YouTube guided meditation video views skyrocket during pandemic
We're all trying to cope with this year.
During Google parent company Alphabet's earnings call Thursday, CEO Sundar Pichai noted that YouTube views for guided meditation videos went up 40 percent on the streaming platform since mid-March.
We all know what triggered that. As social distancing and new work-from-home routines settled into place throughout the U.S. this year, many apparently turned to YouTube as a relaxation source. There were also more than 1 billion views for Do-It-Yourself face mask tutorials on the site.
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Looking at some of the most watched guided meditation YouTube videos, there are years-old classics with titles like "LET GO of Fear, Overthinking & Worries" and "Guided Meditation - Blissful Deep Relaxation." Those have 26 million and 18.5 million views, respectively.
It's not just video searches we are hoping will soothe us during these turbulent times. Meditation apps like Headspace and Calm are also popular. Based on App Store and Google Play store rankings tracked by App Annie, Calm has been in the top 300 apps since mid-March. That's across all app categories. It's also been in the top five for health and fitness throughout the pandemic. App analytics firm Apptopia reported Calm had 2.9 million downloads in January alone.
Audio-based fitness app Aaptiv said it also saw a related increase, with high engagement for its meditation classes during the pandemic period.
We're all craving more mindfulness, apparently.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
