unilad homepage
unilad homepage
    • News
      • UK News
      • US News
      • World News
      • Crime
      • Health
      • Money
      • Sport
      • Travel
    • Music
    • Technology
    • Film and TV
      • News
      • DC Comics
      • Disney
      • Marvel
      • Netflix
    • Celebrity
    • Politics
    • Advertise
    • Terms
    • Privacy & Cookies
    • LADbible Group
    • LADbible
    • SPORTbible
    • GAMINGbible
    • Tyla
    • UNILAD Tech
    • FOODbible
    • License Our Content
    • About Us & Contact
    • Jobs
    • Latest
    • Archive
    • Topics A-Z
    • Authors
    Facebook
    Instagram
    X
    Threads
    TikTok
    YouTube
    Submit Your Content
    Man estimates how long it would take to watch everything on YouTube
    Home>Technology>News
    Published 12:06 19 Nov 2023 GMT

    Man estimates how long it would take to watch everything on YouTube

    It's like asking if it was ever possible to have ever read every book ever printed

    Kit Roberts

    Kit Roberts

    google discoverFollow us on Google Discover
    Featured Image Credit: STR/NurPhoto/Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto/Getty Images

    Topics: News, World News, YouTube

    Kit Roberts
    Kit Roberts

    Kit joined UNILAD in 2023 as a community journalist. They have previously worked for StokeonTrentLive, the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Star.

    Advert

    Advert

    Advert

    We might spend increasing amounts of our time on social media, but now one person has estimated just how long it would take to watch all of YouTube.

    Now, this is of course assuming that you only watch the content which is already on YouTube.

    Given that 2,500 videos are uploaded onto YouTube every minute, let's just remove that as a factor as it would render it completely impossible.

    Advert

    In fact, just to keep up with YouTube in real-time, taking the same average video length of 11.7 minutes, you'd need around 29,250 people watching simultaneously.

    So, if we took a snapshot of YouTube as it is now and nothing more was added onto it, how long would it take to get through everything on there?

    Website wyzowl did the math for how long it would take.

    It took the assumption that there are around 800 million videos on the site, then the same average video length of around 11.7 minutes.

    The result?

    Would it be possible to watch every video on YouTube?
    Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    Just to watch that much content would take approximately 9.36 billion minutes to watch.

    That's 156 million hours, 6.5 million days, or a whopping 17,810 years of just watching YouTube videos.

    Even if you had 100 screens going at the same time in some nightmarish Clockwork Orange setup, it would still take 178 years to get through it all.

    Basically, it's absolutely impossible.

    A similar experiment was carried out by rare book seller and TikToker Tom Ayling on his TikTok channel, who explored if it was ever possible for someone to have read every book printed in English.

    He set some ground rules, that the reader would read a book a week from the age of 10 to 50, and would start reading in the year 1500.

    You couldn't even keep up with the people uploading new videos.
    izusek / Getty

    The first book was printed in English in 1473, so first they'd have to get caught up, reading the 294 books printed in English up until 1500, called 'incunabula'.

    They'd finish those in five years and 34 weeks, and would then have to catch up with the books printed while they were reading.

    They would do this by 1506, with there being few enough books printed up to 1507.

    The TikToker worked out that reading one book a week, the reader would then be able to keep up with the presses all the way until 1530. This means that the end of 1529 is when someone could truthfully claim to have read every book printed in English.

    Choose your content:

    10 hours ago
    a day ago
    2 days ago
    • Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images
      10 hours ago

      AI expert issues chilling warnings about deepfakes after Italian Prime Minister shares AI lingerie photo

      Even laws around deepfakes won't fix the problem, the expert claims

      Technology
    • NBC Bay Area
      10 hours ago

      Doctor had college students take 9-week digital detox and revealed 'scary' impact on the brain

      'After I removed this negative presence, I realized all the positive aspects of my life,' one student said

      Technology
    • (Photo by Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)
      a day ago

      Playstation users who bought games within four-year period eligible for Sony $7.85 million settlement

      Sony has been accused of monopolizing the market through its PlayStation Store

      Technology
    • Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images
      2 days ago

      iPhone users can check if they’re eligible for Apple's $250m payout over AI accusations

      The payout applies to people who bought certain iPhones between June 2024 and March 2025

      Technology
    • Mysterious 140-year-long video uploaded to YouTube has everyone saying the same chilling thing
    • Everything to expect during Bryan Kohberger's sentencing and how to watch it live
    • How long it should take you to run a mile based on your age
    • Eye-watering amount Trump set to receive from YouTube settlement and what he plans to spend it on