Google says YouTube Shorts now gets 50 billion daily views

YouTube Shorts are now viewed 50 billion times a day, according to Google this week. That’s up from 30 billion daily views this time last year.

That’s an impressive number but still far less than the 140 billion daily views that Meta reported for Instagram Reels in October. TikTok has not shared daily views but said in September 2021 that it had one billion monthly users.

Continuing to build Shorts is important to Google as growth and revenue in other areas slow, with the company’s Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat saying that Youtube is “prioritizing continued growth in Shorts engagement and monetization.”

Hypebot Takeaway

For the tens of millions of musicians who already have active accounts on YouTube, Shorts is proving a great way to cross-pollinate new and existing content. That YouTube Shorts does not have as big an audience as Reels or TikTok, also means it’s a little less crowded.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.