New Data Shows Music Videos Continue To Dominate YouTube

Although categories like Gaming have seen impressive growth over the past few years, YouTube’s most popular content where consumers are concerned continues to be music videos.

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

While gaming may be huge, it still has a way to go when it comes to overtaking music videos in terms of YouTube consumption, according to the latest data from the analysis group Pex. Music’s 2,944 views per video minute was more than twice of the nearest category (Entertainment) and more than 22 times that of gaming.

When it comes to the number of videos on the platform, gaming leads with 37% as compared to music’s 5% of videos. The total number of views is way different though, with music receiving 22% of all views as compared to only 8% of gaming. That means that even though there are more gaming videos on YouTube, fewer people watch them than music videos. This figure was up 2% from 2018.

That said, it’s harder to get views than ever before regardless of your category. 88.4% of all videos on the service receive less than 1,000 views. What’s worse, just 0.77% of all videos generated 83% of all the views!

For videos exceeding 1 billion views, Music is responsible for a whopping 83%. Entertainment manages only 1.5% of such videos, while Gaming comprises just 0.5%.

While these numbers might change now that Facebook can now play official music videos, YouTube continues to dominate when it comes to music according to the latest data.

The big problem is having your video gain traction, which is more difficult than ever. Even though music is the leading view driver on the platform, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to break into that top 0.77%. It’s especially difficult these days to go viral on the service, although many artists can still have that happen via TikTok.

Despite the long odds, it’s still worth releasing a music video on YouTube as it’s more likely to be viewed there than almost anywhere else. It’s probably not a good idea to spend a lot of money on a big production however, since the payoff is unlikely.