Attending Google Brandcast: The Brandformance Edition in New York City on May 14th was an incredible experience. The event was more of a party than a product release announcement showcase, with most of the major releases saved for Google Marketing Live the following week. However, it was a good moment for reflection on what YouTube has become and what role it plays in the digital marketing ecosystem.
YouTube Shorts reaches a broader audience than TikTok
YouTube is the #1 platform in streaming watch time in the US. Some of the stats on what that means are almost hard to fathom:
According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches 91% of adults in the United States. In case you were wondering, that is over 244 million people. Over 20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube each day.
YouTube Shorts vs. TikTok demographics: Key audience differences
YouTube’s audience profile also differs meaningfully from TikTok’s. 45% of YouTube Shorts users are not on TikTok. This isn’t too surprising – 48% of US TikTok users are between 25 and 44, and 35% are between 18 and 24. That means 83% of US TikTok users are under 45, whereas 52% – 56% of YouTube users are under 45.
While the US drives the most YouTube traffic, there are over 2.7 billion users around the world as of May 2026, according to research conducted by Global Media Insight, – nearly half of the 5.66 billion social media users worldwide. India has the most active YouTube users by country, coming in at 518 million – twice as many as in the US.
YouTube Shorts vs. TikTok demographics: Key audience differences
One other important takeaway called out at Brandcast: Brandformance Edition was that 2 billion hours of shorts are watched in the living room each month. 2 billion is a lot, especially because Shorts are typically short in length. Shorts content can’t be assumed to be mobile-only anymore.
But those 2 billion hours of shorts watched in the living room each month is still only a small portion of YouTube Shorts’ traffic. YouTube Shorts is averaging over 200 billion daily views.
Why YouTube Shorts offers broader audience reach
Beyond reach, YouTube highlighted several stats to show how effective its advertising is: It cited a 2.2x higher long-term return on ad spend than paid social or linear tv. And it called out Demand Gen as driving a 30% increase in conversions and 18% more new customers than other media.
While it’s always hard to catch all the fine print and citations on the slides at these events, it is nonetheless clear that YouTube is a great way to reach the vast majority of US adults and can reach a significant share of the global internet population.
Conclusion
As video becomes more ubiquitous, video ads are no longer confined to mobile devices, nor do advertisers need large budgets to reach a person watching TV in their living room. And as creators continue to become more popular and trusted, (According to a survey conducted by Kantar and cited on Google’s website, 73% of surveyed Gen Z viewers (ages 18-28) in the U.S. say they prefer watching content from their favorite creators over studio produced shows and movies.), it’s clear that YouTube remains an extremely effective and relevant platform to run on. As Google put it, “Welcome to The YouTube Era.” Now let’s party.
Sources:
https://business.google.com/us/think/search-and-video/brandcast-brand-building-youtube-era
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/youtube-stats
https://www.ooma.com/blog/most-popular-social-media-platform-by-age-group
https://www.globalmediainsight.com/blog/youtube-users-statistics/
