August marked the first month of official rankings for comScore YouTube partner reporting within the Video Metrix offering, for a comparison of viewership across thousands of YouTube partners and their channels.
The data reveals that video music channels Vevo (60.6 million viewers) and Warner Music (30.9 million viewers) assumed the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 17.7 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios with 10 million, Demand Media with 8.4 million and Revision3 with 6.6 million.
Within the top 10 partners, TheGameStation (not in the Top 10) demonstrated the highest engagement with 76.5 minutes per viewer on average. Machinima was a close second on average engagement at 72.6 minutes per viewer, while accounting for the second most videos viewed (289 million) after Vevo. Interestingly, 68.1% of Machinima viewers were male and 70.3% were under the age of 35.
Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in August with 162 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 62.3 million. Facebook.com remained at the number 3 position with 51.7 million viewers, followed by Viacom Digital with 49.9 million and Microsoft Sites with 46.4 million.
Total viewing sessions reached another all-time high in August at 6.9 billion, with Google Sites generating the highest number of viewing sessions (3.5 billion). The average viewer watched 18 hours of online video content during the course of the month, with Google Sites (5.7 hours) and Hulu (3.2 hours) demonstrating the highest engagement.
Top YouTube partner channels ranked by unique video viewers during August 2011
1) VEVO @ YouTube 60,558,000 unique viewers; 788,315,000 videos viewed; 59.9 minutes per video
2) Warner Music @ Youtube 30,929,000 unique viewers; 197,574,000 videos viewed; 29.1 minutes per video
3) Machinima @ YouTube 17,679,000 unique viewers; 289,201,000 videos viewed; 72.6 minutes per video
4) Maker Studios @ YouTube 9,960,000 unique viewers; 89,271,000 videos viewed; 37.6 minutes per video
5) Demand Media @ YouTube 8,385,000 unique viewers; 26,288 videos viewed 10.9 minutes per video
6) Revision3 @ YouTube 6,563,000 unique viewers; 23,150,000 videos viewed; 16.5 minutes per video
7) Associated Press (AP) @ YouTube 5,696,000 unique viewers; 11,492,000 videos viewed; 7.4 minutes per video
8) Clevvertv @ YouTube 5,445,000 unique viewers; 11,858,000 videos viewed; 8.6 minutes per video
9) FullScreen @ YouTube 5,311,000 unique viewers; 19,524,000 videos; 15.4 minutes per video
10) IGN @ YouTube 5,096,000 unique viewers; 18,570,000 videos viewed; 15.9 minutes per video
(Figures based on total US – home/work/university locations; source Comscore Video Metrix)