Despite YouTube’s investment in Shorts, viewers are gravitating toward long-form video

YouTube has invested considerable resources in Shorts, its vertical video format that resembles TikTok. Despite the platform’s priorities, YouTube’s long-form library is drawing more attention from its user base. Recent research found that the average U.S. YouTube viewer now spends 8% more time watching long-form videos compared to October 2023.

That data point comes from Digital i, a British software company that queried American YouTube users over the age of 18 regarding their consumption habits. The survey found that the long-form uptick was accompanied by a slight downturn in short-form viewership. Digital i’s respondents now spend 73% of their YouTube watch time enjoying videos that are more than 30 minutes long. All other videos — including Shorts — shared the other 27%.

These findings are a marked departure from previous viewership trends involving YouTube Shorts. As the platform invited more creators into its Shorts monetization program, observers speculated that the increasing emphasis on TikTok-style content could cannibalize traffic that previously went to long-form videos. Digital i’s research suggests that YouTubers can benefit from spreading themselves across multiple formats, an approach that YouTube has championed for years.

On its face, Digital i’s report makes no distinction between traditional long-form uploads and 30-minute-plus videos that are either live streams or VOD versions of those streams. YouTube has bulked up its streaming operation with a particular focus on the mobile-oriented live broadcasts that Gen Z watches in significant numbers. Over Digital i’s year-long measurement period, its 18-to-24-year-old respondents increased their consumption of long-form content on mobile devices. That figure went up 21% year-over-year.

As with so many studies related to creator content, the results of this research should be taken with a grain of salt. Digital i’s focus on watch time inherently favors long-form content, and Shorts is still growing, even if long-form videos are potentially growing faster.

The rising popularity of long-form YouTube videos may be less pronounced than Digital i makes it out to be, but even if the effect is smaller than what’s demonstrated here, the results are still noteworthy. YouTube Shorts doesn’t seem to be cannibalizing long-form traffic (at least in the U.S.), and the original YouTube format remains the platform’s bread-and-butter.