How Many People Use YouTube in 2026? [Updated Stats]

YouTube has 2.58 billion active users currently. Out of which, 122 million people use YouTube daily.

Being one of the most powerful and go-to social media platforms, what does YouTube’s audience actually look like? Most importantly, let’s take a statistical and data-backed look at YouTube users, revenue, how it compares to other platforms, and more. 

YouTube Statistics 2026 (Top Picks)

  • YouTube has over 2.58 billion monthly active users (MAU).
  • There are 122 million daily active users (DAU) on YouTube.
  • YouTube is the world’s 4th largest social media platform used by people.
  • YouTube Premium has gained 125 million active subscribers globally.
  • About 46% of internet users visit YouTube at least once a month.
  • India leads with 518 million YouTube users, followed by the United States with 259 million.
  • YouTube earned $60 billion in revenue in 2025.

How Many People Watch YouTube?

YouTube has more than 2.58 billion active users who watch content on the Platform, up from 2 billion users in 2019.

In this section, we will go through the facts and figures about YouTube users.

YouTube Monthly Active Users

According to the latest report on YouTube stats by Data Reportal, the platform has over 2.58 billion monthly active users (MAU) globally.

This is an increase of 80 million users compared to 2024, when the platform had around 2.5 billion active users. 

Currently, YouTube engages approximately 46% of all internet users worldwide, while the platform’s user base accounts for about 30.86% of the global population.

In addition, there are 20 million videos uploaded daily on YouTube. 

Source: YouTube Press, Data Reportal

Important note: The numbers mentioned above reflect YouTube’s advertising audience only and may not accurately represent its entire active user base (as per Data Reportal’s report).

Here is a table displaying the number of YouTube users by year:

YearYouTube MAU (Monthly Active Users)
20252.58 billion
20242.50 billion
20232.70 billion
20222.68 billion
20212.5 billion
20202.3 billion
20192 billion
20181.8 billion
20171.6 billion
20161.5 billion

Source: Data Reportal, Business of Apps 

YouTube Daily Active Users (DAU)

As per the latest data, YouTube DAU is estimated to be over 122 million people via its Website and its app services.

Sage’s Read: Recently, we did a detailed analysis of YouTube Creators. Read our YouTube Creator Statistics here.

YouTube Premium Subscribers

Over 125 million people worldwide have subscribed to YouTube Premium (as of the last data recorded in March 2025).

YouTube Premium is the ad-free version of YouTube. You also get access to YouTube music when you purchase YouTube Premium.

YouTube Red was rebranded as YouTube Premium in 2018. The number of YouTube Premium users crossed the 100 million mark globally in February 2024.

YouTube Premium Subscribers

Here is a table displaying the number of YouTube Premium users recorded over the years:

YearNumber Of YouTube Premium Subscribers
2025125 million
2024100 million
202280 million
202150 million
202030 million
201918 million
201810 million
20172.8 million
20163 million
20151.5 million

Source: Statista, Business of Apps, YouTube  

YouTube TV Subscribers

YouTube TV has 9.4 million subscribers in the United States in the first quarter of 2025.

The platform was the most subscribed vMVPD service in the nation and was preferred by a large share of users. 

Here is a table displaying the most subscribed vMVPD services in the United States. 

vMVPD ServiceNumber Of Subscribers
YouTube TV9.4 million
Hulu + Live TV4.4 million
Sling TV2 million
Fubo1.5 million

Source: Statista

YouTube Users By Country

India has the largest number of YouTube users in the world, with approximately 518 million users. 

The United States follows closely behind, with around 259 million users.

Number Of YouTube Users By Country

Here is a table displaying the countries with the highest number of YouTube users worldwide.

CountryNumber of YouTube Users
India518 million
United States259 million
Indonesia151 million
Brazil149 million
Mexico86.1 million
Japan81.2 million
Germany66.1 million
Vietnam63 million
Philippines61.3 million
Turkey59.3 million
Pakistan58.9 million
United Kingdom57.4 million

Source: Statista

Here is the list of the countries where YouTube is currently banned.

  • China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau)
  • Eritrea
  • Iran
  • North Korea
  • Turkmenistan
  • South Sudan

YouTube User Demographics

YouTube is a go-to platform for internet users across all age groups due to its wide variety of content that caters to people of all ages and genders. 

In this section, we’ll take a closer look at how YouTube users are distributed by age and gender, giving us a clearer picture of the platform’s diverse audience.

YouTube User Age Demographics

In one of the reports by Statista, men aged 25–34 made up 11.5% of YouTube’s global audience, while women in the same age group accounted for about 9.8%. This makes the 25–34 age group YouTube’s largest audience segment worldwide.

