BRISTOL, UK, 5 February, 2025: Consumption of long-form YouTube content is rising rapidly in the U.S., accounting for 73% of all viewing time on the platform by the end of October 2024, according to new research by Digital i, the leading provider of cross-platform streaming data and analysis.
Findings showed that average viewing time spent by U.S. YouTube users on videos of 30 minutes in length or more rose by 8 percentage points last year, from 65% in October 2023 to 73% in October 2024, illustrating how users are spending more of their viewing time on longer content.
The trend is more pronounced among U.S. young adults aged 18-24-years-old that watched YouTube on mobile devices, with an increase of 21 percentage points in the amount of time spent viewing content of 30 minutes or more during the same period. In October 2023, 58% of content viewed by this demographic on mobile devices was long-form content, rising to 79% by October 2024.
Digital i research also indicated that 18-24-year-old U.S. YouTube users spent an average of 2.7 hours per day on the platform between July and October 2024, watching an average 25 videos per day.
This U.S. demographic spent the highest average time on the platform last year, with Digital i data also showing a decrease in YouTube viewing time corresponding to increasing age of the users.
New YouTube data insights
These new insights into YouTube audience trends comes as Digital i announces that it can now provide comprehensive viewing data for the platform.
Digital i is launching a new product with the capability to offer data on viewing and search history from YouTube users across more than 20 territories in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
Key features of Digital i’s new YouTube data offering include:
- Engagement insights: The ability to track the number of streams and viewing times across specific videos and channels and analyse viewing behaviour across content categories to help understand long-tail content trends. Digital i can provide information on completion rates, device usage and data on the consumption of long-form vs short-form content.
- Single source measurement: The new YouTube product will collect viewing and demographic data from the same panels utilised by its proprietary SoDA analytics platform.
- Cross-platform intelligence: Digital i can help explain how YouTube users also engage with global SVODs including Disney+, Netflix, Max and Prime Video.
“We are thrilled to add YouTube to Digital i’s data offering as we enter 2025,” said Ash Stedman, chief revenue officer at Digital i. “Going forward, we will be able to share a range of actionable insights into how streaming households engage with YouTube alongside other premium SVOD services.
“By combining our new offering with our existing SoDA tool, we can offer cross-platform comparisons. This allows us to explore how YouTube competes for viewership with these other services, and what opportunities there may be to reach and engage with new audiences.
“This new product is going to be a real game-changer.”
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Contact us for more information or to set up a meeting about our new YouTube data offering or our existing SVOD audience measurement services
www.digital-i.com
ABOUT DIGITAL I
Digital i is a global streaming media measurement company that tracks subscriber engagement and content consumption through privacy-compliant, opt-in panels and proprietary data capture technology. Offering deep insights into what, where, when, why, and how viewers watch, Digital i empowers major streamers and studios to understand audiences like never before.
Founded in 2003, the company started out as a linear analytics firm and has since expanded to measure streaming audiences in more than 20 countries. Digital i’s clients include streamers, broadcasters and media brands, who use viewing data analytics to negotiate better deals, compete on a global level, and find their niche in an ever-changing market.
Sophia Vahdati
Director of marketing & communications
sophia.vahdati@digital-i.com
Mark Layton
Communications Lead
mark.layton@digital-i.com
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