YouTube is used by 84% of US adults, compared with 37% who use TikTok, according to Pew Research Center. The YouTube vs TikTok statistics below show that the gap is only half the story. Per Similarweb data published by DataReportal, the typical TikTok user spends 1 hour and 37 minutes per day in its Android app.
YouTube still wins on volume. YouTube accounted for almost twice as much total time as TikTok in August 2025, across each app’s Android users. It also took a record 14.2% of TV viewing in Nielsen’s July 2026 Gauge. The sections below cover users, age, teens, time spent, ad reach, TV share, revenue, and the creator economy for both platforms.
Key Takeaways
- 84% of US adults use YouTube and 37% use TikTok, a gap of 47 percentage points.
- TikTok use among US adults rose from 21% in 2021 to 37%, while YouTube moved from 81% in 2021 to 84% in 2025.
- 92% of US teens use YouTube, against 68% for TikTok, yet 21% of teens are on TikTok almost constantly, 4 percentage points above YouTube.
- TikTok users spend 1 hour and 37 minutes per day in its Android app, roughly 14% longer than YouTube users, but YouTube logged almost twice TikTok’s total Android app time in August 2025.
- Alphabet reported that YouTube ads brought in $11,055 million in Q2 2026, up 13% year over year. Adding Alphabet’s quarterly figures gives $42.582 billion over the four quarters from Q3 2025 to Q2 2026.
- YouTube says it has paid over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the past four years.
Editor’s Choice
- US adults who use YouTube: 84% in 2025.
- US adults who use TikTok: 37% in 2025.
- YouTube ad reach: 2.53 billion users in January 2025.
- TikTok ad reach: 1.59 billion users in January 2025.
- YouTube revenue across ads and subscriptions: exceeded $60 billion for the full year 2025.
- YouTube Shorts daily views: an average of 200 billion.
- YouTube share of TV viewing (Nielsen): a record 14.2% in July 2026.
YouTube vs TikTok Statistics: Users Worldwide
- 55.4% of GWI’s respondents say they use YouTube each month, against 36% for TikTok, in survey data of online adults aged 16 and above published by DataReportal.
- Per DataReportal, “GWI treats YouTube as a video platform rather than as a social platform”, so “figures for YouTube may not be directly comparable with those for other platforms in this ranking”.
- TikTok’s 36% excludes China, where the TikTok option in GWI’s survey refers to Douyin.
- Facebook has the largest audience in GWI’s Q2 2025 survey at 56.9%. YouTube’s figure is just 1.5 percentage points lower, and DataReportal says YouTube might rank higher than Facebook if it appeared in the same list of answer options.
- Similarweb’s data indicates that YouTube has almost 50% more monthly active app users than TikTok.
- In the US, 84% of adults use YouTube against 37% for TikTok, per Pew Research Center.
- 9.1% of global respondents name TikTok as their favorite social platform, though YouTube does not appear as an answer option for that question in GWI’s survey.
| Platform | Online adults using monthly (%) |
|---|---|
| 56.9 | |
| YouTube | 55.4 |
| 55.1 | |
| 54 | |
| Messenger | 38.4 |
| TikTok | 36 |
Source: GWI, DataReportal (Q2 2025 survey). GWI asks about YouTube separately, so its figure may not be directly comparable; the TikTok figure excludes China.
Is TikTok more popular than YouTube?
No, not by user count. In the US, 84% of adults use YouTube against 37% for TikTok, and worldwide YouTube has almost 50% more monthly active app users than TikTok. TikTok’s case rests on minutes per user, which the time sections further down measure.
About This Data
- Sources: 15 in all, made up of 4 Alphabet earnings releases, 4 Pew Research Center publications, 3 DataReportal pages, 2 YouTube pages, 1 Nielsen release and 1 TikTok newsroom post.
- Dates: the most recent figures cited are for September 2026.
- Selection: original data publishers and their published analyses only.
- Updates: figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when sources publish new editions.
YouTube vs TikTok Usage Among US Adults
- 84% of US adults say they ever use YouTube and 37% say they use TikTok, in a Pew Research Center survey of 5,022 adults conducted Feb. 5 to June 18, 2025.
- TikTok’s share is up from 21% in 2021, while YouTube’s moved from 81% to 84% over the same years.
- That leaves YouTube 47 percentage points ahead of TikTok among US adults.
- About half of US adults visit YouTube at least once a day, including 33% who go several times a day.
- 24% of US adults say they are daily users of TikTok, in a separate survey of 5,123 adults conducted Feb. 24 to March 2, 2025.
- Roughly half of adults aged 18 to 29 go on TikTok at least once a day, against just 5% of adults 65 and older.
