We all know YouTube is big. But a recent milestone hammers home what a behemoth Google's golden goose really is.

Users are now viewing more than 1 billion hours of video every single day on YouTube. That averages more than 8 minutes for every person on the planet.

Blockbuster

The figure threatens the grip of US television networks, and marks a stunning 10-fold increase in viewership for YouTube since 2012.

This increase has been largely attributed to improvements in Google's AI for recommending videos. Of course cats also have a hand in this. 

Long time listener

The milestone comes as YouTube confronts serious competition from Facebook for eyeballs. And while Facebook is a serious player when it comes to video, it can't touch YouTube yet.

And the number of video hours per day could soon steam past 1 billion. YouTube has announced its own TV streaming service, which will presumably pull even more viewers from the small screen.