YouTube Statistics 2026: Users, Views, Revenue and Creators

Key YouTube statistics for 2026

Updated 6 November 2026. Each figure links to the original publisher, so you can check the wording and date before quoting it.

How many people use YouTube?

YouTube does not publish an exact user count; its press page describes "billions of monthly logged-in users". The most precise public figure is ad reach: DataReportal, using Google's advertising tools, reports that YouTube ads could reach at least 2.77 billion people in October 2026. Ad reach is not the same as active users, because it counts people advertisers can target, but it is the closest consistent measure across countries.

In the United States, Pew Research Center found that 84% of adults say they ever use YouTube, based on a survey of 5,022 adults conducted from February to June 2025. A third (33%) say they visit YouTube several times a day. YouTube runs localized versions in more than 100 countries across 80 languages.

Watch time and the shift to TV screens

The TV set has become a main screen for YouTube. Nielsen's August 2026 Gauge report put YouTube at 15.8% of all U.S. television viewing, a record for YouTube, up from 14.2% in July. Streaming as a whole reached 49.6% of TV viewing in the same month. YouTube says it has been the number one streaming service by watch time in the U.S. for nearly three years.

Globally, YouTube reports more than 1 billion hours of watch time on TV screens every day. Podcasts are part of that: YouTube counts more than 1 billion monthly podcast users, and reports more than 700 million hours of podcasts watched on living room devices in October 2025, up from 400 million a year earlier.

YouTube Shorts statistics

Shorts averages more than 200 billion views a day, according to YouTube. That makes view counts on Shorts and long videos hard to compare directly: a Short is counted each time it starts playing or replays, while long videos are judged far more by watch time.

Shorts monetization is also changing. From 1 February 2027, YouTube says creators need 10 million qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days to share in Shorts ad and subscription revenue. Channels below that level stay in the Partner Program and keep earning from long videos.

Creators and the YouTube Partner Program

YouTube says more than 3 million creators are in its Partner Program and that it paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the four years before January 2026. More than 500,000 creators use YouTube Shopping. In the U.S., YouTube's creative ecosystem contributed $55 billion to GDP and supported more than 490,000 full-time jobs in 2024, according to figures in the same CEO letter.

The entry rules for ad revenue sharing are rising. Today a channel needs 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 public watch hours in 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. From 1 February 2027, new applicants need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days; channels already in the program are not affected. Our guide to YouTube monetization requirements covers the current rules step by step, and our look at what top YouTubers earn shows the other end of the scale.

YouTube ad revenue by quarter

Alphabet reports YouTube ad revenue every quarter. The last eight quarters show the usual pattern: a strong fourth quarter driven by holiday advertising, a dip in the first quarter, then a climb through the year. Across 2025 the four quarters add up to $40.37 billion in ad revenue, and Alphabet says YouTube's ads and subscriptions together passed $60 billion.

YouTube audience by country

India has by far the largest YouTube ad audience, more than twice that of the United States. Five of the top ten countries are in Asia, and Brazil and Mexico lead in Latin America. For advertisers, audience size and cost per view do not move together: smaller markets with higher ad prices can be worth more per viewer, which is why YouTube earnings per view differ so much by country. Our YouTube money calculator lets you compare estimates.

How to cite these statistics

You are welcome to use the figures and the two charts on this page. Please cite the original source for each number and link to this page as the collection: Metricvia, "YouTube Statistics 2026: Users, Views, Revenue and Creators", updated 6 November 2026, https://metricvia.com/blog/youtube-statistics/.

We update this page when Alphabet publishes new quarterly results and when YouTube, Nielsen, Pew or DataReportal release new figures.

Frequently asked questions