# YouTube Watch Time by Format in Germany — 2025

> Traditional YouTube videos hold a stable 85% share of watch time in Germany throughout 2025 Shorts +2.9pp Apr→Dec

**Period:** Full Year 2025  
**Market:** DE  
**Data status:** final  
**Data as of:** 2026-04-28T17:46:18.002511+00:00  
**Sample size:** n = 24,606  
**Source:** [https://www.datapods.app/en/insights/media/video-streaming/youtube-watch-time-shorts-vs-longform-germany-2025](https://www.datapods.app/en/insights/media/video-streaming/youtube-watch-time-shorts-vs-longform-germany-2025)

## Segments

- **Years:** 2025
- **Platform:** youtube

## Summary

Despite the global buzz around YouTube Shorts, long and mid-form videos together captured a rock-steady **~85% share of total YouTube watch time** among German users in 2025 — split almost evenly between mid-form (1–10 min, 42.7%) and long-form (>10 min, 42.0%), with Shorts (<1 min) accounting for the remaining 15.3%.

## Shorts are growing — just not taking over

Shortsʼ share of YouTube Nutzungsdauer Deutschland did climb from 13.8% in April to 16.7% in December, a +2.9 percentage-point within-year shift that mirrors a broadly reported industry trend: YouTube Shorts now accounts for up to 10% of total watch time on the platform in the U.S., while the German figure runs higher at ~15%. Yet the trajectory is gradual, not disruptive. Revenue generation on YouTube still heavily favors long-form content, which may partly explain why the platform continues to invest in watch-time depth rather than Shorts volume. For marketers planning YouTube Kurzvideos vs. Langvideos budgets, the data is unambiguous: traditional video commands the vast majority of German viewing hours, with Shorts functioning as a discovery layer rather than a primary format. See also the [age-group breakdown of format composition](slug:youtube-watch-time-format-share-by-age-germany-2025) for how this balance shifts across cohorts.

## Chart

Stacked area chart showing the monthly share of total YouTube watch time in Germany in 2025, split across three video length categories: Shorts (under 1 minute), mid-form (1–10 minutes), and long-form (over 10 minutes). Shorts rise from 13.8% in April to 16.7% in December; mid-form and long-form together hold ~84–86% throughout the year.

## Methodology

Watch time shares are calculated from German YouTube users aged 16 and over who had at least one active YouTube day in 2025, with non-ad video events recorded between 1 January and 31 December 2025. Videos are grouped into three length categories: Shorts (under 60 seconds), mid-form (1–10 minutes), and long-form (over 10 minutes). Total watch time is capped per session to remove idle or sentinel events. Videos where duration metadata was unavailable are excluded, representing roughly 26–35% of events with no directional trend across the year.

## Citation

Datapods (2026-04-28). *YouTube Watch Time by Format in Germany — 2025*. Datapods Insights. https://www.datapods.app/en/insights/media/video-streaming/youtube-watch-time-shorts-vs-longform-germany-2025

## About Datapods

Datapods is a behavioral consumer-data platform. The Insights library publishes free, citable statistics derived from a panel of 25,000+ opted-in participants in Germany: observed real behavior (transactions, browsing, media), not surveys. All data is processed within the EU and is GDPR-compliant.

For brand-specific cuts, competitor benchmarks, and granular audience filters across 12,000+ tracked brands, see [https://www.datapods.app/en](https://www.datapods.app/en).