Since launching in 2005, YouTube has hosted more than 20 billion videos including music, shorts and podcasts. Now, to celebrate its 20th birthday, the original video streamer is celebrating by sharing stats, unveiling new features and hiding Easter eggs. In the coming weeks, YouTube TV members will be able to “experiment with building their own multiview” with non-sports content and more creators will be able to voice-reply to comments on their videos, something started as a small test last year. Then, this summer, YouTube’s TV app will unveil a makeover.

In the works for the TV app redesign are “easier navigation, playback, quality tweaks, and streamlined access to comments, channel info and subscribing,” Variety previews.

Available on iOS and Android for “all YouTube Premium and YouTube Music users” is a new feature called Ask Music, that lets users create their “very own personalized radio station” by describing the type of music they’d like to hear, YouTube explains in a blog post.

As it turns the corner on 20, YouTube is more popular than ever and “now ranks as the largest aggregate TV content source in the U.S. according to Nielsen (based on viewing time), surpassing traditional TV giants” in addition to “subscription-streaming leader Netflix,” writes Variety.

“This is the streaming winner,” MoffettNathanson founding partner Michael Nathanson told CNBC, adding that “they don’t have to invest in content. They just hope that the creator community comes to them and builds their business.”

“On average, there are over 20 million videos uploaded daily to YouTube,” the platform figured out, noting that in 2024 YouTube viewers posted what reliably exceeded 100 million comments on videos daily.

MoffettNathanson says YouTube if valued on a standalone basis is this year on track to be worth between $475 billion and $550 billion — about 30 percent of Google parent Alphabet’s current valuation, the Wall Street analytics firm said in a March Variety article.

Related:
YouTube’s First Video Is 20 Years Old: How Things Have Changed, CNET, 4/23/25
YouTube Turns 20 Years Old. How It Changed TV as We Know It, LA Times, 4/23/25
Is YouTube Making Hollywood Irrelevant?, BBC, 4/23/25
Engadget’s Favorite Videos from 20 Years of YouTube, Engadget, 4/23/25