Youtube Shorts has grown 33 percent in a year says OnlyAccounts

Over the past few years, the social media giants have been battling to win the short video war as the global demand for this type of content surged to never-seen highs. Although still far behind Facebook and Instagram, as the top two names in the short video market, YouTube Shorts has also seen impressive user growth.

According to data presented by OnlyAccounts.io, YouTube Shorts hit over two billion monthly active users in July, or 33% more than in the same month a year ago.

Almost 80% of YouTube users watch shorts

Launched first in India after the TikTok ban in August 2020, YouTube Shorts rolled out globally six months later. Since then, the feature has become a huge success, with billions of viewers worldwide. One of the reasons is that YouTube, just like other social media platforms, has been pushing users to view Shorts.

Besides heavily promoting its short-video format platform and redirecting users automatically to Shorts when they open the app, the company also rolled out Shorts on TV in November last year. This resulted in YouTube Shorts growing its viewership by a massive 33% year-over-year.

According to YouTube and TechCrunch data, in June 2022, around 1.5 billion people worldwide watched YouTube Shorts. Over the next twelve months, the feature gained roughly half a billion new users, with a total user count reaching two billion last month. Alphabet`s financial report also showed that YouTube Shorts hit an impressive 50 billion daily views in Q1 2023, or 66% more than in the same period a year ago.

These impressive growth rates come as no surprise when knowing that the feature became an essential part of the YouTube experience for most of its users. In 2023, the app hit over 2.5 billion users, and 80% of them regularly watch Shorts. Compared to other social media platforms, that means that YouTube Shorts has the same number of users as Instagram and WhatsApp and two times more users than TikTok.

People spend more than 23 hours per month watching YouTube, nearly as much as they do on TikTok

Although more than half a billion people started watching YouTube Shorts over the past year, the average time they spend using the app has dropped.

According to the Digital 2023 Global Overview Report, Android users worldwide spent an average of 23 hours and nine minutes watching YouTube, or half an hour less than last year.

TikTok remained an absolute king in this category, with an average of 23 hours and 28 minutes spent using the app in one month, almost four hours more than a year before. Facebook ranked third with just as impressive 19 hours and 43 minutes. Instagram and Twitter followed, with an average usage time of 12 and 5.5 hours, respectively.