The Reston, Virginia based leading online researcher, ComScore on March 24 released February 2009 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that U.S. Internet users viewed 13.1 billion online videos during the month of February, representing a decline of 12-percent versus January due mainly to the month of February having three fewer days.

According to the ComScore data from the comScore Video Metrix service, YouTube.com comprised the largest share within the U.S. market, accounting for 41 percent of online videos viewed and just under 100 million unique viewers.  

The ComScore data shows that Google Sites were leading in video market share in February, but Hulu was able get place in Top 5. Google Sites continued to rank as the top U.S. video property with 5.3 billion videos viewed (41 percent online video market share), with YouTube.com accounting for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 463 million videos (3.5 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 353 million (2.7 percent), Hulu with 333 million (2.5 percent) and Microsoft Sites with 259 million (2.0 percent). Hulu climbed two positions in the ranking to 4th position, after experiencing a 33-percent jump in video views on the heels of its Super Bowl commercial at the outset of the month.

The ComScore data articulates that Hulu.com reached one-quarter of total internet video viewer population in February. According to the data, more than 145 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 90 videos per viewer in February. Google Sites maintained its lead with nearly 100 million viewers during the month, representing 69 percent of those who watched video. Fox Interactive ranked second with 53.8 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites (41.8 million), and Hulu (34.7 million). Of the top ten video properties, Hulu experienced the largest increase in unique viewers compared to January, growing 42 percent to 34.7 million viewers.

According to the February 2009 data from the comScore Video Metrix service —  75.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video. — The average online video viewer watched 312 minutes of video (more than 5 hours) — 98.8 million viewers watched 5.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (53.8 videos per viewer). — 41.2 million viewers watched 384 million videos on MySpace.com (8.5 videos per viewer). — And, the duration of the average online video was 3.5 minutes.