Sound Off Is the New Normal, and Captions Are Now Standard

Picture the people watching videos on their phones on the subway, in a cafe, or in a lecture hall. Most of them keep the sound off and read the captions at the bottom of the screen. For a long time captions were seen as an accessibility feature for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but these days they have become the most common way to consume video without turning the sound on. Today we will look at some verified statistics that show this shift, and talk about what it means for creators.

Watching With the Sound Off Has Become the Default

According to a survey of 5,616 U.S. adults that Verizon Media and Publicis Media ran in 2019, as summarized by StreamingMedia, 69% of respondents said they watched videos with the sound off in public places. Quiet spots like cafes, moments without earphones, or short waits all bring up situations several times a day where turning the sound on is hard.

Even more interesting, 80% of the people who use captions are not deaf or hard of hearing. In other words captions are no longer an aid for a small group, but a basic tool for everyone who wants to follow the content quietly and reliably.

With Captions, People Watch to the End

In the same survey, 80% of respondents said they are more likely to watch a video all the way through when captions are available. For a creator this is a number you cannot ignore. Watch time shapes how far a video travels on YouTube, and it means a single layer of captions can lift your completion rate.

Half of the respondents also said captions matter to them because they usually watch with the sound off. Without captions, these viewers, who make up half the audience, are left with what is essentially a muted screen. On the other hand, when captions are done well, even someone who never turns the sound on can be hooked within the first few seconds.

The Younger the Viewer, the More Captions Are the Default

This trend is not limited to one survey. In a 2022 Preply survey of Americans, 50% said they keep subtitles on most of the time. Broken down by generation, 70% of Gen Z and 53% of Millennials do so, showing that the younger the viewer, the more clearly subtitles are treated as the default.

Across the ocean, the UK looks similar. As The Week reported in 2022, citing Ofcom data from 2006, about 6 million of the 7.5 million subtitle users in the UK were people without hearing impairments. Regardless of generation or country, subtitles are quietly becoming the standard.

So Here Is What Mearri Does

In an age when viewers watch with the sound off, how accurately and naturally you caption your video shapes its first impression. Mearri builds captions that hold the muted scroller. Review the result yourself, then send it straight to YouTube.

When captions and translations are in good shape, domestic viewers who keep the sound off stay to the end, and you can reach overseas viewers who speak other languages through captions and translation alone. Now that watching with the sound off has become the default, we believe captions are no longer optional but a part of the video itself.