Tube Trends: Spider-Man Spins Web Of Video Success

Data & Measurement

Mar 20

Even if the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t what it used to be from an audience hype standpoint, there’s one major exception to that rule: Spider-Man.

And as this week showed, Marvel’s most famous hero remains “amazing” when it comes to generating fan engagement.

The headlines noted that the first trailer for Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day was the most-watched movie trailer ever, with nearly 719 million views in the first 24 hours. Fellow Marvel project Deadpool & Wolverine held the previous record at about half of that mark when it debuted in 2024.

But of course, trailer views is only part of the larger engagement story that Sony and Marvel succesfully executed.

Data from Tubular Labs shows that on YouTube alone, Spider-Man related conversations (predominantly around the movie trailer) generated 1.6 billion views over the last seven days. And while that was led by the trailer, the vast majority of uploads (93%) came from individual creators talking about the upcoming film and what they liked/disliked about the initial look.

Though Sony and Marvel — and star Tom Holland — started the week with a strategy based on short social video clips, the trailer really exploded once it dropped in full on Tuesday.

The previous Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is one of the biggest bright spots for the MCU since Avengers: Endgame, raking in over $1.9 billion at the global box office (No. 8 all-time, and tops among all Spider-Man titled films). More impressive still, this was in December 2021, at a time when society and Hollywood were not yet done with COVID-related challenges and restrictions.

Its follow-up, the fourth Spider-Man film led by Holland is hotly anticipated by fans. While teasing the trailer on Mar. 16, the actor himself credited the community for making the character (and his portrayal) as popular as it is.

Tubular data shows that Spider-Man-related videos on YouTube hit 753 million views on March 18 (the day after the trailer dropped) alone. Globally, the official Spider-Man YouTube page wasn’t even among the top 10 creators for views. U.S. videos also barely edged out India for Spider-Man video views in the last week, showcasing how much of a worldwide figure the hero is (and how that success translates to wide-scale engagement).

For a point of comparison, Batman has generated 280 million views on YouTube (globally) in the past week. This is not to disregard the Caped Crusader at all. And admittedly, Batman also doesn’t have a new movie trailer out.

However, even at a baseline, Spider-Man is hitting over 400 million views per day on YouTube. Every day. For years now.

Unlike any other fictional character at this point, financial and fan success is seemingly built into Spider-Man. His movies appear nine separate times among the 175 top-grossing films of all time, with the character (all played by Holland in this case) appearing another several times across various Avengers films that rank highly as well.

As Holland points out, fans are a large part of this. And Spider-Man also expands the tent for superhero fans — both in terms of the character’s global success and demographic breakdowns.

Superhero films are traditionally marketed toward young men, yet Tubular data shows that 37% of Spider-Man video viewers on YouTube in 2026 have been women. And 16.1% have been women between 25 and 34; the second-largest selection of viewers only to 25-to-34 year-old men.

It all lines up well for Marvel and Sony in a year when the momentum is sorely needed.

On top of the Brand New Day release, Marvel will also introduce Doctor Doom (played by Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr.) in Avengers: Doomsday — a movie that potentially sets up what’s next for the studio, but also tests just how much audiences are still invested in the expansive MCU.

Whether Spider-Man appears in that film or not, the audience excitement the character and Brand New Day generate in summer could be contagious. This initial hype cycle here at least shows the superhero genre is at least alive and well among fans for one character. Understanding that, Marvel will use that as much as they can, for as long as Holland is going to play him.