Average Time Spent on YouTube (2019–2024)
The ranking of YouTube users by country shows that the United States is home to the second-highest number of YouTube users worldwide. With 239 million, it comes after India, where there are 462 million YouTube users.
The popularity of YouTube in the US makes it a great platform for businesses to market on. Creating a YouTube marketing strategy that works requires understanding key YouTube statistics, such as the average amount of time spent on YouTube by US users.
Here’s a look at the average amount of time YouTube users in the US spend on the video-sharing site, and how it’s evolved over the years.
What is the average time spent on YouTube: 2019–2023
According to a recent report, the average daily time spent on YouTube in the US has been increasing over the past few years.
In 2019, this number clocked in at 39.7 minutes per day. This rose to 43.7 minutes a day in 2020, a 10.1% rise and the largest annual increase expected between 2019 and 2024. Analysts say this is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which social media usage surged. In fact, a survey conducted in March 2020 showed that 39.4% of US social media users said they would be spending “significantly more” time on YouTube if they had to stay home. Another report also said that out of all the social media platforms, YouTube recorded the biggest usage increase during the pandemic.
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The average time US users spent on YouTube increased to 45 minutes in 2021. This marked a yearly increase of 3%—less than one-third of the previous year’s growth rate. In 2022, it grew by 2.7%, to 46.2 minutes, before accelerating slightly to 2.8% in 2023, for an average daily time spent of 47.5 minutes.
These numbers show that from 2019 to 2023, the average daily time spent on YouTube by US users increased by a total of 7.8 minutes—an overall increase of 19.6% and an average annual growth rate of 4.6%.
Average time spent on YouTube per day: 2023–2024
In 2024, US users are expected to increase their YouTube watch time by 2.5%, to 48.7 minutes. This is forecast to be the slowest annual increase in the forecast period of 2019 to 2024.