Study of kids aged 4 to 15 in the US, UK, and Spain finds they spent an average of 85 min/day on YouTube and 80 min/day on TikTok from February 2019-April 2020
A new study on kids' app usage and habits indicates a major threat to YouTube's dominance, as kids now split …
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2020 study was the early warning shot in a four-year arc: kids aged 4 to 15 were still spending slightly more time on YouTube than TikTok, but the gap had already narrowed to five minutes a day across the US, UK, and Spain. At the time, YouTube's grip on children's screen time looked durable — the story is that it was the last snapshot where it did.
The follow-on data confirmed the crossover. App Annie found TikTok pulling ahead of YouTube among US and UK Android users by mid-2021, and Qustodio's family panels show TikTok's daily minutes climbing from 82 in 2020 to 107 by 2022, with the 2023 study putting kids at 112 minutes on TikTok — 60% more than YouTube. Ofcom's finding that a meaningful share of UK children as young as three watch TikTok content shows how far down the age curve the shift ran.
First-order effects
- YouTube and TikTok were effectively tied for kids' attention at 85 and 80 minutes a day, meaning YouTube could no longer assume children as a default audience — its youngest users were the most contested segment.
Second-order effects
- TikTok's short-feed format proved it could take time directly from a video incumbent: within a year it led YouTube among US and UK Android users, forcing YouTube to defend the kids' segment it had dominated.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — and the Qustodio series suggests it did — algorithmic short-video feeds become the default children's medium, shifting where advertisers, parents, and regulators like Ofcom focus their attention and safety scrutiny.
The trend: Children's video attention has migrated from YouTube's open platform to TikTok's recommendation feed, with each annual study widening TikTok's lead.