TikTok beats YouTube with 4 – 18 year-olds but Shorts could change that

The battle for supremacy online is waged in statistics and after some strong numbers from YouTube Shorts, TikTok is back on top, at least with younger users.

A new analysis by TechCrunch and parental control software maker Qustodio show that since June of 2020, TikTok has bested YouTube in average minutes per day for ages 4 through 18. By the end of 2021, that demo was watching an average of 91 minutes of TikTok per day compared with 56 minutes per day on YouTube, on a global basis.

QUICK ANALYSIS: Battle Of The Dueling Stats

This new analysis points to YouTube falling out of favor with younger users. But YouTube’s Shorts may already be countering that trend.

Last week Google shared that Shorts – YouTube’s TikTok rival – has 1.5 billion monthly logged-in viewers. ThIs number rivals TikTok. YouTube also says that Shorts containing content sampled from long-form YouTube videos generated over 100 billion views.

Overall Shorts boasts 30 billion views per day.

Expect more dueling stats and counter stats in the weeks to come.

MORE: YouTube video samples drove 1B monthly views on Shorts: It’s time to change your music video strategy

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.