Report: Music content most average views per video on YouTube

Search engine Pex has released internal data from its active monitoring of YouTube, an assessment of trends in video uploads and content. Pex’s figures found that YouTube’s upload volume may be even greater than what the company reports, finding that more than 621 hours of content were uploaded every minute in 2018 (compared with YouTube’s official statement, which set a more conservative rate of more than 500 hours a minute. Pex also noted a trend of longer average videos, more uploads per year, and more uploads per user, although it saw a slight decline in distinct users uploading content in 2018.

As more people upload videos, YouTube has seen a shift in subject matter. All categories saw declines in their share of the platform’s total content except for gaming, which is on a skyrocketing growth trajectory. Music content is the leading category in mutliple respects, recording 16,397 average views per video and 2,411 views per minute. It also includes the shortest average video length at 6.8 minutes. Pex notes that falling at those extremes means that music is some of YouTube’s most valuable content. It was responsible for about 20% of all views in 2018 despite being about 5% of all YouTube content, demonstrating a high return on investment.