YouTube Shorts may have been designed for mobile phones, but they are now becoming surprisingly popular on TV screens.
According to YouTube, viewers are watching more than 2 billion hours of Shorts on televisions every month, showing that vertical short-form videos are no longer limited to smartphones.
Short-form video is usually built for mobile because the vertical format fits naturally on a phone screen. But YouTube says the living room has become its fastest-growing screen, and Shorts are helping bring creators to viewers in a more relaxed, big-screen experience at home.
Kurt Wilms, YouTube’s senior director of product management for YouTube on TV, said viewers increasingly want to watch their favorite content on the biggest screen in the house. That includes long-form videos, podcasts, and even short clips. In the United States alone, people are watching more than 200 million hours of YouTube content on TVs every day.
YouTube has also been making Shorts more visible on television. Shorts now appear in search results for users watching on TV, meaning viewers may discover short clips even when they are not specifically looking for them. Google TV has also introduced a “Short videos for you” row on its home feed, which is expected to push more viewers toward short-form content on the big screen.
To make vertical videos feel more natural on TV, YouTube has updated the Shorts viewing experience by using the extra screen space to show comments beside the video. This helps make the experience more interactive and better suited for a larger display.
Sarah Ali, YouTube’s vice president of product management for Shorts, said tailoring Shorts for the big screen has created a more immersive way for fans to engage with creators while giving creators a larger stage to reach audiences around the world.
The shift is not limited to Shorts. YouTube says podcast viewing on living room devices has also grown quickly. Viewers watched more than 700 million hours of podcasts every month on TVs in 2025, up from 400 million hours per month in 2024.
Streaming platforms are also investing more in video podcasts, treating them as a new kind of daytime talk show that people can watch on TV or simply listen to while doing other things at home. Netflix has also signed deals with iHeartMedia, Barstool Sports, Spotify, and other studios to secure video rights for selected podcast shows.
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