Are you looking for up-to-date and trending YouTube statistics for 2026?
YouTube is the second biggest search engine after Google.
In fact, YouTube has more than 2.74 billion active users. Nearly 1 out of every 2 Internet users is on YouTube. Also, the average daily time spent on YouTube was 48.7 minutes!
Whether you’re a marketer, blogger, small business owner, or video creator, YouTube is the best platform for growing an audience. The best part? YouTube has a broad demographic across all age groups.
If you’re looking for the most incredible YouTube statistics for 2026, this post is just for you.
Let’s find out the interesting YouTube stats without much ado.
Table of Contents
Key YouTube Statistics [2026]
- YouTube has over 2.74 billion monthly logged-in users worldwide, making it one of the most used platforms on the internet.
- More than 20 million videos are uploaded every day, which equals about 833,000 videos per hour and 13,800 per minute.
- YouTube generated over $60 billion in revenue in 2025, including advertising and subscription income.
- YouTube Shorts receives over 200 billion views daily, showing massive growth in short-form video consumption.
- India has the largest YouTube audience, with around 500 million users, followed by the United States with about 254 million users.
YouTube Usage Statistics
1. How many people use YouTube?
As of 2026, YouTube boasts over 2.74 billion monthly logged-in users. That’s a massive number, representing over 51% of all internet users and 33% of the world’s population!
India had the most YouTube users in the world with 500 million, followed by the United States with 254 million, Brazil with 150 million, and Indonesia with 151 million. (Sources: Statista)
| Country | Number of YouTube Users (millions) |
|---|---|
| India | 500 |
| United States | 254 |
| Indonesia | 151 |
| Brazil | 150 |
| Mexico | 85 |
| Japan | 78.5 |
| Germany | 64.7 |
| Vietnam | 62.1 |
| Philippines | 59.6 |
| Turkey | 57.9 |
| United Kingdom | 55.5 |
| Pakistan | 54.3 |
To see who’s ruling YouTube in India, check out our list of the biggest YouTubers in India.
2. How popular is YouTube?
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine and the second-most visited website after Google. YouTube is currently available in 100+ countries worldwide across 80 languages.
If you’re looking for a video platform to reach millions of people worldwide, you can’t afford to ignore YouTube.
3. How many videos are posted on YouTube every minute?
| Time frame | Videos uploaded |
|---|---|
| Per day | 20,000,000 |
| Per hour | 833,000 |
| Per minute | 13,800 |
| Per second | 231 |
About 20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every day. That equals roughly 833,000 videos per hour, 13,800 videos per minute, and about 231 videos every second.
This shows how fast new content is added to YouTube and how competitive the platform has become for creators.
Also, YouTube Shorts gets over 200 billion daily views. (Source: YouTube)
4. What is the most subscribed YouTube channel?
The most subscribed YouTube channel is MrBeast, and it currently has over 466 million subscribers.
Mr Beast posted over 947 videos on his channel, and his YouTube videos generated more than 110,790,038,213 views!
5. How many channels does YouTube have?
As of 2026, there are over 115 million YouTube channels. In general, most YouTube channels don’t post any videos at all, and most of those channels have zero subscribers.
6. Are YouTube users increasing?
Yes, YouTube is projected to reach nearly 3 billion users by 2026. If you’re thinking about creating a career on YouTube, this is the right time, as YouTube is only expected to grow in terms of video consumption, sales, and streaming.
On YouTube, the audience watching podcasts has grown from 8% to 14% of the weekly podcast audience recently.
7. Do most people watch YouTube on phones or computers?
Think With Google reports that 70% of global YouTube watch time happens on smartphones and tablets, while 30% comes from the desktop.
This is mostly due to the YouTube mobile app, which allows people worldwide to access YouTube videos.
8. How many downloads does the YouTube app have in 2026?
Currently, YouTube has been downloaded over 10 billion times on the Google Play Store. The immense growth is mainly because millions of people are connected to the internet, especially in India. Thanks to Jio!
9. Which content is most watched on YouTube?
The top four video categories watched by most YouTube users are comedy, music, entertainment/pop culture, and “how to.” (Source: Think With Google)
10. What percentage of the YouTube audience is male?
According to Statista reports, 54.4% of YouTube users globally identify as male, and 45.6% identify as female as of 2026.
Statista also reports that the UAE and the Netherlands are among the countries where many people use YouTube compared to other countries worldwide.
YouTube Video Metric Stats
Here are some of the impressive YouTube video metric stats for you.
1. What percentage of YouTube views come from mobile phones?
70% of global YouTube watch time happens on smartphones and tablets. (Source: Think with Google).
If you’re a marketer or YouTube creator, consider smartphone users when making videos, since most views come from smartphones.
2. What is the average length of a successful YouTube video?
According to a Statista report, the average YouTube video length is 11.7 minutes. Music videos generally had the shortest average length among all categories, at 6.8 minutes. Gaming videos had the longest video length, an average of 24.7 minutes per video.
If you want to increase views, engagement, and subscribers, create at least 10-minute videos.
3. What is the average watch time for YouTube videos?
The average watch time on YouTube is about 48.7 minutes. This means, on average, YouTube viewers spend more than 45 minutes watching videos before leaving YouTube. (Oberlo)
The average watch time also depends on various factors, such as video length, storytelling, content type, and audience engagement.
