Statistics
UK YouTube Statistics (2026): Users, Watch Time, Ads & the Living-Room Takeover
If you’re looking for YouTube statistics for the UK specifically, most of what ranks is global data with a British paragraph bolted on, usually copied from another stats page rather than from the source. This page is different: every number below comes from a named primary source, with a link, and the year it describes. The heavy lifting is done by Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 and brand-new Media Nations 2026 reports, IAB UK’s Digital Adspend study and Google’s own UK impact report.
Last updated 29 July 2026, the day Ofcom published Media Nations 2026. We refresh this page annually as new editions land.
Key UK YouTube statistics
- 94% of UK adults use YouTube (Ofcom, 2025)
- UK adults spend an average of 51 minutes a day on YouTube, not counting the TV set (Ofcom, 2025)
- Total in-home YouTube viewing has reached 41 minutes per person per day, up from 33 minutes in 2022 (Ofcom, 2026)
- YouTube viewing on TV sets has doubled since 2022 (Ofcom, 2026)
- YouTube is the UK’s second most-viewed video service, behind only the BBC, having overtaken ITV in 2024 (Barb, via Ofcom)
- UK advertisers spent £9.3 billion on video ads in 2025, up 20% in a year (IAB UK / AA-WARC)
- YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed £2.2 billion to UK GDP and supported 45,000+ full-time-equivalent jobs in 2024 (Oxford Economics)
- YouTube ads can reach 55.5 million people in the UK (Google advertising data, late 2025)
How many people use YouTube in the UK?
94% of UK adults use YouTube, according to Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report (published December 2025), the highest reach of any social or video platform Ofcom measured. Among children it’s even higher: 96% of 8-to-14-year-olds use the platform.
On the advertising side, Google’s own planning data puts YouTube’s UK ad reach at 55.5 million people in late 2025 (reported in DataReportal’s Digital 2026: The United Kingdom). One definition note, because it matters if you’re citing this: ad reach is the audience Google says advertisers can reach, which is not quite the same thing as monthly active users. It’s still roughly nine in ten Britons.
How much time do Britons spend watching YouTube?
UK adults average 51 minutes a day on YouTube, and that Ofcom figure excludes whatever they watch on the television. Children aged 8 to 14 spend about 48 minutes a day there; YouTube and Snapchat together account for around half of everything that age group does online.
Add every connected device in the home and total YouTube viewing reaches 41 minutes per person per day in 2025, up from 33 minutes in 2022, according to Ofcom’s Media Nations 2026 report.
YouTube on TV: the living-room takeover
The most striking shift in the 2026 data is where YouTube gets watched.
- Viewing on TV sets has doubled since 2022, from 9 to 19 minutes per person per day (Ofcom Media Nations 2026).
- In 2024 YouTube overtook ITV by share of total viewing, making it the UK’s second most-viewed video service, behind only the BBC (Barb data, reported in Ofcom Media Nations 2025). The 2026 edition confirms the ranking held in 2025: BBC 18%, YouTube 15%, ITV 11% of all in-home video viewing.
- 20% of 4-to-15-year-olds go straight to the YouTube app as soon as they turn on the TV, ahead of Netflix at 18% (Ofcom Media Nations 2025).
- It isn’t just the young: weekly reach among the over-75s rose from 28% in 2022 to 33% in 2025 (Ofcom Media Nations 2026).
In other words, YouTube stopped being a phone platform. It now competes with the broadcasters on their own screen, and it’s winning against all but one of them.
How much is spent on YouTube advertising in the UK?
IAB UK and AA/WARC’s Digital Adspend study put the UK’s digital ad market at £40.5 billion in 2025, up 10% in a year. Video was the fastest-growing major format within it: £9.3 billion, up 20% year on year, now 23p of every digital ad pound. (That video figure covers social platforms, broadcasters, streamers and publishers together; IAB UK doesn’t break out YouTube alone.)
What is YouTube worth to the UK economy?
According to research by Oxford Economics commissioned for Google’s UK impact report, YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed £2.2 billion to UK GDP in 2024 and supported more than 45,000 full-time-equivalent jobs. The creator economy is now taken seriously enough in Westminster that an all-party parliamentary group for creators was formed off the back of it.
The biggest YouTube channels registered in the UK
The largest channels registered in the UK, by subscribers (vidIQ data, 29 July 2026):
| # | Channel | Subscribers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peppa Pig — Official Channel | 44.3M |
| 2 | NoCopyrightSounds | 34.3M |
| 3 | DanTDM | 29.1M |
| 4 | Coldplay | 28.6M |
| 5 | Dan Rhodes | 26.1M |
| 6 | Moosa Tv Info | 25.6M |
| 7 | Miss Katy | 25.6M |
| 8 | Yana Chirkina | 25.3M |
| 9 | Mister Max | 25.2M |
| 10 | Jelly | 23.3M |
A note on method: this ranks channels by the country they’re registered in, which is how the data is recorded. A few publish mainly in other languages, and some of Britain’s best-known YouTubers register their channels elsewhere, so don’t read it as a list of the biggest British creators; it’s the biggest channels the UK is home to on paper.
What do the numbers mean for businesses?
Three things stand out to us, as people who build YouTube channels for businesses.
First, the attention has already moved: the second most-viewed video service in the country is one where any business can publish. Second, budgets are following it; a 20% jump in video ad spend in one year is advertisers voting with their money. Third, and the reason we like YouTube more than any other channel: the 41 minutes a day isn’t spent on content that disappears. YouTube videos sit in search results and recommendations for years, which is why a channel can keep bringing in customers long after the filming day.
If you want a channel that sells for your business rather than a hobby channel, that’s exactly what our YouTube marketing service exists to do.
Sources & methodology
Every statistic on this page links to its original source, and each is labelled with the year it describes. We refresh this page annually as new report editions are published.
The graphics on this page are free to reuse in articles, presentations and reports. Please credit Steadyhand Productions with a link to this page.
- Ofcom, Online Nation 2025 (published 10 December 2025)
- Ofcom, Media Nations 2026 (published 29 July 2026; figures describe 2025 viewing)
- Ofcom, Media Nations 2025 (published 30 July 2025)
- IAB UK / AA-WARC, Digital Adspend 2025
- Google / Oxford Economics, A platform for growth through creativity: Exploring YouTube’s UK impact in 2024
- DataReportal, Digital 2026: The United Kingdom (Google advertising data, October 2025)
- vidIQ channel data, pulled 29 July 2026
