Apple always live streams its iPhone events on its own Events website and the Events app on the Apple TV, but this year, for the first time, Apple also did a YouTube live stream.

Within just 10 minutes of when the event kicked off, Apple had over 500,000 viewers, and at the live stream's peak, when new iPhones were being shown off, Apple reached 1.875 million viewers.

appleyoutubelivestream

After this screenshot was taken, views climbed even higher

We've never before known how many people watch Apple's live streams because the company doesn't share that information, but the YouTube metric gives us some idea of how popular it was. For comparison, it earned more views than YouTube live streams from other companies like Samsung and Google.

The biggest YouTube live stream saw 8 million people tuning in when Felix Baumgartner jumped from a space capsule at 120,000 feet and parachuted back to the earth's surface, while SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch in September 2018 garnered 2.3 million views.

The 1.875 million viewer metric does not include those who watched the live stream on the ‌Apple TV‌ through the Events app or through the Events website, which means actual live viewership was likely a good deal higher.


Apple's live stream is no longer available on YouTube at the current time, but the full event video has been uploaded.

Top Rated Comments

Cold_Beaver Avatar
70 months ago
How many stayed awake?
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Aldaris Avatar
70 months ago
How many stayed awake?
I’m beginning to just use the MacRumors live updating post. Go ahead and check it every 5-10 minutes... certainly not worth the 90 minutes... seriously.

In all seriousness I think the keynote formula is played enough. Apple needs to innovate in that arena or just go ahead with press releases and videos online. Seriously the “we even made a video” you just spent 10 minutes talking about it, now we need a 5 minute video recap?! Seriously?!

I don’t know about the rest of you but doing these the way Apple has for the last decade is exhausting... so many other tech companies have copied it/attempted to and it’s just blah at this point.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThunderSkunk Avatar
70 months ago
I don’t know about the rest of you but doing these the way Apple has for the last decade is exhausting... so many other tech companies have copied it/attempted to and it’s just blah at this point.
I dozed off three times watching this one and had to rewind. The last time, I didn’t even bother. This entire keynote could have been about a 15 minute affair without all the padding.

If Apple were me showing up to fourth grade, they’d be told they’re a little light on lunch money and would spend all recess hiding from the resulting punch in the stomach.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GubbyMan Avatar
70 months ago
The quality of the live stream on Apple's website was so much better than YouTube's 1080p stream. YouTube had horrible compression artifacts whenever there was a dark background.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DakotaGuy Avatar
70 months ago
I couldn't watch it live because I was busy at work trying to make money to buy this stuff.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rjohnstone Avatar
70 months ago
The stream from Apple was horrible. Audio kept going out of sync or dropped out all together.
Didn’t see anything worth upgrading my Xs for.
Why they kept the Series 3 watches around, yet dropped the Series 4 is beyond me.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
mail categories macos

Apple's Redesigned Mail App is Expanding to the Mac — Here's When

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:02 am PST by
Apple plans to expand the iPhone's redesigned Mail app to the Mac starting with macOS 15.4, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The first macOS 15.4 beta should be made available in the coming weeks, and Apple has previously suggested that the iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4 series of software updates will be released to the public in April. The revamped Mail app debuted on all...
apple power beats pro 2

Powerbeats Pro 2 Coming Soon: Apple to Announce Them 'Imminently'

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...