YouTube is close behind OTT in US digital video viewers

Key stat: 254.2 million people in the US will watch OTT video this year, per our February 2024 forecast. YouTube is close behind, with 241.8 million people watching on the platform.

Beyond the chart:

• 74.4% of people in the US will be OTT viewers this year, per our forecast. In comparison, 70.7% of people will be YouTube viewers.
• Both of those figures beat the 68.0% of people who will be linear TV viewers. That gap will continue to grow as OTT and YouTube viewership climbs and linear decreases.
• OTT is often conflated with CTV, but there’s one key difference—OTT doesn’t exclusively refer to TVs. Users can watch OTT on mobile, desktop, and tablet devices. The same is true of YouTube, and viewers on these non-TV formats may be more inclined to click ads, as they can then shop directly on their devices.

Use this chart:

• Evaluate where to reach digital video viewers.
• Demonstrate YouTube’s popularity.

More like this:

• Kids remember seeing ads on YouTube over streaming, TikTok
• Where are people streaming video?
• The ad-supported video streaming market is getting more crowded
• AI, retail media, and CTV: What you missed at POSSIBLE 2024

Methodology: Estimates are based on the analysis of survey and web traffic data from research firms and regulatory agencies, sales projections, historical trends, company-specific data, reported subscriber numbers of major pay TV providers, and demographic and socioeconomic factors.