For many people, online streaming is now the preferred method for viewing shows, movies, sports, and events, so it should come as no surprise that this applies to music as well. From Netflix to YouTube to Spotify streaming services operate in almost every country, though as we’ll see, certain platforms do better in some locations than others.

As streaming becomes increasingly popular, we’re given access to a massive amount of data that can be used to help quantify the growing trends that promise to bring an end to traditional entertainment avenues. In this post, we reveal recent facts and statistics that help paint a picture of the video and music streaming industries.

Video streaming stats and facts

As internet bandwidth and speeds increase, streaming video is becoming a viable option for more consumers across the world. In many countries, users can now stream all of their favorite video content, from live TV to on-demand video. Here are some of the most eye-opening stats from 2018–2022 that help illustrate the current trends in video streaming.

1. Netflix is starting to lose ground to other streaming services

While Netflix has long been considered the streaming service to have, the company’s fortunes are beginning to change. Despite adding 36 million new subscribers during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (with almost 16 million in the first quarter alone), Netflix is struggling to retain customers, with around 1.2 million cancellations in the first half of 2022.

Meanwhile, Disney+ has continued to thrive, reporting nearly 20 million new customers in H1 2022. it’s far from the only service making the most of Netflix’s misfortune, though: HBO Max added 3 million new subscribers in Q1 2022 and Paramount plus gained 10.5 million in the first half of 2022.

2. Netflix still has roughly 220 million subscribers

Despite its current troubles, streaming giant Netflix still has around 220 million subscribers. The company actually began gaining customers back in Q3 2022, which will no doubt put some of its investors’ minds at ease.

3. YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users

More than two billion logged-in users access YouTube every month. The platform has over 30 million daily users watching over a billion hours of video every day. YouTube’s Android app has over 10 billion installs and the iOS version was one of 2021’s 10 most downloaded apps from the App Store.

4. Disney will spend over $9 billion on content in 2022

In 2021, Disney spent approximately $25 billion on content. This rose in 2022, when the company spent over $33 billion. However, it’s slowing down a little in 2024, with a budget of at least nine billion. CEO Bob Chapek claims that the main focus for this fiscal year will be producing more “local and regional content”.

To put this in context, Netflix has an expected annual spend of $17 billion on original content in 2023, meaning that it’ll spend more than its rival for the first time in years.

5. Cost, ease of use, and variety are the most important streaming service attributes

According to a 2022 Nielsen report, 84 percent of users rank cost as either extremely or very important when selecting a streaming service. This is closely followed by ease of use (81 percent), variety or availability of content (79 percent), streaming and playback quality (77 percent), and speed of menu selection and content loading (74 percent).

6. Customers are tiring of subscribing to multiple services

Nielsen’s State of Play report found that 46 percent of subscribers have difficulty finding something to watch due to the sheer number of streaming services. Further, 64 percent of respondants expressed desire for a service that would let them pick and choose streaming services as though they were channels in a traditional TV plan.

7. Collectively, we’re streaming more than ever

According to Conviva’s state of streaming Q1 2022 report, we’re all using streaming services more frequently. There was a huge jump in streaming during the pandemic, but also an average increase of 10 percent globally from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022. Nielsen’s The Gauge report found that streaming accounting for one third of all TV time in June 2022.

Of course, some regions accounted for larger increases than others. Asia’s streaming time spiked 172 percent in the last year alone, while Africa and Oceania accounted for 55 percent and 50 percent increases, respectively.

8. The global streaming market will be worth upwards of $1.69 trillion by 2029

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global streaming market was worth 372 billion in 2021, with an expected growth of around 19.9 percent per year until 2030, when the industry would be worth $1.69 trillion. That’s a significant increase from prevous forecasts, which placed the industry value at around $184.3 billion in 2027.

9. Netflix branches out in a bid to keep subscribers

No doubt concerned by the recent flood of cancellations, Netflix has decided to add several new features to its business model. First off, it has begun including fairly high-profile games such as Into the Breach with its regular subscriptions. Additionally, it’s allowing users to continue sharing their passwords for a small additional fee (though time will tell how well this is received). Finally, it plans to introduce a free, ad-supported tier in early 2023.

10. The most-watched shows rack up billions of streaming minutes

2020 saw the first ever Nielsen streaming report, which showed that while familiar shows like The Office remain extremely popular, Netflix Originals come out on top in the short term. For instance, The Umbrella Academy accounted for more than 3 billion minutes of our attention on its own during its first week of release.

