• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 13, 2025

YouTube turns 20 this year. Creators have moved from creating grainy videos to feature-length movies. 

People are doing more than watching YouTube content on their computers or phones. Neal Mohan, YouTube CEO, explained in a blog post how TV has surpassed mobile to become the primary device in the U.S. for viewing by watch time.

YouTube has become the No. 1 in streaming watch time in the U.S. for two years, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge Report, February 2023 to January 2025.

Google AI and AI Overviews makes a big difference in how people create and consume content on YouTube.

YouTube has become a valuable citation source, with a 25.21% increase since January 1, and 36.66% month-over-month growth from January through February.

Keywords with an AIO that cites YouTube includes 31.2% instructional content, with “how-to” queries leading with 22.4%, followed by visual demonstrations at 28.5%, verification and examples at 19.7% for product comparisons and visual proof, and current events at 8.2% like breaking news and live coverage.

By industry, AIOs with YouTube citations include healthcare about 41.97% of the time, ecommerce at 30.87%, B2B tech at 18.68%, finance at 9.52%, travel at 8.65%, insurance at 8.62%, and education at 3.87%.

BrightEdge identified patterns that reveal a clear shift. AIOs are actively integrating video content to enhance answer quality, particularly for visual demonstrations such as step-by-step tutorials, product comparisons, and real-world examples.

AI Overviews cite YouTube for instructional videos about 35.6% of the time, visual demos for 32.5% of the time, examples for 22.5% of the time, and news 9.4% of the time. 

Nearly 60% of citations for videos involve instructions or demonstrations.