Watching Shorts in the living room? YouTube reveals 2 billion hours of Shorts are viewed on TVs every month
YouTube’s vertical video format is officially taking over the living room, opening up even more opportunities for artists to get discovered on the biggest screen in the house.
YouTube Shorts’ short-form vertical format may have been designed with phones in mind, but viewers are increasingly watching them on a screen just a little bigger. Now, YouTube has revealed just how popular they are on TVs too.
According to the figures shared by TechCrunch, viewers now watch more than 2 billion hours of YouTube Shorts on TVs every single month. That’s a staggering amount of vertical content being consumed in living rooms around the world, and doesn’t only point to the format’s popularity, but also the continued popularity of YouTube on TV too.
YouTube’s continued growth on TVs
The growth of viewing on TVs isn’t just exclusive to Shorts either. The living room remains YouTube’s fastest growing viewing screen, and for a while now has been the most popular way people consume YouTube content. Yes, even more popular than phones.
It’s now clear that this doesn’t just apply to long-form watching, with these latest figures showing that audiences are becoming more comfortable watching short-form vertical content on the big screen too. Whether it’s for music videos, creator content, podcasts, livestreams, or Shorts, viewers are increasingly opening YouTube on their TVs for all kinds of entertainment.
YouTube keeps pushing Shorts deeper into the TV experience
Part of Shorts’ growth on TV comes down to YouTube continuing to improve how Shorts work on the bigger screen.
As TechCrunch points out, YouTube has redesigned the Shorts viewing experience on TV to make better use of the larger screen space. For example, YouTube now fills the surrounding space with comments alongside the vertical video to make the experience more immersive for users.
Meanwhile, Shorts are also appearing more frequently throughout the wider YouTube TV ecosystem. Shorts now show directly in search results while browsing on TV, making it easier to fall into the endless scroll of short-form content without even planning to.
Plus, “Short videos for you” will soon appear on the Google TV feed, helping to boost Shorts viewership even further.
Taken together, it’s clear YouTube sees Shorts a major part of its long-term TV strategy rather than just a mobile-first side feature.
What this means for artists
For artists, this shift creates another major opportunity to get seen.
Shorts already play a huge role in music discovery. Whether it’s snippets of new releases, behind-the-scenes footage, teasers, live clips, or trending content, short-form video has become the go-to way to share your music online. Now, that discovery potential is extending into the living room too. Tailor your content accordingly, and it could help you expand your reach and grow your fanbase.
Combine that with the fact that YouTube Shorts now pulls in more revenue than long-form content on the platform, and it reinforces why Shorts shouldn’t be considered optional in any artist’s marketing strategy.