In comparison, users aged 18 to 24 make up 15.8% of the platform’s audience. Additionally, 19.4% of YouTube users are aged 55 or older.

Here is a table displaying the distribution of YouTube users by age group:

Age GroupShare of YouTube Users
18 to 2415.8%
25 to 3421.7%
35 to 4418.5%
45 to 5414%
55-649.9%
65+9.5%

Source: Data Reportal, Statista  

YouTube Gender Demographics

54% of YouTube users are male, whereas 46% are female. 

While a slight gender gap globally is seen, that’s not the case if we take a look at the gender demographics in the USA. 

The number of female YouTube users in the United States is larger than that of male YouTube users. 

51.2% of YouTube users in the United States are female, and 48.8% of the users are male. 

Similarly, the United Kingdom has an equal split of 50% male YouTube users and 50% female YouTube users. 

YouTube users by Gender

Here is a table displaying the share of male and female YouTube users worldwide and in the United States.

YouTube Users By GenderWorldwide United States
Male 54.3% 48.8%
Female45.7% 51.2%

Source: Statista, Data Reportal, Statista2

YouTube Revenue Statistics

YouTube recorded a total of $60 billion in revenue in 2025, pushing more paid subscribers in 2026. Out of which $40.35 billion came in advertising revenue.

YouTube recorded $36.1 billion in revenue by the end of 2024.

The platform generated $8.09 billion in the first quarter, followed by an increase to $8.66 billion in Q2, and further rising to $8.92 billion in the third quarter. In Q4 2024, YouTube generated a record-breaking quarterly revenue of $10.47 billion.

Looking back at 2023, YouTube achieved an annual revenue of $31.5 billion, representing a 7.88% increase from the $29.2 billion reported in 2022.

YouTube Revenue By The Year

Here is a table displaying the revenue generated by YouTube through ads over the past years:

YearRevenue
2025$40.35 billion
2024$36.1 billion
2023 $31.5 billion
2022$29.24 billion
2021$28.8 billion
2020$19.7 billion
2019$15.1 billion
2018$11.1 billion
2017$8.1 billion
2016$6.7 billion
2015$5.5 billion
2014$4.2 billion
2013$3.1 billion
2012$1.7 billion
2011$1.3 billion
2010$800 million

Source: Business Of Apps

YouTube IAP Revenue By Region

Most of YouTube’s in-app revenue in December 2025 came from the United States, which generated a substantial $889 million.

Japan followed closely behind, generating $261 million in in-app purchases. Meanwhile, South Korea ranked third, with $7.85 million in revenue from in-app purchases.

Looking at these figures, it’s clear that the United States and Japan stand out with significantly higher in-app revenue compared to other countries.

Here is a table displaying the YouTube In-app purchases recorded in December 2025 in different countries worldwide:

CountryYouTube IAP Revenue
United States$889 million
Japan$261 million
South Korea$7.85 million
Mexico$3.94 million
Brazil$3.86 million
United Kingdom$3.85 million
Australia$3.27 million
Canada$2.83 million
Germany$2.59 million
Taiwan$2.4 million

Source: Statista. 

YouTube’s Rank Among Social Media

YouTube is the fourth-largest social media platform in the world, with over 2.53 billion active users.

3.07 billion Facebook users still remain the #1 most used social media platform in the world, followed by Instagram and WhatsApp. 

What’s fascinating is that there are 5.66 billion social media users globally, and YouTube accounts for approximately 46.8% of total social media users worldwide.

Note: We calculated YouTube’s share in total social media usage by taking the average social media users and YouTube users into consideration. 

Here is a table displaying YouTube’s rank among different social media platforms according to the number of platform users:

Social Media PlatformNumber of Users
Facebook3.07 billion
Instagram3 billion
WhatsApp3 billion
YouTube2.58 billion
TikTok1.99 billion
WeChat1.41 billion
Telegram1 billion
Messenger942 million
SnapChat932 million
Reddit765 million

9Source: Statista

To know about each social media platform’s audience and usage in detail, you can refer to the statistics below: 

Time Spent On YouTube

Users spent an average of 48 minutes and 42 seconds on YouTube.

That’s an increase of 1 minute and 12 seconds spent on the platform compared to the past year. In 2023, users spent an average of 47 minutes and 30 seconds on YouTube. 

Comparatively, in 2019, users spent just 39 minutes and 42 seconds on YouTube. That displays the watch time of users on the platform has increased by 9 minutes since then. 

One of the reports by Statista also highlighted that in 2024, people spent more than 27 hours per month on the YouTube mobile app. 

Here is a table displaying the average time that users spend on YouTube daily, as recorded over the years. 

