YouTube's audience has almost halved since its slowdown.

The average daily audience of the YouTube video hosting service has almost halved since its slowdown — by 23 million people in seven months, and the average monthly audience by 14 million, according to Mediascope data reviewed by Izvestia.

In Russia, the average daily reach of YouTube video hosting has decreased by 23 million people over the past seven months, from 52 million in August 2024 to 29 million in February 2025, according to data from Mediascope. The average monthly coverage decreased by 14 million people. According to this indicator, YouTube previously occupied the fourth place in the ranking of popular Internet resources in Russia, but now the service has slipped to seventh place.

In general, the rating itself has changed since last summer. The top five sites now looks like this: in the first place "Yandex", its coverage has grown to 102 million people, the second Google — 101 million people, the third WhatsApp (owned corporations Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) — 97 million people, "Vkontakte" has risen from fifth to fourth place with coverage of 93 million, and Telegram — sixth moved into fifth (90 million).

The data is presented for Russians over the age of 12 who have accessed the platforms at least once via mobile phones (including applications) or a computer.

The situation with YouTube in Russia remains uncertain, and its development depends on many factors, including the political situation, Internet regulation and user behavior, said Yaroslav Meshalkin, managing partner of the Heads'made digital communications agency.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Some kind of stream: YouTube audience in Russia has almost halved since its slowdown