▶️ YouTube Reclaims Its Position as the Primary Driver of Russian Video Consumption

However, this growth was driven entirely by YouTube: excluding the platform, daily watch time on domestic services fell by 5%.

YouTube increased its daily watch time by 24% year-over-year—reaching 99 minutes per user—and fully recovered from the 28.6% drop recorded in the same period last year. By comparison, 2025 saw the exact opposite trend: local platforms surged by 32% as the foreign service lost ground amid bandwidth throttling.

Experts attribute this trend reversal to high-base effects wearing off. In 2024–2025, domestic platforms grew as users migrated to test new alternatives. By 2026, the market had reached saturation: the novelty wore off, and audiences drifted back to the platform offering the most robust recommendation algorithm and the deepest content catalog.

Performance among domestic Russian services remains mixed:

• Rutube: According to Future Lab, viewing time including embedded plays fell by 4.7% (to 41 minutes), though excluding them showed a 9.5% gain (to 62.8 minutes). Rutube disputed these figures, reporting a 9.1% increase in viewing time across the total population.
• VK Video: Company representatives reported a 65% jump in average viewing time within its standalone app compared to H1, approaching nearly 100 minutes per user.
• Streaming Services (SVOD): Online cinemas noted a growing shift toward Smart TVs alongside the impact of local mobile internet restrictions, emphasizing audience retention through hyper-targeted content recommendations.

Flawed recommendation algorithms and creator retention remain the biggest challenges for domestic platforms. Without top-tier content creators, initial user trials fail to translate into long-term viewing habits.