The most streamed original series of 2021 were Lucifer, Squid Game, The Great British Baking Show, Virgin River, and Bridgerton, all of which happen to be Netflix series. In fact, 12 of the 15 most-streamed original series were Netflix titles. In terms of acquired series, Netflix again dominated in streaming hours with Criminal Minds leading the way. It was followed by Cocomelon, Grey’s Anatomy, and NCIS.

11. Disney+ earned 10 million subscribers in one day

Disney’s new streaming service smashed analyst’s predictions when it launched in November 2019. Estimates suggested Disney+ would have around 8 million subscribers by the end of 2019 and 18 million by the end of 2020. As it turned out, the popularity of the service was grossly underestimated. Within a day of launching, 10 million users had signed up, and within three months, Disney+ had 28.6 million subscribers.

The most recent reports put the number of users at 152 million and this will likely grow thanks to its recent expansion into dozens of additional countries across Europe and Africa.

12. People tried out lots of streaming services during the COVID-19 pandemic

It’s official: streaming is the future. More than 80 percent of US households have at least one streaming subscription, and the ongoing pandemic has seen a slight increase in the number of American customers, according to Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends Survey, 15th edition.

What’s especially interesting is that people seem to be trying out a wide range of services, not necessarily just video streaming. According to Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends Survey, 16th edition, around 60 percent of millenials and Gen Z said that they spent more time browsing user-generated content (via apps like TikTok) than they did streaming.

In previous years, people in Asian countries tended to stream significantly more on their PCs than anyone else in the world. However, the Conviva Q1 2022 report shows that this is on the decline. PCs now account for seven percent of viewing time, down from 49 percent in 2021. Most streaming is now done on mobile, with 45 percent, followed by big screens (such as a TV) at 43 percent. In last place was tablets which accounted for just five percent.

14. Users subscribe to an average of 4 video streaming services

The Deloitte Digital Media Trends Study, 15th edition, found that subscribers in the US have accounts with an average of four streaming video services. However, according to the 16th edition, the rate of “churn” (that is, someone cancelling one service and signing up for another) has remained fairly steady at 27 percent.

Almost half (43 percent) of US consumers pay for TV as well as their streaming service subscriptions. This number is higher in Gen Xers as more than half (53 percent) pay for both TV and streaming services. The same study notes that having to deal with multiple services to access all the shows they want is frustrating for many users.

15. Younger consumers tend to cancel and resubscribe

Deloitte’s 2022 Digital Media Trends report shows that the younger a customer is, the more likely they are to cancel and resubscribe at a later date. It could be that these generations have less disposable income and so simply sign up to binge a handful of specific shows at a time.

16. Access to original content is a top reason for staying subcribed

Deloitte found that one of the major reasons viewers continue to pay for streaming services is to access movies and shows that aren’t available elsewhere. 27 percent of users cited this as a top reason, with the only more popular answer being to pay less for an ad-supported version.

17. Too many ads are pushing viewers away from pay TV

Previous Deloitte reports have found that having to sit through too many advertisements is one of the reasons viewers are opting for streaming services. 44 percent of consumers cited an ad-free experience as being a top reason for using streaming services. Ads make up a whopping 20 minutes out of every hour of TV. 75 percent of viewers think this is massive overkill and 82 percent express frustration with having to see the same ads time and again.

The most recent study, though, found that on average, consumers are okay with 12 minutes of ads per hour as long as there’s no monthly fee. This is huge, since last time, users claimed they’d tune out if a service played more than 14 minutes per hour.

According to App Annie’s State of Mobile Report 2022, YouTube remained the most downloaded streaming app in 2021. Despite TikTok more than doubling its number of downloads this year, it failed to enter the top ten.

19. Disney+ ranked second in consumer spend among streaming apps in 2021

The statistics in the App Annie report combine numbers from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. When it comes to consumer app spend in 2021, Disney+ ranked second behind YouTube. Netflix also made the list, ranking seventh while Chinese video platform iQIYI was sixth.

20. Gen Z and Gen Y are twice as likely as Pre-boomers to binge-watch shows

A 2020 study by Civic Science found that more than half of its respondents between the ages of 13 and 64 binge-watched shows. Millenials and Gen X adults had the highest rate of binge-watching, at 70 percent. Meanwhile, only 41 percent of people over 65 said they do the same.

Music streaming statistics

Music streaming is now bigger than ever, with billions of dollars going into the music streaming industry every year. Most music fans are now using subscription-based streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, but video services like YouTube are also massive sources for music fans. Here are some key stats that help show how the industry is progressing.

