Over 3 billion people worldwide are now digital video viewers

The forecast: Digital video viewership passed 3 billion people worldwide in 2020 as growth outpaced pre-pandemic expectations. By year-end 2021, that number will hit 3.26 billion, but growth is expected to slow.

Dive deeper:

• Among the over 3 billion digital video viewers, three out of four internet users and over 40% of the global population now watch streaming or downloaded video at least once per month in some capacity.
• Among all countries we cover, China has the highest digital video viewer share of internet users. That’s not surprising given the high adoption of short-form video sites and the popularity of livestreaming in the country.
• Subscription OTT video service user growth in particular saw a spike in 2020, exceeding 1.5 billion users. This number will pass 2 billion in 2024.
• Share of time spent viewing OTT streaming video is varied across devices, as 73% of viewing worldwide happened on TV screens in Q2 2021.

Looking ahead: We project digital video viewership worldwide will hit 3.64 billion people in 2025, when OTT viewership will hit 2.15 billion people.