YouTube Premium will accrue 23.6 million US subscribers by year-end 2021

The forecast: There will be 23.6 million YouTube Premium subscribers by the end of the year, which is up a healthy 18% over 2020.

Dive deeper:

• Our forecast combines subscribers to YouTube Premium and subscribers to YouTube Music Premium. The latter is a paid, ad-free, on-demand audio service comparable with Spotify Premium. YouTube Premium is a slightly higher cost service allowing for ad-free video watching and includes access to YouTube Music Premium.
• The US made up 67% of YouTube Premium subscribers worldwide in 2020, as Alphabet reported and our forecast reflects. This share is down slightly this year because of international expansion of the subscription service. Overall, the US makes up 48% of YouTube’s global net ad revenue.
• While 2020 saw a high growth rate of 34.6% over 2019, growth will slow to single digits in the years to come.

Looking ahead: Even though growth will slow, YouTube Premium's US subscribers will surpass the 25 million mark in 2022.