There was a close game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at the University of Phoenix Stadium. But in other arena, YouTube handily defeated Facebook -- at least in terms of Super Bowl ad views.
Facebook videos, however, got shared five times more than YouTube ads.
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YouTube's official count as of Monday morning was 234 million views on Super Bowl ads that were uploaded to the platform. Facebook declined to offer a comparable figure, but an analysis by Mashable shows YouTube got roughly three times the amount of views -- 50.5 million compared to 164 million.
Mashable's analysis on Tuesday morning differed from YouTube's numbers in part because we only looked at YouTube page views from official YouTube accounts; some Super Bowl ads weren't on official YouTube accounts. We also didn't consider ads that had been released much earlier, such as Always' "Like a Girl," which has more than 54 million views on YouTube but was rolled out last June.
There are only a few cases in which Facebook views eclipsed YouTube views -- Budweiser's "Lost Dog"; T-Mobile's ad featuring Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler; and Discover's "Surprise."
Otherwise, YouTube ruled.
This is especially impressive if you consider that Facebook considers a view to be just three seconds of its autoplayed videos, and YouTube's definition for a view is much longer. However, Facebook's lack of a search function is limiting. To find a Super Bowl ad on the Google-owned YouTube, just Google it. To find one on Facebook, you would have to visit or Like that company's Facebook page, hope the brand pays to put it in your News Feed, or hope that a friend shares it in your feed. The setup is conducive to viral success, which may be why Budweiser's "Lost Dog" received more views on Facebook than on YouTube -- but there's no long tail.
Another surprise is that a significant number of Super Bowl advertisers either didn't share their ad on Facebook or used a YouTube link instead of Facebook's native ad format. Prior to this year's Super Bowl, many marketers were switching over to the latter in hopes of gaining greater traction in the News Feed. Such posts look a lot better on Facebook, which in theory attracts more views and more visibility in the News Feed. Yet Snickers, Kia, Skechers, Loctite, BMW and Dodge used YouTube links on Facebook. Victoria's Secret, Jeep, Jublia, Nissan, Sprint and WeatherTech decided not to bolster their $4.5 million Super Bowl ad buy with a free link on Facebook.
That's not the final word, though. Unruly, a video ad tech firm, claims that Super Bowl ads on YouTube delivered 125.7 million views versus 60.7 million for Facebook. Unruly claims that 97% of the Super Bowl ads were run through the YouTube player, while only 62.7% were run through the Facebook player.
Facebook videos attracted 70.3% of total shares generated by Super Bowl ads this year, according to Unruly, despite having fewer videos. Facebook generates five times the share rate of YouTube. Unruly notes that it takes fewer clicks to share a video on Facebook than on YouTube -- and that, since it's content that your family and friends shared, you're more likely to view it yourself.
Finally, the number of YouTube views was doubtlessly inflated by major ad buys by the brands themselves. Since a good portion of brands aren't even putting their videos on Facebook in its native format, the market obviously needs some more education. Facebook only recently began playing up the importance of native video on site. Looking ahead, 2016 may be a different ballgame.
Here is Mashable's tally of YouTube views versus Facebook views, respectively:
Avocados from Mexico: 900,000 vs. 4,000
BMW i3: 13.7 million / Used YouTube link on Facebook
Budweiser “Brewed the Hard Way”: 3.3 million vs. 1.1 million
Bud Light "Real Life Pac Man": 15.5 million vs. 49 million
Budweiser "Lost Dog": 23.9 million vs. 29.2 million
Carnival: 400,000 vs. 100,000
Chevy: 1.7 million / Not on Facebook
Coca-Cola “Make it Happy”: 3.5 million vs. 823,000
Discover “Surprise”: 447,000 vs. 5.2 million
Dodge: 2.8 million / Used YouTube link on Facebook
Doritos “Middle Seat”: 1.5 million vs. 77,000
Doritos “When Pigs Fly”: 800,000 vs. 44,000
Esurance “Say My Name”: 2.3 million vs. 21,000
Esurance “Sorta Your Mom": 1 million vs. 36,200
Fiat: 3.3 million / Not on Facebook page
GoDaddy: 360,000 vs. 238,000
Jeep: 1.6 million / Not on Facebook page
Jublia: 67,000 / Doesn't have a Facebook page
Kia: 3 million / Used YouTube link on Facebook
Lexus “Let’s Play”: 243,000 vs. 528,000
Lexus “Make Some Noise”: 1.4 million vs. 61 million
Loctite:293,000 vs. Used YouTube link on Facebook
McDonald’s "Pay with Lovin’": 4.9 million vs. 1.5 million
Mercedes-Benz: 10.7 million vs. 14,000
Microsoft “Estella”: 28,000 vs. 489,000
Microsoft: "Braylon O’Neill": 2.9 million vs. 726,000
Mophie: 3.4 million vs. 381,000
Nationwide “Invisible”: 1.2 million vs. 415,000
Nationwide "Make Safe Happen": 4.7 million vs. 191,700
Nissan" 8.4 million / Not on Facebook page
No More: 6.6 million vs. 51,800
Pepsi: 726,000 / Not on Facebook page
Skechers: 117,000 / Used YouTube link on Facebook
Skittles: 3 million vs. 1 million
Snickers: 10.2 million vs. 119,000 (and put a YouTube link on its Facebook page)
Sprint: 690,000 / Not on Facebook page
Squarespace: 779,000 vs. 14,000
T-Mobile "Kim Kardashian": 14.9 million vs. 3.4 million
T-Mobile "Sarah Silverman & Chelsea Handler": 766,000 vs. 1.1 million
Toyota “How Great I Am”: 3.4 million vs. 18,000
Toyota “My Bold Dad”: 650,000 vs. 126,000
TurboTax: 417,000 vs. 10,000
Victoria's Secret: 2.1 million / Not on Facebook page
WeatherTech: 365,000 / Not on Facebook page
Weight Watchers: 116,000 vs. 269,000
Wix: 400,000 vs. 15,000
BONUS: 5 Things You Didn't Know About YouTube