View the data
Pew notes on survey mode: “Polls from 2012-2021 were conducted via phone. In 2023, the poll was conducted via web and mail. In 2024 and 2025, the poll was conducted via web, mail, and phone.”
How many people use TikTok and Instagram?
Pew Research Center puts US TikTok usage at 37% of adults, while 50% of adults say they use Instagram. Among online adults worldwide, GWI’s survey puts monthly use at 55.1% for Instagram and 36% for TikTok. DataReportal has “removed the data for China” from that TikTok figure and warns that “figures for YouTube may not be directly comparable”. Both platforms trail YouTube on reach in the US and worldwide.
Recent Developments
- September 10, 2026: Nielsen’s July 2026 Gauge put YouTube at a record 14.2% of TV, with YouTube viewing up 6% month over month.
- September 10, 2026: Streaming climbed to 49.0% of total TV in July, and YouTube extended its lead in the Media Distributor Gauge to 5.0 share points.
- September 2026: TikTok reported month-over-month growth across #fallwishlist (450%) and #holidaygiftideas (248%), ahead of the holiday shopping season.
- July 22, 2026: Alphabet reported YouTube ads revenue of $11,055 million for Q2 2026, against $9,796 million a year earlier, growth of 13%.
- July 22, 2026: Alphabet said over 1.7 billion unique viewers watched World Cup-related videos on YouTube during the FIFA World Cup 2026.
YouTube vs TikTok Users by Age
- YouTube and Facebook are the only sites in Pew’s survey that a majority in all age groups use, though the youngest adults are still the most likely to use YouTube, at 95% of those aged 18 to 29.
- Adults under 30 particularly stand out in their use of Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Reddit.
- The YouTube lead is wider among older adults, rising from 32 percentage points among adults aged 18 to 29 to a peak of 55 points among those aged 50 to 64, then easing to 52 points among those 65 and older.
- 80% of adults aged 18 to 29 use Instagram, compared with 19% of adults 65 and older.
View the data
YouTube vs TikTok Among US Teens
- YouTube stands out for being used by nearly all teens, with roughly nine-in-ten reporting ever using it, and in Pew’s 2025 topline, 92% use it against 68% for TikTok, a lead of 24 percentage points.
- About six-in-ten or more teens say they use TikTok, and its share has stayed relatively stable in recent years.
- Roughly three-quarters of teens use YouTube every day, against 61% for TikTok.
- Pew’s 2025 teen survey covered 1,458 teens, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
- Teen use of both platforms has moved within a few points since 2022, and across the four survey waves, the gap narrowed to its smallest in 2025.
View the data
How Often US Teens Use YouTube vs TikTok
- 17% of teens say they use YouTube almost constantly, and 36% use at least one of five major platforms that often.
- The share of teens on TikTok almost constantly ticked up slightly to 21% in 2025, from 16% in 2022, which puts TikTok 4 percentage points above YouTube on that measure.
- YouTube leads on repeat daily visits, with 9 percentage points more teens using it several times a day than TikTok.
- Fewer teens describe their Instagram and Snapchat use as almost constant, at 12% for each.
View the data
Key finding: Pew Research Center’s 2025 teen survey shows TikTok reaching fewer teens than YouTube, 68% against 92%, but holding a larger hard core: the share of teens on TikTok almost constantly ticked up to 21%, 4 points above YouTube. For parents and advertisers, reach and intensity point to different winners.
YouTube vs TikTok Ad Reach
- Google’s ad tools put YouTube’s ad reach at 2.53 billion users in January 2025.
- TikTok ads reached 1.59 billion users in January 2025, so YouTube’s ad audience was 0.94 billion larger.
- YouTube ranked 1st in DataReportal’s ranking of social media platforms by reported ad reach outside China, while TikTok ranked 4th.
- DataReportal notes that advertising reach figures are not a direct proxy for a platform’s overall user base.
| Platform | Ad reach, January 2025 (billions) | Share of world population (%) | Rank by ad reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 2.53 | 30.9 | 1st |
| TikTok | 1.59 | 19.4 | 4th |
Source: DataReportal, Google and TikTok advertising tools (January 2025)
These ad reach figures date from January 2025, so they are older than 12 months. They are the most recent like-for-like global counts from each platform’s own advertising tools in this set.
Time Spent per User: TikTok vs YouTube
- The typical TikTok user spends 1 hour and 37 minutes per day using the Android app, roughly 14% longer than the typical YouTube user.
- The gap in daily minutes on TikTok comes from frequency: TikTok users open the Android app an average of 10 times per day, against 5.9 times for YouTube.
- Each YouTube Android session lasted an average of 14 minutes and 29 seconds in August 2025, roughly 50% longer than the typical TikTok session of 9 minutes and 42 seconds.
