How Many People Use YouTube? (2019–2028)
The widespread popularity and reach of social media has led to more and more people signing up for new accounts across many of the top social networks, including the likes of Facebook, TikTok, and Snapchat.
YouTube is no exception to this. Its user base is so huge that it ranks among the most popular social media platforms, which makes it a great channel for businesses to reach buyers. To better understand the video-sharing platform’s potential to boost sales, we need to first understand just how many people use YouTube.
How many users does YouTube have in 2023?
According to the latest statistics, the number of YouTube users (defined as those who use YouTube at least once a month) has been growing year after year. In 2023, the total number of YouTube users worldwide is forecast to hit 868.4 million, a 10.6% increase from 2022.
While this is a slight slowdown from the previous year’s increase of 10.8%, the number of users on YouTube has been rising at a remarkable rate in recent years. In 2019, there were 532.6 million users on YouTube, which means it took the social network just four years to increase its user base by 335.79 million—or 63%.
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The biggest growth from 2019 to 2023 came in 2021. That year alone, the platform added more than 100 million new users, increasing its total number of users by 16.5%, from 608.6 million to 709.1 million. YouTube’s relatively fast growth since 2019 can be attributed to the pandemic, which spurred internet and social media use.
The data also points to sustained growth in the number of YouTube users over the next few years. In 2024, the number of users on YouTube is projected to increase by 7.5%, to 933.4 million, before rising another 6.8%, to 996.4 million in 2025.
In 2026, the number of YouTube users is set to exceed 1 billion for the very first time to hit 1.05 billion, after an annual increase of 5.1%. Growth is forecast to continue in 2027 and 2028, rising by 4.4% and 3.5%, to 1.09 billion and 1.13 billion, respectively.
However, the average annual growth rate of the number of YouTube users is set to slow in the coming years. From 2024 to 2028, the growth rate is forecast at 5.4%—slower than the average annual growth rate of 13% registered from 2019 to 2023.