This year, TikTok will surpass YouTube in terms of time spent by their respective adult users in the US. The short-video app will see 45.8 minutes per day from its average adult user, edging out YouTube, at 45.6 minutes.

US adults are spending more time watching YouTube on connected TVs and less time watching it on mobile devices. This year, for the first time since we began our forecast, less than half of time spent with YouTube will be on mobile, as viewers pivot to watching these videos on the same screen as their TV programming, separate from their TikToks and Instagram Reels.

Time spent with TikTok peaked at 40.0 minutes per day for the average US adult user in 2021, below that of YouTube, at 45.0 minutes daily. TikTok will lose some of its pandemic gains this year and the next, with its time spent falling to 37.1 minutes in 2023.

Spotlight on YouTube: Time Spent on the Country's Most Popular Video Platform Is Shifting Away From Mobile. YouTube viewership is going back to its roots: bigger screens. After many years of primarily spending time with YouTube on smartphones and tablets, US adults will spend less than half (49.3%) of their YouTube viewing time on mobile devices in 2022.

Note: This estimate doesn’t include YouTube, which we include within our digital video category when forecasting time spent. Our forecast for time spent watching video on YouTube is discussed later in the report. Social video is more than just TikTok. Video accounts for half of user time spent on Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta Platforms. 

Video platforms like YouTube and Netflix stole consumer time away from linear TV. Similarly, online radio apps, podcasts, and platforms like Spotify are boosting digital audio at the expense of time spent in terrestrial radio. Digital audio minutes are up more than 50% over the past five years and growth will continue throughout the rest of forecast.

However, we think the continued growth in new users will start to bring down the average time spent this year. Meanwhile, YouTube time will continue to rise incrementally, due in part to the rising popularity of YouTube TV, which we include in our YouTube time spent forecast.

US TikTok users will spend more time with the social media platform this year than YouTube users will spend on YouTube. This difference will be just about a fraction of a minute but will expand in years to come.

The streaming music and podcast menu has expanded and now includes pure plays like Spotify; music services from Apple, Amazon, and YouTube; and digital radio content from domestic publishers Rogers Sports & Media and Bell Media. Time spent with digital audio has surpassed traditional radio.

Time spent with digital audio surpassed that of radio for the first time in 2021. The gap will widen going forward. At 1 hour, 33 minutes a day on average in 2022, time spent with digital audio will be 8 minutes more than time spent with radio. The switch is related to a reduction in commuting, which has had a direct impact on terrestrial radio consumption.

Digital video viewership, time spent with the medium, and video ad spending are all reaching new heights in Canada.