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YouTube: are Nigerians more interested in the movies than Afrobeats?

Out of the 32.9 Million YouTube users in Nigeria, only about 4 Million YouTube users are concentrated on music.

January 11, 2023

As of January 2022, Nigeria has surpassed over 109 Million internet users (the highest in Africa) of which tallies a 51% internet penetration rate of the entire country's population. 

Google Advertising resource showed that YouTube had  Million YouTube users in Nigeria (Q1, 2022) which amounts for around 30.1% of Nigeria's total internet user base - 109 Million.

 

On the YouTube Top searches, these music related terms were the most searched (January 2021 - December 2021):

#8. Music (30%)

#17. Davido (11%)

#19. New songs (10%)

#20. Wizkid (10%)

The above data shows music streaming/viewing via YouTube in Nigeria is not as high as expected, over 10 of the top 20 searches were movie related. 

YouTube recorded a -22.9% YOY change based on web traffic referrals from social media, however, the ad reach experienced a 6.8% growth over 2021.

Surprisingly, YouTube penetration in the internet users in Nigeria ranked below social media platforms:

  1. Whatsapp (91%)

  2. Facebook (86%)

  3. Instagram (77%)

  4. Facebook messenger (71%)

  5. Twitter (57%)

  6. Telegram (50%)

  7. Snapchat (49%)

  8. Tiktok (47%)

  9. LinkedIn (37%)

  10. YouTube (30.1%)

Northern African countries like Egypt & Morocco had a qualitative amount of YouTube penetration of up to 53-66.4% compared to Nigeria & Kenya tallying under 32%.

Weekly streams for music on YouTube:

— The top 20 songs in Algeria & Egypt record a minimum of 550,000 - 600,000 streams weekly. 

— The top 20 songs in Morocco record a minimum of 300,000 streams weekly. 

— The top 20 songs in South Africa, Kenya & Tunisia record a minimum of 200,000 streams weekly. 

— The top 20 songs in Nigeria & Libya record a minimum of 110,000 streams weekly. 

Libya has less than 4 Million YouTube users compared to the gigantic

32.9 Million YouTube users in Nigeria, this further proves music streaming in Sub-Saharan Africa is still on the rise. 

This further proves that only about 4 Million YouTube users are concentrated on music in Nigeria.