As the world’s second-largest social media platform and the second-most visited website behind Google, YouTube has always had a lion’s share in global web traffic. But thanks to its massive user base of over 2.7 billion people, the popular video-sharing platform also drives a considerable chunk of referral traffic to other social media platforms. According to data presented by OnlyAccounts.io, YouTube drove around 40% of referral traffic to Facebook and Instagram last year.
YouTube Drove 43% of Referral Traffic to Facebook and 38% to Instagram in 2023
YouTube usage statistics are nothing less than impressive. Last year, the video-sharing platform had roughly 113 billion monthly visits, while 52% of all internet users accessed it at least once a month.
Besides its surging popularity in the social media space, YouTube has also seen a massive increase in the average time spent using its app. According to The Digital Global Overview Report, Android users worldwide spent an average of 27 hours and 26 minutes watching YouTube each month last year, or four hours more than in 2022.
So, it isn’t surprising that YouTube is also the largest social media traffic referrer. Statista and SimilarWeb data show that the video-sharing platform generated nearly 43% of referral traffic to Facebook, much more than any other website. Facebook’s second and third-largest social media traffic drivers were messenger.com and web.whatsapp.com, making over 12% of traffic to the social network. Instagram and Twitter followed, with 11% and 7% shares, respectively.
Statistics show that YouTube was Instagram’s largest social media traffic referrer as well. Last year, 38% of referral traffic to Instagram came from the video-sharing platform, or 11% more than from Twitter as the second-largest traffic driver. Facebook, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn followed with 17%, 4.5%, and 1.43% shares, respectively.
YouTube is the Number one Social Media Traffic Driver for Google, Reddit, and LinkedIn
Besides driving a huge chunk of referral traffic to social media giants Facebook and Instagram, YouTube is also the number one traffic driver for other major players in the online landscape.
Statistics show that YouTube drove a huge 64% referral traffic to Google, nearly ten times more than any other website. In comparison, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter had a 7% share of Google’s referral traffic.
The video-sharing platform also accounted for more than half of social media referral traffic to Reddit.com. Reddit’s second-largest social media traffic driver was Twitter, which generated over 20% of traffic.
Statistics show LinkedIn also gets most of its referral traffic, almost 38%, from YouTube, while Twitter was the second-largest social media traffic driver to the professional networking platform with a 16% share.
