Exactly 20 years ago, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the platform’s first ever video. Called Me at the zoo, it’s just 19 seconds long, but it marked the birth of the internet’s largest video site, a meeting place for creators and viewers all around the world to talk about any and every topic.
We here at Tubefilter are kicking off our own celebration of YouTube’s 20th anniversary: Over the next few months, we’ll tell the stories of 20 iconic videos that made YouTube what it is today–and, of course, we’re starting with Me at the zoo.
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But for now, YouTube itself is doing the celebrating. It’s introducing some nostalgic easter eggs (not the White House Egg Roll kind, though it had a hand in that too) on the site and sharing some statistics to show just how many people (and how much content) pass through its digital gates each day, plus giving users a glimpse of what to expect in the coming months.
Let’s start with stats. As of this month, there are 20 billion total videos uploaded to YouTube, the Google-owned company said in a blog post. And, “Fittingly for our 20th birthday, we found that on average, there are over 20 million videos uploaded daily to YouTube,” it added.
All those trillions of videos attract a lot of comments. On average, there are over 100 million new comments left on videos every single day, YouTube said.
And the creator-viewer conversation doesn’t end there: YouTube creators now “heart” comments from an average of 10 million viewers every day, giving those replies a tiny stamp of approval.
As for a stamp of approval from audience members, YouTube videos currently get over 3.5 billion likes from viewers each day. (A few years ago, we may have been able given you data about dislikes, too, but YouTube chose to hide public dislikes in 2021…a decision Karim disagreed with so strongly that he updated the video description of Me at the zoo in protest.)
YouTube didn’t talk about daily number of views or watch time generated, but it did give a nod to the video genre that consistently churns out the biggest numbers. That’s music videos, and there are over 300 of them that have hit at least one billion views on the platform.
The fastest vids to reach this massive milestone? Adele‘s “Hello,” which hit it in just 88 days; Ed Sheeran‘s “Shape of You” and Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee‘s “Despacito” (both 97 days); J Balvin and Willy William‘s “Mi Gente” (103 days); and ROSÉ and Bruno Mars‘ “APT.” (105 days).
Just because YouTube’s come a long way–to 2.5 billion monthly active users and $36+ million in annual ad revenue, to be exact–doesn’t mean it’s done evolving. Here’s the rundown of future features creators and viewers can expect:
- People still subscribed to YouTube TV despite the price hikes will be able to build their own multiview displays with onn-sports content, “starting with a small group of popular channels”
- More creators will soon get the ability to leave voice replies to user comments
- On the YouTube Music side (it turns 10 this year along with YouTube Kids, btw), English-language users in a handful of regions can now tell YouTube what sort of music they’re in the mood for, and it’ll create a personalized radio station
- 4x playback speed is coming to YouTube Premium for all you jackrabbits out there
- and finally (and maybe most significantly?), YouTube is overhauling its living room TV viewing, introducing “easier navigation, playback, quality tweaks, plus streamlined access to comments, channel info, and subscribing.” Considering people in the U.S. now watch more YouTube content on TVs than any other device, we can see why YouTube is keen to make upgrades.
Most of these are future additions. If you head to YouTube today, though, you’ll see a full birthday dress-up. It’s got a new logo, a little piece of cake for a scrubber, a special animation when you like videos, a special birthday welcome screen for YouTube’s mobile game players, and if you type “bday” anywhere on the watch page, you’ll get “a quick blast from the past.” Plus, for this week only, livestream viewers can gift creators party hats and slices of cake.
There’s also a Yoodle (made by Portal A) that features dozens of creators and pays loving homage to one of YouTube’s greatest contributions to pop culture: the rickroll, which was around on 4chan but was mainstream popularized by YouTube on April Fools’ in 2008.
OK, that’s it. We wouldn’t be here without YouTube, and we’re glad you’re here. Thanks for being one of our readers. It’s been a long but fulfilling 20 years, and Tubefilter is excited to be around for the next 20.
Correction: YouTube originally said over 20 trillion videos had been uploaded to its platform as of April 2025. It later issued a correction, saying the actual number is 20 billion. Our story has been updated to reflect the accurate figure.
