Youtube viewership skews very young

I reviewed the stats for my own Youtube channel and discovered that 77% of all viewers are between the ages of 13 and 44 and about 60% are between the ages of 13 and 34.

Youtube does not present statistics on those under age 13 (think this is due to Federal laws to protect children) but there are third party reports that suggest the very young also view a lot of Youtube videos. Would be reasonable to add another 10% to 15% in that age group, meaning 90% + or – are below the age of 44.

But merely counting viewers by age does not give us the full story. I suspect that younger viewers also watch more minutes than do older viewers.  If we had access to that data, we would probably see that nearly all of our channel views come from a young viewership.

This age skew is why some topics get large viewership, notably:

  • Video gaming videos
  • Hair, makeup and fashion videos are targeted at “tween” and teen girls – and older. Surprisingly, 25% of “Generation Y” and “X” have dyed their hair a non-natural color at some point. This is a bigger audience category than one might think.
  • Music videos (which usually target a young audience)
  • “Adventure” videos – often doing crazy stuff or even well organized crazy stuff, score highly too. Remember that the younger demographic has a bias towards breaking the rules and trying new and crazy stuff.
  • Some physical activity interest area videos (mountain biking, dancing, skate boarding)

Those topics appeal to the younger viewers that make up the bulk of Youtube viewers. If you want to attract a big channel audience, you will probably want to target topics that interest young viewers.

This demographic is also very important for advertisers – brand identification starts young. Buying habits start young. And many young people spend a lot of money. Youtube is an advertiser’s dream audience.

More Youtube demographics over on my other blog.

Update: No surprise – Youtube “stars” are better recognized/more famous among teens than are “A-list” movie stars and celebrities.

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