How Many Videos Are On YouTube? Statistics And Facts, By Country, Demographics, Trends (2025)
Updated · Aug 12, 2025
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Editor’s Choice
- Number of Videos On The YouTube Platform
- How Much Content is On YouTube, And How Long Would It Take To Watch It All?
- How Many YouTube Views Videos By Country?
- 10 Most Viewed YouTube Videos
- How Many YouTube Videos Are uploaded Daily Basis?
- Most Viewed YouTube Channels By Monthly Views
- YouTube Statistics and Facts
- Conclusion
Introduction
How Many Videos Are On YouTube?: YouTube is the biggest in terms of the manifestation of video-sharing platforms. It started as a project in 2005 and ultimately converted into an offering to content creators, companies, educators, and plain users. With billions of videos uploaded, it provides avenues for amusement, information, and somewhat income. And one of the most frequently asked questions goes like: “How many videos are on YouTube?”
In this article, we will see the figures behind YouTube’s giant video library, how fast the new content is uploaded, and what it means for the users, marketers, and the platform as a whole in 2024.
Editor’s Choice
- YouTube had approximately 4.3 billion videos as of the year 2025.
- In 2023, a record-breaking 800 million videos were uploaded on YouTube, mostly propelled by YouTube Shorts.
- With an estimated growth rate of 20–30% each year, YouTube is expected to hit the 10 billion mark in terms of total videos by 2030.
- Approximately 71% of the content, which is 2.75 billion videos, is at the HD level or higher.
- Over 720,000 hours of content are uploaded daily, which amounts to 262 million hours annually, or 30,000 years of video.
- The average length of a video is 12 minutes and 26 seconds.
- The U.S. leads YouTube views with 916 billion monthly views and 2,726 views per person.
- Baby Shark Dance is the most viewed video with 16.13 billion views, followed by Despacito with 8.78 billion.
- Wiz Khalifa’s channel is the most viewed in recent months, with 6 billion views in January 2025.
- T-Series remains the most subscribed channel with 229 million subscribers.
- MrBeast overtook PewDiePie as the top individual creator in 2022.
Number of Videos On The YouTube Platform
- In 2023, YouTube experienced its most significant annual surge in video uploads, adding nearly 1 billion new videos to the platform.
- This record-breaking increase was largely driven by the explosive popularity of YouTube Shorts.
- At the end of 2022, the total number of videos on YouTube stood at approximately 3.08 billion, and by the close of 2023, that number had jumped to around 3.9 billion.
(Reference: photutorial.com)
- Currently estimated at 4.3 billion videos, 2025 witnessed an extraordinary number of uploaded videos.
- The pace of growth this year has slowed down, which is a departure from the previous years when the growth was higher.
- One factor cited for this grace period is YouTube’s crackdown on Shorts spam, while the other factors could be a slowdown of the Shorts fever among viewers and creators.
- However, a slower growth rate may imply that the platform continues to grow and is expected to reach a total of an estimated 10 billion video uploads by the year 2030, provided there are no major disruptions to the current trends.
| Year | Number of YouTube videos | YOY growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 0.5 billion | |
| 2016 | 0.6 billion | +100 million |
| 2017 | 0.9 billion | +300 million |
| 2018 | 1.0 billion | +100 million |
| 2019 | 1.5 billion | +500 million |
| 2020 | 2.0 billion | +500 million |
| 2021 | 2.7 billion | +700 million |
| 2022 | 3.1 billion | +400 million |
| 2023 | 3.9 billion | +800 million |
| 2024 | 4.3 billion | +400 million |
(Source: photutorial.com)
- Given that its growth has mostly followed an upward path, such behaviour of, for example, present-day YouTube is nothing new.
- Just 0.5 billion videos were being hosted on it in 2015.
- Growth followed irregular tracks thereafter: 100 million videos were added in 2016, followed by 300 million in 2017, and 100 million in 2018.
- These figures rose steeply from then on: 500 million in 2019, 500 million again in 2020, and 700 million in 2021.
- Then, in 2022, the boom continued with 400 million new videos, followed in 2023 by the awe-inspiring number of 800 million.
- The relative calm reverted with the arrival of 2024, with a 400-million new-video increase.
- While in years past the video library was growing at a yearly rate of about 400 to 500 million, the expectation is now of a 500-700 million new uploads a year, showcasing a healthy YoY growth rate of around 20-30%.
- Even with the waning of the Shorts craze, YouTube remains the largest platform for video content in the world.
How Much Content is On YouTube, And How Long Would It Take To Watch It All?
- There were about 2.75 billion HD or higher-quality videos on YouTube, accounting for roughly 71% of the entire video library of the platform.
- Back in 2015, only about 284 million videos were of an HD quality or better, making up just 54.6% of the total content at that time.
- So, the level and quality of videos have been steadily increasing, given the broader access to better cameras and high-speed internet by creators.
- More than 8.33 hours’ worth of content goes onto YouTube every single second.
