According to the Sandvine report, YouTube was the top source of traffic in 2024, with 16% of total internet traffic coming from it. YouTube even surpassed Netflix in fixed-internet download traffic which was 12% of the total internet traffic in 2024. It's been 20 years since the release of YouTube and it spent a journey with amature videos and copyright issues and now it is home to a lot of content creators who got famous through it.
YouTube also had 21% of the total traffic on mobile in 2024, and outperformed many social media apps and paid streaming apps. Facebook (18%) had the most mobile internet traffic in 2024, followed by TikTok (15%) and Instagram (7%). YouTube has all kinds of video lengths, from short to medium to long, so it makes this easier for YouTube to compete with other social media and streaming apps, and people can use it anytime, anywhere.
Even though TikTok and Facebook are behind YouTube and Netflix on fixed internet connections, they are still ahead of Disney+ and Amazon Prime. 39% of the fixed global download traffic in 2024 was taken up by video apps, which was followed by social media (18%) and television (11%). 28% of the fixed upload traffic in 2023 in the US was by file sharing services like FaceTime, iCloud, and Google Cloud, while Facebook Messenger, TikTok, and Snapchat took the most upload traffic on mobile.
Other points to note are that YouTube used to lag behind Netflix in 2018, but it overtook Netflix in 2022. Right now, Facebook has the most users globally and it is followed by 2.5 billion users on YouTube. YouTube’s success is mostly because it's a free app, but the creative, unique, and real content on it also makes it loved among users. The only dark side of YouTube is that, as it's home to many subcultures, it can create many controversies, and users can also find themselves going through a lot of misinformation.
Read next: Meta’s CTO Says that AI is Going to Take Over Many Apps and How People Interact with Software
YouTube also had 21% of the total traffic on mobile in 2024, and outperformed many social media apps and paid streaming apps. Facebook (18%) had the most mobile internet traffic in 2024, followed by TikTok (15%) and Instagram (7%). YouTube has all kinds of video lengths, from short to medium to long, so it makes this easier for YouTube to compete with other social media and streaming apps, and people can use it anytime, anywhere.
Even though TikTok and Facebook are behind YouTube and Netflix on fixed internet connections, they are still ahead of Disney+ and Amazon Prime. 39% of the fixed global download traffic in 2024 was taken up by video apps, which was followed by social media (18%) and television (11%). 28% of the fixed upload traffic in 2023 in the US was by file sharing services like FaceTime, iCloud, and Google Cloud, while Facebook Messenger, TikTok, and Snapchat took the most upload traffic on mobile.
Other points to note are that YouTube used to lag behind Netflix in 2018, but it overtook Netflix in 2022. Right now, Facebook has the most users globally and it is followed by 2.5 billion users on YouTube. YouTube’s success is mostly because it's a free app, but the creative, unique, and real content on it also makes it loved among users. The only dark side of YouTube is that, as it's home to many subcultures, it can create many controversies, and users can also find themselves going through a lot of misinformation.
Read next: Meta’s CTO Says that AI is Going to Take Over Many Apps and How People Interact with Software
