YouTube@20: Over 20 million daily uploads, now hosts 20 billion plus videos

YouTube recently hiked the prices of its premium subscription across many markets. In India, prices were increased by 12 percent to 58 percent

More than 20 million videos on average are now uploaded daily on YouTube, the Google-owned video platform has said, highlighting its massive scale as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

YouTube said on April 23 that more than 20 billion videos have been uploaded to date, including music, Shorts, and podcasts.

More than 300 music videos on YouTube have crossed a billion views apiece, with five of the fastest music videos to reach this milestone being Adele's Hello (88 days), Ed Sheeran's Shape of You (97 days), Luis Fonsi's Despacito (97 days), J Balvin and Willy William's Mi Gente (103 days), ROSÉ and Bruno Mars' APT (105 days).

In 2024, YouTube users averaged more than 100 million comments on videos a day, while videos received more than 3.5 billion likes daily.

In addition, the world's largest video platform also announced several new upcoming features. This includes rolling out 4x playback speed for premium subscribers on mobile devices and a new television viewing experience with easier navigation, playback options, quality tweaks and faster access to comments, channel information, and the subscribe button.

Later this year, YouTube will allow more creators to voice-reply to comments on their videos, a feature that was introduced to a small group of creators in 2024.

YouTube TV will also let members create their own multiview with select non-sports content, starting with a few popular channels in the coming weeks and expanding to other channels in the coming months.

Multiview feature lets people watch up to four live streams simultaneously on a single screen. YouTube TV is a television streaming service available in the US.

In March, YouTube announced that it crossed over 125 million subscribers globally across Music and Premium services. To accelerate the subscriber growth, the video platform also introduced a new low-cost ad-free pricing tier called 'Premium Lite' in the United States.

Through Premium Lite, viewers will be able to watch ad-free videos across various categories such as gaming, comedy, cooking or learning. They will, however, see ads on music content, music videos, and Shorts. Consumers will also not be able to play videos in the background or download them for offline viewing.

In recent years, Google has also taken several steps to grow YouTube's subscription revenue, including a global crackdown on adblockers and hiking the prices of its premium subscription across markets including India.

Google does not report the overall revenues of YouTube each quarter and provides only advertising sales figures. However, in October 2024, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said YouTube's total revenue surpassed $50 billion for the first time in the past four quarters.