Official Blog
The three 2016 U.S. presidential debates rank as the most-viewed political live streams of all time
Thursday, October 20, 2016
This year, more news organizations live streamed the U.S. presidential debates on YouTube than ever before, and we saw record-breaking interest from the YouTube community. The 2016 presidential debates rank as the three most-viewed political live streams of all time. In total, these debates drove 8.5M live watch hours and averaged 1.7M live peak concurrent viewers.
Last night’s final presidential debate delivered:
2.8M live watch hours, nearly five times higher than 2012
1.7M live peak concurrent viewers, over four times higher than 2012
Over 140 million views on all debate-related videos
Elections-related YouTube searches are also at an all-time high. Searches for U.S. election content are up 547 percent compared to this time in the last presidential race.
Throughout the debates, millions of viewers tuned in and stayed engaged. The average live session duration was 22 minutes across all three presidential debates and concurrent viewership consistently peaked towards the end of the debate.
In true YouTube fashion, Americans weren’t the only ones involved. Have a look at who was watching the most around the globe:
With only 18 days until U.S. Election Day voters are preparing to head to the polls. If the voter registration deadline in your state hasn’t passed, register today! It only takes
1 min., 34 seconds
.
Kurt Wilms, Product Lead, Live Streaming at YouTube, recently watched “
The Third Presidential Debate
.”
Labels
3D
4k
accessibility
account info
activism
ads
africa
annotations
arts
awards
benefit
betas
bizblog
blogs
bulletins
buzz
captions
celebrity playlists
channels
chrome
citizen journalism
citizen reporting
citizentube
comedy
comments
community
community guidelines
contests
creator's corner
creators
curators
customization
dance
design
discovery
doodle
editor
education
embeds
entertainment
events
facebook
film
flagging
gaming
gmail
google
google tv
government
grants
groups
guidelines
hd
help center
holidays
homepage
howto
inspiration
investment
jobs
journalism
life in a day
live stream
marketing
meetups
mobile
moderator
movies
music
musicians wanted
news
nonprofits
open-source
partners
playlists
policy
politics
privacy
product update
quicklist
ratings
rentals
research
safety
science and technology
screening room
search
sharing
shows
social networks
sports
staff
stats and data
store
subscriptions
tags
test tube
travel
trends
tv
twitter
upload
vevo
video editing
video production
video volunteers
viral video
youtube api
youtube direct
Archive
2020
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Feed
Follow @youtube
Follow
Learn more in the
YouTube Help Center
.
Follow