Streamers help boost video viewing on mobile devices

The amount of time spent watching video on mobile devices grew during the course of the pandemic, according to new data from Global Wireless Solutions, with streaming services and other video platforms drawing consumers’ attention.

GWS’ “The Pandemic Year in Mobile Apps” revealed that consumers spent an average of four hours a day on their smartphones, and about 42 minutes of that time was spent watching video.

One of the things that consumers watched were the mobile app versions of new streaming services. Since its launch in May 2020, time spent on the HBO Max mobile app has grown 513%, per GWS. Disney+, meanwhile, has grown 92% in mobile viewing time.

Other popular apps were the live streaming platform Twitch, which saw a total time spent on its app increase by 91% over the last year, and YouTube, which grew by 12%.

Some consumers earned the label “videophiles” from GWS, which it describes as power users of video streaming apps. These videophiles spent an average of 156 minutes per day watching videos on their mobile devices. About 31 minutes of that would be on subscription-based mobile video apps, while 115 minutes per day was on YouTube.

Not overly surprisingly, the largest growth of video viewing on mobile apps came from Gen Z (44%), but Baby Boomers also increased their mobile viewing time by about 10%, GWS reports. TV Technology