Time Spent With News Networks Climbed on Social in October

Tubular Labs, the leader in global social video intelligence, released new October U.S. viewership trends from its Audience Ratings product – giving insight into deduplicated, unique viewership, and minutes watched for trending video categories, creators and more.

Tubular found that interest in the news category spiked last month with minutes-watched increasing far more than unique viewership. This could indicate that U.S. news audiences on social video are a more static group whose watch-time ebbs and flows based on current events:

Other top takeaways from the study include:

NBA Courts International Fans

While the NFL has the largest domestic viewership across Facebook and YouTube among the Big Four U.S. professional sports leagues, the NBA is leading on a global level. The NBA had 72.5 million unique global viewers, marking an 18% month-over-month increase. The NFL had 58.1 million global viewers, while MLB had 39.6 million.

It’s at least partly a result of the NBA’s successful global outreach efforts. Nearly 75% of the league’s unique viewers were from outside the U.S., compared to 46% for MLB and only 23% for the NFL. This positions the NBA to keep expanding its presence in the U.S. and Canada, while maintaining a strong international foothold, potentially leading to more lucrative TV deals and increased revenues.

MrBeast’s Global Gains

Amongst the trend of declining audiences and decreased minutes watched for many influencers on Facebook and YouTube, MrBeast stands out. In October, his global minutes watched increased by 16% to 7.1 billion, ranking him No. 17 among all creator properties and overwhelmingly the top individual creator. While other U.S. creators focus on shorts for domestic audiences, MrBeast is gaining global appeal with longer video formats. Only 1 billion of his 7.1 billion minutes watched in October were in the U.S., emphasizing his international popularity.

MrBeast’s ability to maintain attention is attributed to his use of longer video formats. In October, 40% of his videos were at least five minutes long, and 16% exceeded 10 minutes. Longer videos not only retain viewers but also offer more opportunities for brand integrations and ads, a challenge with short-form videos.

Holiday Gift Blitz Gets an Early Start

In October, consumer brands began tapping into holiday wish lists through YouTube and Facebook videos. Mattel, in particular, saw a 51% month-over-month increase in unique U.S. viewers, driven by numerous videos advertising holiday toy items such as Hot Wheels and Barbie merchandise.
Best Buy also capitalized on the holiday spirit, more than doubling its U.S. audience, through a consistent stream of content including product profiles, tech tips, and gift-focused videos. While the actual format of their social content didn’t change much from previous months, the holiday emphasis attracted more viewers. This could be attributed to the fact that many shoppers wait to buy their high-ticket tech items like televisions, game consoles, and smart home plug-ins on holiday deal days.

To learn more about Tubular time of day measuring capabilities and other video insights, visit www.tubularlabs.com.