- 500 hours are being uploaded every minute, then a whopping 30,000 hours every single hour. That is more than 720,000 hours being generated every day!
- Every single month, creators upload over 21 million hours of video, which translates into upwards of 262 million hours every year: about 30,000 years of content uploaded annually.
- Just about 4.3 billion videos on this site, each with an average time duration of 12 minutes and 26 seconds, would require over 53 billion minutes for complete viewing or almost 1 billion hours.
- That translates into more than 36.8 million days or 101,000 years of binge-watching!
- A YouTube video nowadays lasts around 12 minutes and 26 seconds. The majority of videos range anywhere between 4 and 20 minutes.
- 34% of all YouTube videos (around 1.46 billion) are less than 4 minutes long, 45% (1.94 billion) fall somewhere between 4 and 20 minutes, and only about 21% (903 million) are over 20 minutes.
- Back in 2015, the average video length was just above 9 minutes; in fact, only 9% of videos exceeded the 20-minute mark, whilst the vast majority of 91% were actually below it.
How Many YouTube Views Videos By Country?
- Regarding the number of YouTube views per country, the rankings are quite different from those of the subscribers.
- The United States takes the top slot with approximately 916 billion YouTube views per month.
- This gives an average of 2,726 views per person, showing THAT the platform enjoys high engagement from individuals.
- Asia is second in ranking, with 503 billion monthly views.
- Yet, because of the huge population, the average views per person are far less, at 354. It means that, while India is broadly defined, in comparison to other countries, the average user watches less content individually.
| Country | Views (in Billion) | Population (in Billion) |
Approximate Views/Population
|
| USA | 916 | 0.336 | 2726 |
| India | 503 | 1.42 | 354 |
| UK | 391 | 0.068 | 5750 |
| Brazil | 274 | 0.217 | 1263 |
| Thailand | 207 | 0.07 | 2957 |
| Russia | 207 | 0.146 | 1418 |
| South Korea | 204 | 0.051 | 4000 |
| Spain | 169 | 0.046 | 3674 |
| Japan | 159 | 0.125 | 1272 |
| Canada | 158 | 0.038 | 4158 |
(Source: globalmediainsight.com)
- Standing third with 391 billion monthly views is the United Kingdom.
- Being less populated, the UK demonstrates exceptional per-user engagement, averaging 5,750 views per person, three times the rate in the U.S. and more than 16 times in India.
- Beyond these are Brazil, Thailand, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Japan, and Canada in the rest of the top 10 in terms of total views.
- Each of these accounts for a substantive chunk of the world traffic on YouTube, yet levels of per-person engagement vary due to the size of the population and digital behaviour.
10 Most Viewed YouTube Videos
- Children’s content continues to stay atop highly viewed YouTube videos as of June 2025.
- Three rhyme videos make it into the top 10 list for most viewed, proving how much young viewers influence viewing trends on the platform.
- At number one sits Baby Shark Dance, with virtually 15.87 billion views, standing truly so far ahead in viewership that it can be considered the farthest-watched video on YouTube.
- `Despacito`, by Luis Fonsi, the universally popular hit song, had the glory of attaining 8.71 billion views.
| Video name | Uploader | Views (billions) | Date |
| Baby Shark Dance | Pinkfong Baby Shark – Kids’ Songs & Stories | 16.13 | June 17, 2016 |
| Despacito | Luis Fonsi | 8.78 | January 12, 2017 |
| Wheels on the Bus | Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes | 7.8 | May 24, 2018 |
| Bath Song | Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes | 7.12 | May 2, 2018 |
| Johny, Johny, Yes Papa | LooLoo Kids – Nursery Rhymes and Children’s Songs | 7.06 | October 8, 2016 |
| See You Again | Wiz Khalifa | 6.68 | April 6, 2015 |
| Shape of You | Ed Sheeran | 6.47 | January 30, 2017 |
| Phonics Song with Two Words | ChuChu TV Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs | 6.49 | March 6, 2014 |
| Gangnam Style | Psy | 5.59 | July 15, 2012 |
| Uptown Funk | Mark Ronson | 5.57 | November 19, 2014 |
(Source: wikipedia.org)
- Bath Song, a jolly and educational rhyme for kids, holds position number three with 7.09 billion views.
- Just behind it is yet another children’s favourite, Johny Johny Yes Papa, with 7 billion views.
- The last of the top five is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, said to be one of the most successful pop songs ever on the platform, currently sitting with 6.46 billion views.
- These numbers display the enormous reach that music and kids’ content have on YouTube, where catchy tunes and simple visuals get repeated views, especially by younger audiences.
How Many YouTube Videos Are uploaded Daily Basis?
- The current scenario sees 83 million people on YouTube every day, jointly affording about a billion man-hours of viewership daily.
- Since the daily active users haven’t been growing with the increasing content numbers on the platform, they are bound to slowly increase, keep on obtaining steady growth over time.
- The daily user base has increased by about 24.5% over the last five years.
