In 2024, the brand value of YouTube stood at 31.7 billion U.S. dollars. A year earlier, the value was estimated at 29.7 billion dollars. YouTube is among the most valuable media brands worldwide.

In 2023, it was estimated that YouTube Mr. Beast (Jimmy Donaldson) ranked first as the top-earning YouTuber worldwide with earnings of approximately 82 million U.S. dollars. Comedic duo Rhett & Link ranked second, with an estimate of 35 million U.S. dollars earned during the last measured year. Fourth-ranked Ryan Kaji, who goes by Ryan on his YouTube channel, called Ryan's World, is 12 years old and earned 35 million U.S. dollars in the past year, surpassing YouTuber Jake Paul.

YouTube most popular channels and creators Created in 2005, YouTube has become one of the most popular social networks worldwide. In 2023, YouTube had approximately 868 million users worldwide. As of February 2024, the most-subscribed YouTube channels did not only include popular video game commentators or comedy creators, but also children-specific channels, such as nursery rhymes channel Cocomelon, Kids Diana Show, and Like Nastya. Beauty and skincare YouTubers were also among the most beloved content creators for users on the social video platforms, with channels such as Sandra Cires Art and Jeffree Star recording over 15 million subscribers as of March 2024.

Content for children In 2023, U.S. children were estimated to have spent over 80 minutes per day on average watching YouTube content. Despite being based on user-generated content such as make-up tutorials, toy reviews, or comedy sketches, YouTube channels for kids present professional video production values and full-time work commitment to the platform. As of March 2024, Cocomelon had over 177.4 billion views, while the Kids Diana Show had over 100 billion views.

As of June 2022, more than 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute. This equates to approximately 30,000 hours of newly uploaded content per hour. The amount of content on YouTube has increased dramatically as consumer’s appetites for online video has grown. In fact, the number of video content hours uploaded every 60 seconds grew by around 40 percent between 2014 and 2020.

YouTube global users

Online video is one of the most popular digital activities worldwide, with 27 percent of internet users worldwide watching more than 17 hours of online videos on a weekly basis in 2023. It was estimated that in 2023 YouTube would reach approximately 900 million users worldwide. In 2022, the video platform was one of the leading media and entertainment brands worldwide, with a value of more than 86 billion U.S. dollars.

YouTube video content consumption

The most viewed YouTube channels of all time have racked up billions of viewers, millions of subscribers and cover a wide variety of topics ranging from music to cosmetics. The YouTube channel owner with the most video views is Indian music label T-Series, which counted 217.25 billion lifetime views. Other popular YouTubers are gaming personalities such as PewDiePie, DanTDM and Markiplier.

In 2024, YouTube's advertising revenue accounted for approximately 13.66 percent of Google's total revenue. That year, the video platform's annual ad revenues amounted to 36.1 billion U.S. dollars, up from the 31.5 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year. YouTube creators Video content creators on YouTube have been evolving with the platform since its creation. In 2020, it was estimated that YouTube supported over 800 thousand jobs worldwide, almost half of which referred to creators located in the United States. Apart from sharing a portion of YouTube advertising revenues, the most popular video creators can decide to license their existing content libraries for a limited amount of time in exchange for their advertising revenues. As YouTube ranked among the leading ad-selling companies worldwide in 2021, the recent success of financing companies focusing on user-generated video content does not come as a surprise. Digital video ads In 2021, global spending for online video advertisement surpassed 61 million U.S. dollars and is expected to reach approximately 90 million U.S. dollars by 2024. Video ads can engage users across multiple devices, with a 2021 survey of app developers worldwide seeing over 40 percent of respondents considering full-screen videos the most effective ad format to acquire new app users.

In 2023, YouTube was projected to generate an estimated 18 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in the United States. The video platform’s revenue is set to increase to 22 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. The majority of YouTube's revenue comes from advertising, with subscriptions making up a much smaller share of the total.

As of January 2025, the ranking of the most popular YouTube channels based on monthly views is dominated by music and children's content. Wiz Khalifa's Music channel was ranked first with a whopping six billion channel views, while Wow Kidz ranked second with over five billion video views in the last examined month. Indian music record channel T-Series -which ranked first continuously in 2021 and 2022, placed third with 2.72 billion video views. Most subscribed YouTube channels When looking at the most-subscribed YouTube channels: Indian music label T-Series was ranked first with 229 million channel subscribers. The video game commentator Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, ranked seventh, with roughly 111 million subscribers, after being surpassed by Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast in November 2022. As of June 2022, PewDiePie was still the most subscribed gaming-content channel on YouTube, followed by Salvadorian YouTuber Fernanfloo with 45 million global subscribers. Creators' earnings MrBeast was the highest-earning YouTuber in 2021, with 54 million U.S. dollars. Ryan Kaji from Ryan's World was among the youngest content creators making the rankings of the highest-earning YouTubers in 2021, with an estimated revenue of 27 million U.S. dollars. Ryan’s channel was set up by his parents in March 2015, when the young content creator was three years old. MrBeast was also the leading content creator on YouTube based on Influence Media Value, while PewDiePie ranked third with an evaluation of around 3.91 million U.S. dollars.