4. What is the best day and time to upload a YouTube video for more views?
According to Buffer, the best day and time to upload a YouTube video is on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The next best timings are: Thursday at 4 p.m. and Monday at 4 p.m.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the timings to post on YouTube;
| Day | Best time to post |
|---|---|
| Monday | 4 p.m. |
| Tuesday | 3 p.m. |
| Wednesday | 4 p.m. |
| Thursday | 4 p.m. |
| Friday | 3 p.m. |
| Saturday | 5 p.m. |
| Sunday | 3 p.m. |
5. How much does YouTube Shorts pay for 1,000 views?
On average, YouTube shorts can generate between $0.01 to $0.06 for 1,000 views. That means you can earn $0.01 to 0.05 per individual view.
6. How much time do people spend on YouTube each month?
According to Statista, global users spent over 27 hours per month on the YouTube app, with South Koreans averaging about 43.5 hours.
YouTube Revenue Statistics
Looking for YouTube income and revenue stats? Here you go.
1. How much revenue does YouTube generate?
YouTube generated more than $60 billion in total revenue in 2025, including advertising and subscription revenue, marking a record year for the platform.
Bonus Read: Discover the latest Web Hosting Market Size Statistics to see how the industry is expanding and evolving!
2. How many subscribers does YouTube Premium have?
YouTube Premium is used by over 125 million subscribers worldwide. (YouTube)
With YouTube Premium, you can watch videos on YouTube without advertisements. It also offers powerful features such as offline viewing, playing audio in the background, picture-in-picture mode, and more.
3. Is YouTube useful for sales?
According to Zippa, 70% of YouTube viewers have bought a brand after seeing it on YouTube. Nearly 79% of video creators believe YouTube is an effective marketing platform.
So if you’re planning to use YouTube for sales or marketing, post unique and engaging videos.
4. Does YouTube take a cut of ad revenue?
Yes, YouTube takes a 45% share of ad revenue. Whether you’re monetizing YouTube videos or shorts, you’ll get 55% of ad revenue, whereas the remaining share goes to the YouTube platform.
5. Who is the highest-paid YouTuber in the world?
As of 2026, MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) is one of the top-paid YouTubers in the world, with average yearly earnings of over $55 million. MrBeast’s net worth is over $500 – $700 million.
Interesting YouTube Stats
Here are some of the exciting stats around YouTube.
1. Who was the first YouTuber?
Jawed Karim was the first YouTube user. He is the co-founder of YouTube. The first video uploaded on YouTube was “Me at the zoo” featuring Karim (on April 23, 2005).
2. Who acquired YouTube?
In October 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion. Neal Mohan, who is an Indian-American business executive, is the current CEO of YouTube.
3. What is the most-viewed YouTube video worldwide?
As of 2026, “Baby Shark Dance” is the most-watched video on YouTube, with over 16 billion lifetime views.
4. What is the most liked video on YouTube?
As of 2026, “Would You Fly to Paris for a Baguette” by MrBeast is the most-liked video on YouTube, with over 57 million likes.
5. What is the most-watched video game content on the YouTube platform?
Minecraft is the most-watched video game content on the platform, which has exceeded 1 trillion views.
6. What is the fastest YouTube video to 1 billion views?
“Hello” by Adele is the fastest YouTube video to reach one billion views in 87 days. Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” song reached the 1 billion views mark in 96 days.
In case you’re interested, Adele’s “Hello” video was uploaded to YouTube on 22nd October 2015 and gained 1 billion video views on 17th January 2016 (just 87 days!).
YouTube is a major driver of social media traffic for many websites. For instance, it accounts for 33% of the total direct sharing traffic to Quora.
9. What percent of YouTube users are from the US?
77% of U.S. internet users aged 15 to 25 years accessed YouTube. 67% of them are 56+ years old, 70% are between 46 and 55 years, and 73% are between 36 and 45 years. (Source: Statista)
Final Thoughts
YouTube is the second-most-visited website in the world. It has come a long way since its inception in terms of growth, viewership, streaming, etc.
If you’re a marketer or content creator looking for a platform to build an audience or market your products, you don’t want to miss out on YouTube.
So, what are your thoughts on the stats and trends on YouTube? Have you found the YouTube stats helpful? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions on YouTube stats, exciting facts, and trends.
On average, most videos on YouTube generate $1 to $3 per 1000 views. It depends on the audience demographics, age group, etc.
MrBeast is one of the top YouTubers in the world, with over 466 million subscribers on his primary channel.
It depends on several things, including audience, type of ads, monetization sources, etc. For instance, MrBeast has an estimated net worth of $500 to $700 million.
As of 2026, YouTube has over 2.74 billion active users worldwide.
YouTube’s logged-in users watch more than one billion hours of videos every single day.
As of 2026, the estimated daily upload is around 20 million videos, which is approximately 720,000 hours of video uploaded daily.
People under the age of 35 watch YouTube videos the most. Also, YouTube is extremely popular with people aged 15 to 25 and 26 to 35, with 77% of each demographic using the platform.
Of the top 250 YouTube channels, 66% of the content is in English, 15% in Spanish, 7% in Portuguese, 5% in Hindi, and 2% in Korean.
Hi, Anil Agarwal. Thank you for sharing such good information related to Youtube strategy.
It is interesting that the average youtube video length has increased over the years when the attention span of human beings has decreased during the same time frame. Youtube is doing something right, this is a clear sign.
Great post on YouTube statistics, Anil! It’s interesting to see that YouTube demographics primarily consist of young users, making it an excellent platform for marketers and content creators to build their audience. I found the statistics on the most popular YouTube channels, video categories, and mobile usage particularly informative. It’s impressive to see how much revenue YouTube generates, and the fact that 70% of YouTube viewers have bought a brand after seeing it on the platform shows just how effective it can be for marketing. Thanks for sharing these valuable insights!