TikTok's U.S. user penetration rate continues to rise! Eroding YouTube's dominance

It is learned that according to the latest research from eMarket, TikTok is eroding YouTube's dominance in the US digital video field. For the 17 years to date, YouTube has dominated the US digital video field.

According to eMarket data, more than two-thirds of people in the United States and more than three-quarters of Internet users visited YouTube monthly in 2021. In terms of average monthly users, more people watched videos on YouTube than on Facebook last year (225.8 million and 179.1 million, respectively).

Last year, nearly as many Americans watched YouTube each month as watched television each month (245.7 million).

But as the number of video platforms increases, users' attention is beginning to become fragmented. In particular, the rapid increase in the number of TikTok users is eroding YouTube's dominance.

YouTube is working to prevent its most popular creators from moving to other platforms. Currently, YouTube still leads TikTok in total users across all age groups:

This year, YouTube will have well over twice as many monthly users as TikTok (230.6 million vs. 90.6 million).

More than half of children aged 0 to 11, essentially Generation Alpha, will use YouTube this year, compared to just 4.6% for TikTok.

By generation, this year YouTube has nearly twice the penetration of TikTok among Millennials, four times among Gen Xers, and about eight times among Baby Boomers.

However, if you drill down into a few key age groups, TikTok is growing rapidly:

According to eMarketer forecasts, 87.6% of U.S. teens aged 12 to 17 will use YouTube monthly this year, while 65.3% will use TikTok.

YouTube’s penetration is reaching a ceiling, while TikTok’s penetration is still rising rapidly; compared to 2020, YouTube penetration will rise only 1.5% this year, while TikTok will rise more than 13% (from 51.7%).

Among 18 to 24 year olds, the usage gap will be smaller this year than among teens: 85.4% will use YouTube monthly, while 73.9% will use TikTok.

By 2025, there will be 24.2 million U.S. TikTok users aged 18 to 24, and 26.6 million U.S. YouTube users.

Editor ✎ Xiao Zhu/

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