YearAverage Time Spent Daily on YouTube
202448 minutes and 42 seconds
202347 minutes and 30 seconds
202246 minutes and 12 seconds
202145 minutes
202043 minutes and 42 seconds
201939 minutes and 42 seconds

Average Session Duration Of YouTube

On average, users spend an average of 18 minutes and 48 seconds in a session. 

YouTube has the highest session duration compared to other social media platforms. As a result, the majority of creators use YouTube to hook their audience for a longer time. 

Meanwhile, X (Twitter) has the second-highest session duration of 13 minutes and 3 seconds, while Facebook has the third-highest session duration of 10 minutes and 8 seconds. 

Source: Data Reportal, Similarweb

Time Spent On YouTube’s Android App

On average, an active user spent 27 hours and 43 minutes on YouTube’s Android app between 1st October and 31st December 2023. 

Users spend the second-highest amount of time on YouTube compared to other social media apps. Meanwhile, TikTok’s active users spend the most time on the platform compared to those of other social media platforms. 

Other platforms that recorded high user times on their Android apps were Facebook and WhatsApp. 

Here is a table displaying the time spent by users on the Android apps of various social media platforms between October 1st and December 31st, 2023.

Social Media Android AppHours Spent on Android Apps
TikTok31 hours 47 minutes
YouTube27 hours 43 minutes
Facebook19 hours 27 minutes
WhatsApp16 hours and 58 minutes
Instagram16 hours and 28 minutes
Line8 hours and 04 minutes
X (Twitter)5 hours and 19 minutes

Source: Data Reportal.

Most Subscribed YouTube Channel

MrBeast is the most subscribed YouTube channel (last updated in May 2026), with 483 million subscribers. 

MrBeast is the most subscribed YouTube channel

Second ranks T-Series with 311 million subscribers, followed by Cocomelon with 201 million subscribers. 

Here is a table displaying the YouTube Channels with the highest number of YouTube Subscribers.

Channel NameNumber of YouTube SubscribersChannel Link
MrBeast483 millionHere
T-Series311 millionHere
Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes201 millionHere
SET India189 millionHere
Vlad and Niki149 millionHere
Stokes Twins139 millionHere
Kids Diana Show138 millionHere
Like Nastya132 millionHere
Kimpro132 millionHere
Zee Music Company122 millionHere

Source: YouTube

Note: The above list is dynamic, and the number of subscribers changes every day. 

YouTube Channels With The Highest Number Of Subscribers

YouTube Traffic Statistics & Data

YouTube got 28.39 billion traffic in April 2026. This is 3.12% decline from March 2026, when it had 29.31 billion visits.

Seeing the platform’s popularity, it is also no surprise that YouTube ranks #2 in terms of traffic globally. 

Besides, the data also revealed 39.09% traffic came from female users and 60.91% came from the male audience. 

And when it comes to age distribution, the highest traffic comes from the age group 25-34 year olds (28.42%). 

Here’s the traffic age group data of YouTube:

Age GroupTraffic
25-3428.42%
18-2424.91%
35-4418.59%
45-5413.02%
55-649.05%
65+6.01%

Source: SimilarWeb, Semrush

Additional YouTube User Statistics

  • Only 9% of Small Businesses In The United States use YouTube.

That means only 2.98 million businesses out of the 33.2 million use YouTube for their video marketing strategy. 

In today’s times, it has become easier than ever to produce videos with the help of generative AI.

  • Approximately 30% of YouTubers struggle to find and engage their target audience.

These problems include identifying the ideal time to post on the platform, doing YouTube SEO, finding relevant hashtags, and more.

Bonus: We have done the math for you! You can check out the best time to post on YouTube by going through our comprehensive guide.

  • Approximately 34% of videos removed from YouTube are deleted due to child safety concerns.

An additional 5% of flagged videos were removed because they contained spam or misleading content. Around 8% of the removed videos were deleted because they contained cyberbullying and harassment.

Here is a table showing the top reasons for the removal of YouTube videos:

Reason For RemovalShare of Flagged Videos
Child Safety34%
Harmful Or Dangerous17.1%
Violent or Graphic16.4%
Budity or Sexual12.1%
Harassment and Cyberbullying8.3%
Spam, Misleading and Scams4.6%
Hateful or Abusive3.8%
Promotion of Violence and Violence Extremism1.3%
Other0.5%

Conclusion: YouTube Has 2.58 Billion Monthly Active Users

With 2.58 billion active users worldwide, YouTube continues to be a dominant force when it comes to social media. 

Being the 4th-largest consumed social media platform, YouTube has not only shown massive growth but also continues to fuel millions of creators out there. 

The data reveals its continued financial success, with $60 billion in revenue in 2025, combining both advertising and subscribers’ revenues.

Looking ahead, YouTube’s influence is only set to grow as it continues to adapt and meet the needs of its ever-expanding global audience.

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