comScore: 8.3B U.S. Video Streams in May

In May, 132 million Americans — seventy-five percent of the U.S. internet users — viewed streaming video online, according to comScore figures released today. It’s perhaps not so much of a jump as the headlines might tell you, up from 123 million in January of this year.

Minutes per streamer in May were clocked at 158, up from 151 in January. Streams per month were 63, up from 59. So growth, for sure, but nothing crazy.

In terms of distribution between web sites, Google (including YouTube) led in number of viewers and number of streams. Nearly 50 percent of viewers visited a Google site to view video, with Fox Interactive Media at 40 percent. In terms of absolute streams out of a 100 percent total, Google had 21.5 percent while FIM had 8.1 percent.

I feel obliged to pooh-pooh others’ breathless coverage of the 75 percent benchmark, following months of strong growth. But the absolute number is pretty ridiculous when you think about it: 8.3 billion video streams in the U.S. in May. OK, so it’s all pretty ridiculous when you think about it.

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