YouTube Long-Form Daily Watch Time for 16–24-Year-Olds in Germany — 2025
Results as of
Review Full Year 2025: 16–24-year-olds in Germany spend a median ~30 minutes per day on long-form YouTube videos when they watch them
Info
- Sample size
- n = 24,550
- Data date
- Full Year 2025
- Segment
- All segments
- Platform
- YouTube
- Market
- Germany
Analysis
When 16–24-year-olds in Germany sit down with long-form YouTube content, they commit deeply: the median session runs ~30 minutes per active viewing day — roughly double what mid-form pulls (around 15 min) and four times the typical Shorts session (~7–8 min). This is the youngest, supposedly most Shorts-native cohort, and yet long videos absorb the most concentrated attention on days they are watched.
Gen Z's deep-dive habit that Shorts statistics miss
The conventional narrative positions Gen Z as a generation rewired for short attention spans, yet German YouTube Nutzungsverhalten Gen Z tells a more nuanced story. YouTube remains the second most-used platform, engaging 78% of Gen Z daily, especially for long-form content. The 30-minute median for 16–24-year-olds in Germany suggests that Shorts serve as an entry point — a scroll-mode discovery format — while long-form is where deep engagement actually happens. For content planners and advertisers, the implication is clear: Shorts reach Gen Z, but long-form holds them. The monthly Shorts share trend for this age group shows that even across a full year, Shorts never exceeded 16.3% of 16–24-year-old watch time in Germany.
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Methodology
Figures represent the median minutes of YouTube watch time per active user-day, measured only on days when at least one video of the relevant length category was watched (a conditional median). The population is German YouTube users aged 16–24 with at least one active YouTube day in 2025. Watch sessions are capped to exclude idle outliers. Video length categories: Shorts (under 60 seconds), mid-form (1–10 minutes), long-form (over 10 minutes). The full-year cohort covers 4,646 unique users.