By India McCarty
YouTube just marked its 20th anniversary with the announcement of several new upcoming features.
“*whispers* hey…it’s our 20th birthday,” the website’s X account posted on April 23.
*whispers* hey…it’s our 20th birthday
— YouTube (@YouTube) April 23, 2025
The first YouTube video was posted on that day in 2005, titled “Me at the Zoo.” As of today, over 20 billion videos have been uploaded to the site.
“In 2024, YouTube users averaged over 100 million comments on videos on a daily basis. And we discovered that last year creators hearted comments from an average of 10 million viewers every day,” YouTube shared in a list of stats to mark the occasion.
The platform continued, “In fact, last year, on average, YouTube videos received over 3.5 billion likes from users per day,” adding that “more than 300 music videos on YouTube are in the billion views club.”
YouTube is also planning on rolling out some new features, including 4x playback speed on mobile for Premium users, a “Multiview” feature for YouTube TV subscribers and some upgrades to its TV services — “Easier navigation, playback, quality tweaks, plus streamlined access to comments, channel info, and subscribing.”
It makes sense that YouTube would be focusing on its TV department. In his annual letter, CEO Neal Mohan said TV screens have officially overtaken mobile as the “primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S.”
Related: A Look at YouTube 20 Years After Its Launch
Mohan announced “YouTube is the new television,” but added, “the ‘new’ television doesn’t look like the ‘old’ television.”
“It’s interactive and includes things like Shorts (yes, people watch them on TVs), podcasts, and live streams, right alongside the sports, sitcoms and talk shows people already love,” he continued.
Mohan shared that he plans for YouTube to “remain the epicenter of culture,” explaining, “From elections to the Olympics to Coachella to the Super Bowl and the Cricket World Cup, the world’s biggest moments play out on YouTube.”
Whatever YouTube is doing, it’s working. Last year, CNBC reported, “YouTube made up 9.7% of all viewership on connected and traditional TVs in the U.S. in May — the largest share of TV for a streaming platform ever reported by Nielsen’s monthly ‘The Gauge’ report.”
“We’re not talking about your mobile phone, your laptop, that I’m sure you see your kids using all the time, but on the biggest screen in the house, the TV,” LightShed media analyst Rich Greenfield told the outlet. “Every [media] executive has to be paying attention.”
Twenty years later, YouTube is bigger and better than ever, and it looks the website has no plans on slowing down!
Read Next: Will YouTube Win the Streaming Wars?
- Content: +3Share:
- Content: +1