YouTube Dominates Japan’s Video Streaming, Capturing More Than 65% Of Viewing Hours
New research shows YouTube dominates Japan’s video streaming market, with long-form content, news and baseball attracting the largest audiences.
New research shows YouTube dominates Japan’s video streaming market, with long-form content, news and baseball attracting the largest audiences.
YouTube continues to dominate Japan’s digital video streaming market, accounting for more than 65% of all video-on-demand viewing hours, according to new research by AMPD Analytics.
The findings, based on behavioural data collected by AMPD Analytics, showed that viewers in Japan watched 2.8 billion hours of content on YouTube in May, averaging 38.5 hours per viewer. The study also found that news and baseball were among the most-watched content categories on the platform.
According to AMPD’s YouTube dashboard intelligence tool, long-form videos remained the preferred format, making up about 70% of total viewing hours, while YouTube Shorts and live streams accounted for the remaining share.
Commenting on the findings, Sam Yousif, Managing Director of AMPD Analytics, said: “Japan’s YouTube viewing looks far more like television than people assume — long-form content dominates, audiences are spread across every age group, and engagement peaks at nine in the evening. YouTube isn’t competing at the edges of the screen economy in Japan; it’s operating at its centre.”
The report also highlighted the channels attracting the largest audiences across different content categories. In news, ANNnewsCH, TBS News Dig and 日テレNEWS ranked among the leading channels, while entertainment brand Oricon also recorded strong viewership.
In sports, PacificLeagueTV, which streams Pacific League baseball, alongside Pivot and SPOTVNOW, emerged as leading destinations for both free and subscription-based viewing. DAZN Japan and horse racing channel JRA also attracted significant audiences in the free streaming category.
Entertainment viewing was led by Oricon and Netflix Japan, alongside independent creators including ほんの1分 and MrFuji from Japan.
The research further found that YouTube viewing in Japan reaches its highest levels between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on both weekdays and weekends, a pattern AMPD Analytics said closely resembles traditional television viewing habits.
