Why Vertical Video Is Winning, and How to Clip a Short

Vertical video won the phone. YouTube Shorts "are now averaging over 200 billion daily views" (YouTube Blog, June 2025), Facebook now shares all videos as reels, and 37% of US adults use TikTok (Pew Research Center, 2026). But the same data shows something the "horizontal is dead" takes miss: long videos are moving to the TV.

Key takeaways

• Shorts average over 200 billion daily views, a figure Alphabet repeated in February 2026 (Alphabet).
• TV has passed mobile as the main device for YouTube viewing in the US (YouTube Blog, 2025).
• The result is a split: 16:9 for the long video, 9:16 clips to reach people on their phones.

How big is vertical video in 2026?

Big enough that every major platform now builds around it. YouTube Shorts average over 200 billion daily views, and Alphabet said in February 2026 that in some countries, including the US, "Shorts earns more revenue per watch hour than traditional in-stream" (Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings call).

One caution on that view count: since March 31, 2025, YouTube counts a Shorts view each time a Short starts or replays, with no minimum watch time (TechCrunch, 2025). It doesn't compare directly with older figures. The direction is still clear.

The other platforms point the same way:

• Instagram: Meta said "video time spent on Instagram" was up more than 30% year over year, for video in general, not only vertical (Meta Q3 2025 earnings call).
• Facebook: since 2025, "all videos on Facebook will be shared as reels" (Meta Newsroom).
• TikTok: 37% of US adults use it, up from 21% in 2021, and 63% of adults under 30 (Pew Research Center).

Why did vertical win the phone?

Because the feeds are built for a phone held upright. A 9:16 video fills the whole screen in that position, with no black bars and no reason to rotate. Platforms built their feeds around a full-screen swipe, and a tall video is the shape that fits it.

It also fits how people find things now. Pew found that 20% of US adults regularly get news on TikTok, up from 3% in 2020, and 43% of adults under 30 do (Pew Research Center, 2025). For a lot of viewers, the vertical feed is the front page.

And the format got longer. On October 15, 2024, YouTube started accepting Shorts "up to 3 minutes long", for videos "that are square or taller in aspect ratio" (YouTube Blog). Three minutes is enough for a full answer, a demo, or a complete argument, not only a joke.

The "90% higher completion" stat has no study behind it

You've probably seen it, and you should stop quoting it. The 90% figure comes from a 2016 AdExchanger interview in which an ad-tech CEO described an internal test (AdExchanger, 2016). The related "nine times more likely to view" claim was part of Snapchat's 2015 pitch to investors (Fortune, 2015). Neither published a method.

Vertical doesn't need a ten-year-old sales figure. The platform numbers above make the case on their own.

Is horizontal video dead?

Not on the TV. YouTube's CEO wrote that "TV has surpassed mobile and is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S. (by watch time)" (YouTube Blog, 2025), and that viewers watch "over one billion hours of YouTube on their TVs every day." Panel data from the measurement firm Digital i points the same way: across 20 markets, the TV share of YouTube viewing time rose from 28% to 35% between January 2024 and December 2025, while mobile fell from 35% to 31% (Digital i, 2026).

So the honest picture is a split. The long, horizontal video gets watched on the couch. The phone gets vertical clips. If you only publish 16:9, your best moments never reach the feed. If you only publish 9:16, you skip the screen where US viewers now watch YouTube the most.

Cut a long video into a Short in five steps

Pick one moment, cut it out, and reframe it. A good Short from a long video answers one question or shows one result, and it starts on the first word that matters.

1. Find the moment. Look for spikes in YouTube's retention report, the parts people rewatched or shared. The retention guide explains how to read it.
2. Clip it. Paste the YouTube link into Vidtrimmer, set the start and end times, and download that section as an MP4, up to 4K. Keep it under three minutes so it qualifies as a Short.
3. Crop to 9:16. Use a free tool like the Renderly video resizer and move the crop so the speaker stays in the frame.
4. Add captions. They help viewers who scroll with the sound off.
5. Link back. Point the Short to the full video, so the clip feeds the long version instead of replacing it.

Only clip videos you own or have permission to use. For the shape each platform wants, see the aspect ratio guide.