In 2023, the core revenue of the virtual multichannel video programming distributor YouTube TV amounted to around 5.8 billion U.S. dollars. Between 2023 and 2026, the provider is expected to almost double its core revenue, reaching a value of over 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2026.

In the last quarter of 2020, the YouTube influencer media value (IMV) of brands and companies from tech, gaming, food & drink, beauty, and fashion industries that activated YouTube campaigns with sponsored content achieving at least 10,000 views stood at 208.44 million U.S. dollars. The IMV for the entire 2020 across all industries amounted to 1.11 billion U.S. dollars.

In December 2024, the United States was by far the country generating the most of YouTube in-app purchase revenues, with over 53 million U.S. dollars spent by users on the platform via their mobile devices. Japan followed in second place with approximately 17 million U.S. dollars in IAP revenues. YouTube monetization practices include channel merchandise selling, memberships, and comment highlights.

What is the most subscribed YouTube channel? MrBeast made the first place in the ranking of the most-subscribed YouTube channels in January 2025. With 343 million subscribers, the U.S. based videographer and internet personality managed to surpass Indian music network T-Series, which held the number one place for several years, and sat at 284 million subscriber as of the examined period. How many hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute? YouTube was launched in 2005 as a platform for sharing user-generated videos such as vlogs, tutorials, or original series. The site grew rapidly and reportedly had 100 million video views per day and more than 65 thousand daily uploads only a year later. As of February 2022, more than 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute, up from a mere 24 hours of content uploads per minute in 2010. YouTube Partner Program In the first quarter of 2024, YouTube’s ad revenue amounted to over eight billion U.S. dollars. Through its Partner Program, YouTube also rewards uploaders of popular videos with a share of the advertising revenues the content generates. This, paired with the fact that many users of the video sharing platform tend to have favorite channels that they revisit regularly, has given rise to another phenomenon: YouTube celebrities. Although some of these well-known figures were discovered on the website but then carved a successful career outside of YouTube, for many others the site is their primary platform for delivering content and staying in contact with fans, all while signing lucrative deals or promotional partnerships. Highest earning YouTubers In November 2022, MrBeast surpassed long-standing most subscribed YouTuber PewDiePie, having reached approximately 112 million subscribers. Due to the high number of subscribers and even higher number of views, these out-of-the-box stars not only have millions of fans, but also considerable earnings from their YouTube activities. In 2023, MrBeast was estimated to have earned around 82 million U.S. dollars, topping the ranking of the highest-earning YouTube creators. The ranking also included social media personality Jake Paul and Mark Fischbach, as well as Ryan Kaji from Ryan's World (formerly known as ToysReview), who started his YouTube career reviewing toys at three years old.

YouTube's worldwide advertising revenues amounted to 10.4 billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter of 2024, representing an increase of 17 percent compared to the third quarter of 2024. YouTube is one of the biggest online video platforms worldwide, with the most popular YouTube channels having accumulated over 100 million subscribers.

In the first quarter of 2023, brands and companies that activated sponsored YouTube campaigns with the YouTuber Philip DeFranco - sxephil - saw over 4.42 million U.S. dollars during the first quarter of 2023 in IMV due to collaboration with brands such as Greens, Bokksu, Grammarly, NordVPN and others.

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.

The average minimum price of a sponsored YouTube video with more than one million views was 2,500 U.S. dollars in 2022. The average minimum price of a sponsored video with 500 thousand to one million views was 1,105 U.S. dollars, while the average maximum price was 16,234 U.S. dollars.

In 2020, Bang Energy was the leading food and drink brand based on spending on YouTube influencer marketing. The company sponsored 748 videos of influencers in the United States and Canada, accumulating an influencer media value (IMV) of nearly 58 million U.S. dollars on campaigns that achieved at least 10,000 views during the measured period.

In the last quarter of 2022, tech brands and companies that activated YouTube campaigns with sponsored content spent 22.6 million U.S. dollars on campaigns. Tech industry influencer media value peaked in the second quarter of 2022 with 23.1 million U.S. dollars.

In 2021, ExpressVPN was the leading tech brand based on spending on YouTube influencer marketing. The company invested 13.2 million U.S. dollars in influencer marketing on YouTube, accuulating 92.1 million views for campaigns achieving at least 10,000 views during the measured period.

As of November 2021, People and Blogs still ranked first in the YouTube video category for newly-created videos by Indonesian users in 2021. Similar to the distribution of new YouTube channels, there was a correlation between the number of new channels and new videos. It is worth noting that new YouTube videos under News and Politics category in Indonesia decreased from 11.86 percent to 6.2 percent compared to the previous year.

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.

As of October 2024, YouTube recorded a market share value of 0.65 percent in Hungary. Over the period under consideration, the highest value was recorded at 1. 57 percent.