As of 2019, data centers consume about 2% of global electricity. According to Swedish KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the internet uses 10% of the total electricity consumption worldwide. How much of that is consumed by Youtube? After Netflix and embedded videos, Youtube is the third biggest global internet bandwidth eater. About 11.4% of global internet traffic is consumed by Youtube.

Youtube electricity consumption vs. household electricity consumption

Total global electricity consumption is 21,372 TWh. Therefore Youtube uses about 243.6 TWh (over 1% of global electricity). How does that compare to typical household electricity consumption? In the United States the average annual household electricity consumption is 10,766 kWh. So, let’s do some quick maths… It’s not easy because of the unit orders of magnitude, but the result is: annual global usage of Youtube could power an American household for about… 2 billion years. Or all 127 million U.S. households for about 8 years.

How much of this is used by specific channels? Let’s do the math again! Youtube generates about 1.8 trillion annual video views (which means, an average internet user watches 407 videos in a year). This number translates to 135 kWh per 1000 views.

So, let’s have a look at Youtube channels total electricity consumption:

Youtube channel Total views in billions (2019) Electricity consumption (GWh) How many U.S. homes it could power T-Series 89 12015 1,112,500 World Wrestling Entertainment 37 4995 462,500 PewDiePie 23 3105 287,500 JustinBieberVEVO 19 2565 237,500 KatyPerryVEVO 17 2295 212,500 Ed Sheeran 16 2160 200,000 TaylorSwiftVEVO 16 2160 200,000 BuzzFeedVideo 15 2025 187,500 5-Minute Crafts 13 1755 162,500

And while we’re at it, we can count these for some specific viral videos as well:

Youtube video Total views in billions(2019) Electricity consumption (GWh) How many U.S. homes it could power Despacito 6.5 877,5 81250 Gangnam Style 3.4 459 42500 “Sugar” by Maroon 5 3 405 37500 Chocolate Rain 0.12 16,74 1550 Numa Numa guy 0.04 4,73 438 The laughing baby 0.01 1,35 125

Youtube vs. environment

To conclude: energy consumed by Youtube videos is enormous. Youtube and environmentalists are looking at possibilities of energy conservation. One of such ideas is detecting visitors who are not watching the video, only listening to music, or other audio. A script would switch the video feed to a static image not consuming bandwidth (and therefore, consuming less energy), while leaving the audio for the listener to enjoy.

Top image: PewDiePie, a Youtube celebrity (Photo credit: camknows / Public Domain)