For the first time in history, the messaging app Telegram has overtaken the video hosting platform YouTube in monthly reach among Russian users aged 12 and older. This shift comes as YouTube experiences a slowdown in the country. Despite remaining in the top 10 most popular internet platforms, YouTube's audience continues to decline.

Telegram Strengthens Its Position

According to Mediascope data, in January 2025, Telegram reached 90.6 million users who accessed the app at least once during the month. A year earlier, this figure was 83.7 million, and in December 2024, it stood at 88.4 million.

Meanwhile, YouTube’s audience in Russia shrank from 95.5 million in January 2024 to 86.9 million in January 2025. As a result, for the first time, Telegram surpassed YouTube in this metric, securing fifth place in the overall ranking of internet platforms.

Russia’s Leading Internet Platforms

The top three most popular online services in Russia remain unchanged:

  1. Yandex – 102.3 million monthly users
  2. Google – 101 million
  3. WhatsApp – 97.5 million

The fourth position now belongs to the social network VKontakte, which surpassed YouTube back in December 2024.

YouTube Also Falls in Daily Reach

When evaluating internet services by daily reach, YouTube continues to lose ground. In January 2025, its daily audience was 32.5 million users. By comparison, Sberbank’s online services had 43 million daily users, while Wildberries attracted 33.3 million.

YouTube’s Slowdown in Russia

YouTube’s issues began in August 2024, when users experienced video quality restrictions on desktop devices. By mid-December, video loading speeds had significantly slowed across all devices.

Google acknowledged the accessibility issues for Russian users but stated that the problems were not due to technical failures or any actions taken by the company itself.