NFTs, after iconic YouTube videos like “Charlie Bit my Finger,” and “Nyan Cat” have already been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The DJ and record producer Alan Olav Walker had the most subscribed YouTube channel in Norway as of January 2025, with around 46.3 million subscribers. His best-known single “Faded” received numerous awards in over ten countries. The second most followed was Soothing Relaxation, with 11.5 million subscribers. The beauty channel SaraBeautyCorner which focused on DIY, comedy, makeup and nail art, came in third, with 10.7 million subscribers. YouTube usage in Norway As of July 2024, YouTube presented a penetration rate of over 85 percent among Norway internet users, indicating that this social media has established itself as one of the most popular platforms for online video consumption in the country. Moreover, as of the end of 2023, 28 percent of YouTube users reported interacting with the popular social video platform daily, calling attention to the high level of engagement with YouTube. Demographic of YouTube users in Norway In 2024, YouTube had an audience of approximately 4.14 million users in Norway. A 2023 survey found that the majority of young adults were YouTube users. Approximately 66 percent of men and 68 percent of women aged between 18 and 29 years old were reported interacting with the popular social video platform. In contrast, the distribution of YouTube users of ages 30 and 39 was higher for men than for women.

As of November 2024, users worldwide spent more than 27 hours using the YouTube mobile app per month. Users in South Korea spent an average of approximately 43 hours and 26 minutes engaging with video content on the YouTube app, while users in Switzerland spent less than 10 hours monthly on the app. In the United States, each user spent approximately 24.43 hours on the mobile app of the popular social video platform in 2024.

As of December 2023, the most viewed YouTube channel in Bolivia was Edson FDB, which had reached nearly 890 million video views, followed by Vesalius M.D with about 655 million views. In in December 2023, almost 63 percent of the web traffic in Bolivia was concentrated via mobile devices.

India accounted for over two million videos that were removed by YouTube during the third quarter of 2023. IP addresses from Russia generated approximately 968 thousand videos that were removed during that period. The majority of videos were removed on the basis of automated flagging.