YouTube’s app is dominating mobile video by monthly users, time spent

Americans spent nearly a billion hours watching YouTube videos on Android this past July, according to new data released today by App Annie. That’s the largest amount of time spent in any one streaming video app in a month. The figure is yet another data point showcasing the shift in the way people are consuming video content – less in the living room, over traditional pay TV connections, and more so on mobile devices.

And on mobile, YouTube is killing it.

In fact, YouTube’s Android app alone accounted for roughly 80 percent, or 9.5 billion hours, of the 12 billion total hours consumers spent using the top 10 video streaming apps on Android during the twelve months ending in July 2017.

That 12 billion figure is also up 45 percent over last year, and continues to accelerate, App Annie says.

YouTube is far ahead of its next nearest competitors in the top five by peak time spent per month, including Netflix, Twitch, Hulu, and Amazon Video. Even more remarkable, YouTube Kids was ranked #7 by peak time spent – an indication that YouTube’s plan to break out a filtered version of its service is now feeding even more viewers into its massive video network.

And when looking at the apps by average time spent, YouTube is still on top, again followed by Netflix.

However, the list of top apps becomes a lot different when you examine the video streaming apps by monthly active users.

YouTube and Netflix remain #1 and #2, respectively, but the rest of the list – both in terms of peak monthly users and average monthly users – expands to include other types of video apps, like those offering news and sports.

YouTube Kids didn’t make the list of the top 10 apps by monthly active users.

That indicates that its user base is highly engaged, explains App Annie, with each user spending hours in the app, but its overall audience is smaller. That same principle applies for Hulu, which is the #6 video streaming app by average monthly active users, and #7 by peak monthly active users across iOS and Android.

Now, YouTube is preparing to extend its influence even further.

The company this year launched YouTube TV, a Sling TV competitor that lets consumers stream live TV and record to a cloud DVR through a dedicated app for $35 per month. That service is available to half of U.S. households as of August, and continuing to expand.

In addition to its ads, YouTube makes money by way of YouTube Red, the optional service that offers premium features like offline access to videos, an ad-free experience, background play for music, and original programming. That’s helped YouTube climb the top revenue charts, as well, where it ranks the #3 video streaming app (across iOS and Android) by peak revenue in a month, and #4 by average revenue in a month.

Netflix and HBO NOW, however, beat YouTube on both of these revenue charts, and Hulu inched above it on average revenue.

Across all top 10 video apps, U.S. users spent over $570 million during the twelve months ending in July, the report also notes. That’s up 80 percent year-over-year, and likely another reason why people are rapidly reallocating the money they used to spend on cable TV elsewhere.

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