Screen Time Statistics 2026

Watching TV was the leisure and sports activity that occupied the most time (2.6 hours per day), accounting for half of all leisure time, on average (5.2 hours).

Individuals spent more time playing games or using a computer on an average day in 2025 than they did in 2015 (37 minutes compared with 25 minutes).

Individuals ages 15 to 19 spent 1.5 hours playing games or using a computer for leisure on an average day in 2025, more than any other age group.

Streaming Represents 49.6% of TV Watch-Time

However, while time spent with each Gauge category declined between July and August, cable and streaming still managed to gain share, capturing 18.9% and 49.6% of television, respectively.

YouTube Captures 15.8% of TV, Maintains Lead Among Media Distributors

In 2025, 98% of young people aged 16-29 years in the EU used the internet every day, compared with 90% of the total population.

In every EU country, between 95% and 100% of young people were

Creating a user profile and posting messages or other content was routine for at least 80% of young people (in Italy), and up to 98% (in Cyprus), with an EU average of 89%.

During July 2021 through December 2023, 50.4% of teenagers ages 12-17 had 4 hours or more of daily screen time, 22.8% had 3 hours, 17.8% had 2 hours, 6.1% had 1 hour, and 3.0% had less than 1 hour of daily screen time

Teenagers ages 15-17 (55.0%) were more likely than those ages 12-14 (45.6%) to have 4 hours or more of daily screen time

Teenagers living in metropolitan areas were more likely to have 4 hours or more of daily screen time (51.4%) compared with teenagers living in nonmetropolitan areas (43.3%).

On a typical day, participants received a median of 237 notifications.

a median of 51 times per day, ranging from two to 498 times per day.

Nearly all U.S. teens (97%) say they use the internet daily, including four-in-ten who say they are almost constantly online.

While 43% of 15- to 17-year-olds report being online almost constantly, 34% of 13- and 14-year-olds report this.

This use amounts to 4.8 hours per day for the average U.S. teen across seven social media platforms tested in the survey.

Just over half of U.S. teenagers (51%) report spending at least four hours per day using a variety of social media apps such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), a Gallup survey of more than 1,500 adolescents finds.

in almost all countries, at least 50% of 15-year-olds spent 30 or more hours per week on digital devices

According to PISA 2022 data, an average of 96% of 15-year-olds in OECD countries had access to a desktop computer, laptop, or tablet at home, while 98% had a smartphone with an Internet connection.

In 2024, caregivers reported that children age 8 and younger spent roughly the same amount of time with screen media as they did in 2020 (2:27 vs. 2:24 daily).

Those age 5 to 8 use screens for about three and a half hours daily (3:28).

By age 2, 4 in 10 children have their own tablet (40%).

By 8 years old, nearly 1 in 4 children have their own phone (23%).

with a majority of screen time spent watching television and videos (60%) and gaming (26%)

and on average approximately 70% of 10-year-olds already own a smartphone.

Teens report spending an average of 1.9 hours per day on YouTube and 1.5 hours per day on TikTok, with boys spending more time on YouTube and girls spending more time on TikTok.

Instagram is also popular with teens, attracting 0.9 hours of use per day.

The share of teens who say they are on TikTok almost constantly ticked up slightly to 21% this year, from 16% in 2022.

Across these five platforms, 36% of teens use at least one of these sites almost constantly.

64% of teens say they use chatbots, including about 3 in 10 who do so daily

This represents a 65% increase in average time spent gaming.

with an average daily use of 14 minutes compared to one minute in early 2020.

A third (34%) of adolescents played digital games daily, with more than 1 in 5 (22%) playing for at least 4 hours on days when they engage in gaming.

Over a third (36%) of young people reported constant contact with friends online, with the highest rates among 15-year-old girls (44%).

Screens are a bedtime companion for some children, with 20% of kids age 8 and under watching or playing on a device every night or most nights to fall asleep.

Over half of participants (59%) used their phones on school nights, with a median of about 20 minutes per night

Four-in-ten or more teens say social media platforms hurt the amount of sleep they get (45%), as well as their productivity (40%).

At the same time, girls are more likely than boys to say the sites hurt the amount of sleep they get (50% vs. 40%)

Screen time with phone 26%

Binge-watching shows or movies 23%

Video games 17%

avoiding electronic devices in the hour before bed (69%)

Teenagers who had 4 or more hours of daily screen time were more likely to have had anxiety symptoms in the past 2 weeks (27.1%) compared with teenagers with less than 4 hours of daily screen time (12.3%).

Teenagers who had 4 or more hours of daily screen time were more likely to have had depression symptoms in the past 2 weeks (25.9%) compared with teenagers with less than 4 hours of daily screen time (9.5%).

Overall, 77.0% of students reported frequent social media use, with observed differences by sex, sexual identity, and racial and ethnic identity.

New data from the WHO Regional Office for Europe reveals a sharp rise in problematic social media use among adolescents, with rates increasing from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2022.

12% of adolescents are at risk of problematic gaming, with boys more likely than girls to show signs of problematic gaming (16% vs 7%).

In the linear DRMA of the 45 studies, a daily 1-hour increment in digital screen time was associated with 21% higher odds of myopia

Results In the linear DRMA of 45 studies with 335 524 participants (mean [SD] age, 9.3 [4.3] years)

Social media (75%) Too much screen time/use of devices (75%)

45% of teens say they spend too much time on social media in our current survey, up from 36% in 2022.

We found that 38% of teens say they spend too much time on their smartphone.

Roughly four-in-ten teens (39%) say they have cut back on their time on social media. A similar share says the same about their phone (36%).