- Instagram users average 1 hour and 13 minutes per day in the Android app.
| App | Average daily time per user (Android, August 2025) |
|---|---|
| TikTok | 1 hr 37 min |
| 1 hr 13 min | |
| 67 min | |
| 59 min |
Source: Similarweb via DataReportal (August 2025)
The DataReportal text cited here gives YouTube’s per-user time only relative to TikTok’s, so YouTube appears in the bullets above, not in the table.
Total App Time: YouTube vs TikTok and Rivals
- YouTube accounted for well over 50% more total time than its next nearest rival, WhatsApp, across each app’s Android users.
- TikTok rounds out the top five with an index of 55.1, on indices where the top platform will always have a value of 100.
- YouTube accounted for almost twice as much total time as TikTok in August 2025.
View the data
Why it matters: Similarweb’s August 2025 Android app data, published by DataReportal, splits the contest in two. TikTok users spend roughly 14% longer per day in the app, yet YouTube accounted for almost twice as much total time as TikTok. A brand buying attention per person and one buying total hours would pick different platforms.
YouTube vs TikTok on the TV Screen
- YouTube captured a record 14.2% of TV in Nielsen’s July 2026 Gauge, as overall streaming rose to 49.0%.
- YouTube claimed the single greatest share of TV usage in the United States in August 2025, at 13.1%, up from 10.6% in August 2024.
- The Netflix subscriber story looks different on the TV set: Disney took 9.7% of US TV viewing time in August 2025 and Netflix 8.7%.
- YouTube says it has been #1 in US streaming watch time for nearly three years, according to Nielsen.
View the data
The TV set is where the comparison is one-sided by design. TikTok is built around the phone, and these TV shares measure YouTube against Disney, Netflix, and broadcast networks.
YouTube Ad Revenue vs TikTok Commerce
- Alphabet’s filings put YouTube’s ad business at $11,383 million in Q4 2025, up 9% year over year.
- YouTube revenue across ads and subscriptions exceeded $60 billion for the full year 2025.
- Adding Alphabet’s quarterly figures for the four quarters from Q3 2025 to Q2 2026, YouTube ads totaled $42.582 billion.
- YouTube ads grew 11% in Q1 2026, to $9,883 million.
- TikTok Shop’s sales surpassed $500 million during the 2025 four-day Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, per TikTok.
- Sellers hosting livestreams on TikTok Shop saw 84% year-over-year sales growth across more than 760,000 sessions.
View the data
The two sides of this ledger are not like-for-like. Alphabet files YouTube’s ad revenue every quarter, while TikTok’s own figures here describe commerce on TikTok Shop.
YouTube vs TikTok Creator Economy
- YouTube says it has paid over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the past four years.
- The Shorts vs TikTok usage contest is counted in views on YouTube’s side: Shorts now averages 200 billion daily views.
- In 2024, YouTube’s US ecosystem supported more than 490,000 full-time jobs.
- Livestreams on TikTok Shop drew 1.6 billion views over the 2025 Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend.
| Creator economy metric | Platform | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Paid to creators, artists and media companies (past four years) | YouTube | over $100 billion |
| Shorts daily views | YouTube | 200 billion |
| Shorts creator share of allocated revenue | YouTube | 45% |
| US GDP contribution, 2024 | YouTube | $55 billion |
| E-commerce searches in the US, 2025 | TikTok Shop | more than 100 billion |
| Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend sales, 2025 | TikTok Shop | over $500 million |
Source: YouTube, YouTube Help, TikTok (2024 to 2026)
By the numbers: YouTube’s 2026 CEO letter puts the platform’s payout record at over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the past four years. On TikTok’s side, there were more than 100 billion searches with e-commerce intent on TikTok Shop in the US in 2025. One platform pays for views, the other monetizes shopping intent.
Who won the TikTok vs YouTube fight?
YouTube, on most measures. 84% of US adults use YouTube, compared with 37% for TikTok. YouTube also logged almost twice TikTok’s total Android app time in August 2025. On the TV set, YouTube holds a record 14.2% of TV viewing in Nielsen’s July 2026 Gauge.
TikTok wins on intensity. Its typical user spends 1 hour and 37 minutes a day in the Android app, roughly 14% longer than YouTube’s typical user. Among teens, 21% are on TikTok almost constantly, 4 points above YouTube.
Conclusion
In the US, 84% of adults use YouTube, against 37% for TikTok. Even so, TikTok’s typical user spends 1 hour and 37 minutes a day in its Android app. Across our platform statistics pages, user growth slows while engagement deepens, and this pair shows both at once: YouTube owns the audience and the TV screen; TikTok owns the minutes of the users it has.
The next readings to watch are Alphabet’s next quarterly release for YouTube ad revenue and Nielsen’s next Gauge for YouTube’s TV share. For TikTok, holiday trading on TikTok Shop is the clearest public signal of how its attention turns into money.
