YouTube Report Details Struggling Animation Industry, Reveals Viewership Trends (Exclusive)
A new report from YouTube reveals how the cratering of traditional U.S. studio animation and the aging of a digital-first audience may be expanding opportunities for independent digital animation. The latest research from the company’s Culture and Trends team, “Animation’s New Wave,” highlights the artists, stories, styles, funding models, and international reach behind the current growth of animation on the platform. The findings came from interviews with creators, analyzing viewership data among 16 to 49-year-old users across the globe on the platform’s main app (not YouTube Kids), and thousands of responses from U.S.-based animation viewers ages 14 to 49 as part of a survey co-conducted with SmithGieger. According to the report, interest in animation is global, with 50 percent of online animation fans 14 to 49 reporting that they watch animated series in languages other than their own. In the case of a Korean series like Alien Stage, 90 percent of the animated survival audition show’s viewership came from outside Korea. “So many of these big series are originating outside of the U.S.,” says Maddy Buxton, Culture & Trends Manager at YouTube. “Alien Stage started in Korea, and Glitch is based out of Australia. These are having massive breakthroughs here
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