Short Video is the Fastest Growing Format Worldwide

A comprehensive annual report details how device usage and consumer media habits shifted this year across 7 regions and 49 countries.

October 29, 2026 (New York, NY) – Short video weekly consumption grew by 21 minutes worldwide in 2026, a massive outlier compared with most other media formats.  This, according to the 2026 Global Media Intelligence report from EMARKETER, Starcom, and GWI today released, a robust annual guide detailing media and device usage in 49 countries.

Each of the seven regions’ media habits and behaviors is analyzed by the following metrics: device ownership, smartphone and tablet owners, smart TV owners, average time spent with media, traditional media users, TV viewers, video-on-demand (VOD) viewers, social media/messaging users, digital audio listeners, and voice assistant/search users. New metrics this year include time spent with short video and mobile gaming, plus AI break-outs by activity for all 49 markets. 

“The 2026 dataset more than ever highlights the unique media patterns around the world,”  said EMARKETER principal analyst Paul Briggs. “Regional distinctions really stand out (e.g. Latin America’s deep attachment to social video, Western Europe’s heavier engagement with traditional media), and there are some fully developed countries that are much slower to adopt digital services and own the latest tech. For media buyers, it’s essential to understand such distinctions before investing in channels targeting these areas of the world.”

“For the first time this year, the report includes data about how consumers are using AI – with the results impressively high across all regions, and all generations. What people use it for tells the regional story. Finding information is the number one use in every region, so AI is fast becoming a front door for discovery. Beyond that, Latin America leans creative, South and Southeast Asia is using AI to learn, and East Asia and Oceania is focused on saving time. As with every other medium in this report, there is no single global audience, only local ones,” said Jason Mander, Chief Insight Officer at GWI.

“As the global media landscape continues to evolve, and new technologies rapidly gain widespread adoption, this report is a crucial resource for our media strategists who must navigate this changing environment,” said Eddie Parker, Executive Vice President, Head of Growth Planning, Starcom. “Our teams rely on the Global Media Intelligence Report to understand the trends shaping our industry, gain insight into consumer behavior across markets, including those where data can be scarce, and implement global campaigns that reflect how consumers engage with media in each market – ultimately helping our clients connect more effectively with their audiences and drive stronger business outcomes.”

Key findings this year include:

• The Americas dominate the time spent with media rankings. North America and Latin America both lead in four separate time spent categories. Conversely, Asia regions, especially East Asia and Oceania, trail every other global region in most time spent categories.
• Latin America’s attachment to social media and short-form video is unrivalled. 
• North America leads in streaming content, both video and audio, and time spent with video games, both mobile and PC/console-based. As the home to global content powerhouses like Netflix and Disney, users in North America were first adopters of streaming video as an alternative to live TV. 
• Western Europe holds on to traditional media more than any other region. Time spent with broadcast TV and radio lead all regions. 
• East Asia and Oceania trails the globe in 9 of 12 time spent categories. The unique media markets of China and Japan are big influences on these regional rankings. Both countries favor domestic media sources for content, and China prohibits many of the global content powerhouses from operating in the country. 

Methodology

GWI surveys internet users ages 16 to 64 (ages 16+ in select markets) in more than 49 markets on a range of questions about their digital lives and lifestyles. The minimum sample size per quarter, per market is 1,250; bigger markets have larger quarterly sample sizes, with the maximum being 25,000 in China and the US. The final data set is weighted to interlocking age, gender, and education quotas which reflect the internet population in each country. 

About EMARKETER

EMARKETER is the go-to forecasts, data and insights provider across the marketing, advertising, and ecommerce fields. We empower companies to make informed decisions that maximize revenue, optimize spend and anticipate digital disruption by providing actionable forecasts and context from expert analysts, carefully vetted data sources and our proprietary research methodology. Emarketer is a division of Axel Springer S.E.

About Starcom

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at the center of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With almost 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, Starcom partners with the world’s leading marketers and brands, including Bank of America, Best Buy, Kellanova, McDonald’s, Novartis, Samsung, Visa, WK Kellogg Company and more.  

About GWI 

GWI is the human intelligence company. It gives businesses, and the AI systems they use, a reliable understanding of real people, grounded in more than 45 billion verified and proprietary behavioural datapoints collected annually over 17 years across 100+ countries. By combining real human research, data science and agentic tools, GWI helps organisations make faster, more confident decisions based on how people actually think and behave. Founded in 2009, GWI is trusted by leading brands, agencies and media owners worldwide. gwi.com 

For EMARKETER:

Douglas Clark

[email protected]

For GWI:

John Mayne

[email protected]

For Starcom:

Olamide Aruwajoye 

[email protected]