50+ YouTube Stats Every Video Marketer Should Know in 2022

YouTube has experienced explosive growth since it was founded in an office garage in 2005 and has since opened up avenues for brands and content creators alike.

Check out these 2022 YouTube stats about the platform’s mobile usage, demographics, subscriber growth, ROI, and history.

General Content ROI and Usage  Mobile Demographics Subscriber Growth Usage History

General YouTube Stats

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Over 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. (Statista) Over one billion hours of videos are watched on YouTube every day. “Baby Shark Dance” by Pinkfong Kids' Songs & Stories is the most watched video on YouTube, with over 11 billion views since 2016. YouTube has more than 2 billion users. Based on a custom Nielsen meta-analysis, a full-funnel YouTube strategy drives 10% higher ROI compared to awareness advertising alone. (Think with Google) A recent study shows that YouTube advertisers see Awareness formats driving 28% of their conversion assists. (Think with Google) 75% of people surveyed say advertising in YouTube videos makes them more aware of new brands or products,1 while 70% of them say they bought a brand as a result of seeing it on YouTube (Think with Google) A 2021 Google study found that on average, YouTube full-funnel advertisers see their awareness campaigns drive reach that is 75% more incremental than their action campaigns. (Think with Google) 51% of U.S./UK consumers use YouTube to research or find products to buy. (GWI)

YouTube Content Stats

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65% of Gen Z agree that content that’s personally relevant to them is more important than the content that lots of other people talk about. (YouTube) There were more than 65 billion views of videos related to ASMR in 2021. (YouTube) 76% of Gen Z agree that YouTube has the most content that lets them deeply explore topics they are interested in. (YouTube) 82% of Gen Z have used YouTube to watch content in order to feel nostalgic. (YouTube) 83% of Gen Z have used YouTube to watch soothing content that helps them relax. (YouTube) 78% of people agree that they use YouTube because it serves them with content that’s personally relevant to them. (YouTube)

ROI and Usage by Marketers

YouTube channels with 100K-1M followers have the highest engagement rate. (Influencer Marketing Hub) On most social platforms, engagement rates usually trend down as follower count grows. On YouTube, the opposite is true. The average engagement rate on YouTube for content creators with over 1 million followers is 4.06% while the average rate for those with 1K to 5K followers is only 2.04%. (Influencer Marketing Hub) 77% of video marketers use YouTube to host videos. (HubSpot Blog Research) When asked which social media platform offered the highest engagement rate, 500+ marketers ranked YouTube second highest. (HubSpot Blog Research) YouTube is the most widely-used platform among video marketers used by 88%. (Wyzowl) 56% of marketers surveyed in 2022 say YouTube offers the biggest ROI, ranking #2 behind Instagram. (HubSpot Blog Research) Marketers plan to invest the most in YouTube in 2022. (HubSpot Blog Research) 27% of marketers surveyed in a Video Marketing Report say they plan on investing in sharing videos on YouTube more than any other platform. (HubSpot Blog Research) YouTube ranks second highest in generating leads when sharing marketing videos behind Instagram. (HubSpot Blog Research) 44% of influencers leveraged YouTube for their campaigns in 2021, up 8% from 2021. (Influencer Marketing Hub)

YouTube Mobile Stats

21.2% of the global traffic on YouTube in 2021 came from mobile devices. (Statista) More than 70% of YouTube watch time is generated from mobile devices. In Q2 of 2021, mobile devices accounted for 63% of YouTube viewing time worldwide. (Statista) In 2020, YouTube was the fourth most popular IOS app after ZOOM, TikTok, and Disney+. in December 2021, 72% of respondents aged 18 to 34 years used their smartphones to watch online video content weekly. (Statista)

YouTube Demographics Stats

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Millennials trust YouTube more than any other generation. (HubSpot Blog Research) 81% of U.S. adults say they use YouTube in 2021, up 8% from 2019. (Pew Research) YouTube attracts the most visitors from India, the United States, and Indonesia. (Statista) YouTube is the second most visited website in the world. (Hootsuite) 82% of U.S. adults who identify as male report using YouTube. (Pew Research) YouTube is available in more than 100 countries. YouTube is available in 80 languages.

YouTube Subscriber Growth Stats

YouTubers collectively earned a record-breaking $300 million in 2021, up 40% from the previous year. (Forbes) T-Series, a Hindi music channel, is the most popular YouTube channel with 171 million subscribers, followed by PewDiePie with 109 million subscribers. The most popular branded YouTube channel is LEGO, which has over 10.04 billion views. (Statista)

YouTube Usage Stats

YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. (Search Engine Journal) Viewers are four times more likely to use YouTube to find information about a brand, product, or service (versus other platforms). (YouTube Ads) YouTube is the second most visited website behind Google. YouTube users collectively watch over 1 billion hours of content daily. The majority of the most popular YouTube videos are music videos. 70% of viewers say that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands. (YouTube Ads) Viewers say they're twice as likely to buy something they saw on YouTube. (YouTube Ads)

YouTube History Stats

"YouTube.com" was activated on February 14, 2005. "Me at the zoo" was the first video uploaded to YouTube on April 25, 2005. Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion on October 9, 2006. YouTube launched InVideo ads in December 2007. YouTube streamed the United States presidential debates for the first time in 2012. One of the youngest successful YouTubers is Ryan ToysReview, who is a 8-year-old boy who makes $22 million a year and has 22 million subscribers. The song "Gangnam Style" which surged in popularity in 2014 broke the video’s view counter. The first YouTube video to reach 1 million views was a 2005 Nike ad featuring football star, Ronaldinho. The YouTube video that received the most views in 24 hours is BTS's “Dynamite” music video, which attracted 101.1 million views in a single day. The most liked video on YouTube is the music video for the song “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee, with over 49 million likes. YouTube’s own YouTube Rewind 2018 video is the most disliked video on the platform. It has received over 19 million dislikes and owns an 86.60% dislike percentage.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Originally published Aug 8, 2022 7:00:00 AM, updated August 08 2022