Study finds US users now watch more TikTok than they do YouTube

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

TikTok
TikTok (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • A new study has found that US users spend more time watching TikTok than they do watching YouTube.
  • Users are watching more than 24 hours of TikTok content each month.

TikTok continues its meteoric rise with the news that US users spend more time watching its short videos than they do watching anything on YouTube.

The news comes after a study was carried out by App Annie. According to that report, those in the United States spend more than 24 hours per month watching TikTok videos. That number falls to just 22 hours and 40 minutes for YouTube, as noted by The Verge.

However, these figures only include US users who have Android phones — throw iPhones into the mix and the numbers could be even more staggering.

According to the report, YouTube fell behind TikTok in the United States in June of this year, while those in the UK switched in May of last year. in fact, UK users spend almost 26 hours per month watching TikTok. That number is just 16 hours for YouTube.

TikTok's users now spend more time each month watching content than YouTube users, according to a report from app analytics firm App Annie. In the US, ByteDance's app first overtook YouTube in August last year, and as of June 2021 its users watched over 24 hours of content per month, compared with 22 hours and 40 minutes on Google's video platform. In the UK the difference is even more stark: TikTok overtook YouTube in May last year and users there now reportedly watch almost 26 hours of content a month, compared to less than 16 on YouTube.

App Annie thinks that the reasons for TikTok's newfound dominance is its short-form videos and live streaming. Google's YouTube is now offering its own take on that via its Shorts, so it's clear someone inside the company is paying attention already. TikTok is already one of the best iPhone apps in terms of short-form content. Can YouTube compete? Time will tell.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.