21. Americans collectively stream about one trillion songs per year

The music streaming biz hit a huge milestone on November 25, 2019. This was when number of audio and video-on-demand music streams in the US since the start of the year hit the one trillion mark. Having climbed to 1.03 trillion in 2020, this grew a further 10 percent to 1.13 trillion in 2021. On-demand audio song streaming accounted for the majority (988 billion) of the 2021 streams, although video represented a large chunk (142 billion).

22. Streaming grew by 24.3 percent in 2021

According to a 2022 IFPI survey, streaming with the likes of YouTube and Spotify saw growth of 24.3 percent. That’s no small feat given that it already accounted for 85 percent of the music market in 2020.

23. Nearly 40% of 35-64 year-olds streamed music in the past month

The use of streaming music services is increasing in older generations. IFPI found that 38 percent of those aged 35-64 had streamed music within the past month. That said, it remains that music streaming is most popular among the younger generations with 60 percent of 16-24 year-olds and 61 percent of 25-34 year-olds taking advantage of audio streaming.

24. Instant access to songs is a top reason for choosing paid streaming services

The top three reasons IFPI found for users adopting a premium music streaming service in 2021 were:

  • Ad-free listening
  • Being able to choose what music to listen to
  • Access to large libraries of songs

25. Mexico has the largest percentage of paid subscription streamers

A large portion of music listeners in many global markets are turning to streaming to get their fix. However, the popularity of paid subscription streaming is most pronounced in Mexico where 67 percent of music listeners did so via paid services. The other top five countries included Sweden (62 percent), Brazil (57 percent), Germany (54 percent), and the UK (52 percent).

26. Older generations are less likely to stream music

Billboard’s 2021 year-end report gives us a good look at how different generations stream music. As you might expect, Gen Z leads the way with more than three-quarters of respondants using music streaming services, regardless of location.

What’s particularly surprising is that almost 90 percent of American boomers do too. It’s hard to overstate how much of an outlier this is, given that the average adoption rate for this age group is just 56 percent. In fact, in Japan, only 34 percent of people over the age of 56 rely on streaming services for music.

27. Spotify is the most-used music streaming app globally

According to Spotify’s most recent financial statements, it has 456 million monthly active users, with 195 million Premium subcribers. In other words, 42 percent of people who use this service choose to pay for it.

28. Olivia Rodrigo had 2021’s top-streamed album

Spotify’s annual review offers up a ton of information about the music streaming scene. For instance, it lets us know that Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour” was streamed more than 2.5 billion times in 2021. In second place was Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia”, followed by Justin Bieber’s “Justice”.

29. Drake rules as the most-streamed artist of the 2010s

Drake racked up a total of 36.3 billion on-demand streams over the course of the decade. Although Post Malone did well to come in at second place, he was way behind with 18.9 billion streams. Rounding out the top three was Eminem with 17.8 billion streams. However, 2021’s most streamed artists were Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, and BTS.

30. Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” was the most-consumed song of 2021

With 1.1 billion streams, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” was by far the most popular stream of 2021 and one of the biggest of the 2010s. Other viral hits in 2021 included Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and “Stay” by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber.

31. More than 50 percent of people find new music while gaming

Deloitte’s 16th digital media trends survey revealed that 51 percent of people discover new music while playing games. Meanwhile, Billboard notes that gamers are 13 percent more likely to engage with music than the general population.

So what does this mean for creators? Simply, there’s a huge market out there that isn’t hearing your music, even if it’s being played on the radio. In fact, the Undertale soundtrack accounts for almost 950,000,000 streams on Spotify alone, and Minecraft‘s soundtrack has almost 800,000,000 streams.

32. Americans prefered trap, hip-hop, and R&B in 2021

Billboard’s 2021 year-end review breaks down America’s musical preferences in granular detail. For instance, trap, hip-hop, and R&B were the most streamed categories overall, but there are state-specific differences too.

Did you know that people in Alpena and Marquette, Missouri, listen to the most rock? Or that Latin music is extremely popular in Texas? You might expect dance music to be big in places like New York or Los Angeles, but Denver, Colorado actually takes the top spot for this genre.

33. Jazz fans are the least likely to stream music

Streaming (both video and audio) makes up a large portion (62.5 percent) of Jazz music consumption, but this is lower than for any other genre. On the other hand, the listeners most likely to stream their music are Latin music fans who consume 87.4 percent of their music via streams.

34. Audio streaming companies seek to branch out

With so many large companies innovating their products, companies in the music streaming space cannot afford to stand still, even if they’re currently on top. After all, there are plenty of alternative options for users to try.

See also: Cord-cutting statistics 2022