- The growth experienced in the later years shows that the daily users in 2022 were about 76.7 million, whereas 66.7 million in 2019, 50 million in 2017, and 33.3 million.
- In 2014, 26.7 million in 2012, meanwhile, 3.3 million in 2008; and nearly 833,000 in 2006, that is, a year after YouTube was launched.
- The gradual nature of reinforcement shows how YouTube turned into one of the most-used platforms worldwide, together with its massive global audience, whose numbers grow yearly.
Most Viewed YouTube Channels By Monthly Views
(Reference: statista.com)
- In January 2025, most of the channels with music and children’s content make it to the hottest
List of the most-viewed YouTube channels. - Coming in at number one is the channel for Wiz Khalifa Music, with a staggering six billion channel views. Second-ranked is Wow Kidz, with over five billion views during the last recorded month.
- Indian music label T-Series takes the third position with 2.72 billion video views after holding the first spot through 2021 and 2022.
- When it comes to the most-subscribed YouTube channels, T-Series leads with an eye-popping 229 million subscribers.
- MrBeast took away the No. 7 position from Felix Kjellberg, also known as PewDiePie, in November 2022. Presently, the channel boasts about 111 million subscribers.
- However, as far as gaming creators go, PewDiePie was still number one on YouTube in June 2022, followed by Salvadorian YouTuber Fernanfloo with 45 million subscribers worldwide. MrBeast holds the honour of being the richest YouTuber of 2021, earning a staggering 54 million U.S. dollars.
- One of the youngest to ever earn such a big amount, Ryan Kaji, under Ryan’s World, grossed an estimated 27 million U.S. dollars in 2021.
YouTube Statistics and Facts
- With nearly 491 million users, India stood as the largest YouTube audience by February 2025. The United States ranked second with 253 million users, whereas Brazil came third with 144 million users.
- The U.S. generated US$53,000,000 in in-app purchases in December 2024; given this, it arguably sits at the top. Japan, with US$17 million, was a distant second.
- In 2024, YouTube’s advertising revenue totalled US$36.1 billion, accounting for 13.66% of Google’s total revenue.
- With nearly 8.4 million videos removed in Q2 2024, the majority were flagged automatically.
- With 165.2 million downloads, YouTube stood in second place, trailed very closely by Netflix with 164.8 million downloads.
- YouTube Kids saw an increase in popularity, with downloads hitting 145 million in 2024, as to their 123 million in 2023.
- Sandra Cires Art dominated beauty with 16.6 million subscribers, followed by Jeffree Star with 15.7 million.
- The number of YouTube Premium (paid) Subscribers doubled over three years, from 50 million in 2021 to 100 million in February 2024.
- In 2025, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had the highest penetration rate of YouTube, with 95.8% of its population using the platform, followed closely by Israel at 93.3%.
- From a demographic perspective, age-wise, the largest cluster of YouTube users falls in the 25–34 range, comprising 21.7% of the user base.
Conclusion
The year 2024 has unveiled an evolving YouTube set that serves to produce and enrich the way we consume content. Having over 491 million users, billions of hours of watch time, and advertising revenue spanning tens of billions of dollars, YouTube is definitely more than a mere video platform; it is an entire online ecosystem.
Whether you are an artist, brand, business owner, or educator, or just an end consumer, YouTube has truly entered into all the creators’ lives as well as the internet itself, and looking at the present trends, it may be safe to say that it will exist for a long time.
FAQ.
As of 2025, roughly 4.3 billion videos are stored by YouTube. There has been a bit of slowdown in growth as YouTube tries to curb spam content, especially in Shorts, yet, at the current trends, the continent is set to hit 10 billion by 2030.
On any given day, over 720,000 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube, with some saying it’s 30,000 hours per hour, 500 hours per minute. That moves past the threshold of some 21 million hours of new content every month.
Most YouTube videos are 12 minutes and 26 seconds long on average. Approximately 34% of videos run for less than 4 minutes, 45% run between 4-20 minutes, while the 21% longer than 20 minutes, showing that longer form content is trending even more these days.
The United States, with an enormous figure of 916 billion monthly views, takes the crown, followed by India with 503 billion. But in terms of views per million population in each country, South Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom have the most engagement rates, with thousands of views per user every month.
As of mid-2025, the “Baby Shark Dance” by Pinkfong ranks as the most viewed video on YouTube, with viewing figures in excess of 16.13 billion; “Luis Fonsi’s Despacito” is ranked second with 8.78 billion views.
Maitrayee Dey has a background in Electrical Engineering and has worked in various technical roles before transitioning to writing. Specializing in technology and Artificial Intelligence, she has served as an Academic Research Analyst and Freelance Writer, particularly focusing on education and healthcare in Australia. Maitrayee's lifelong passions for writing and painting led her to pursue a full-time writing career. She is also the creator of a cooking YouTube channel, where she shares her culinary adventures. At Smartphone Thoughts, Maitrayee brings her expertise in technology to provide in-depth smartphone reviews and app-related statistics, making complex topics easy to understand for all readers.
