Decades ago, during simpler times, Canadians would pass the time by escaping to a family cottage, going hunting/fishing, enjoying outdoor skating, or engaging in other social activities. In the mid-20th century, TV and radio became families’ windows into the world at large, with evenings spent playing cards and going out to relatives still having their place in everyday life.
However, as electronic technology began to advance at a rapid pace and the Internet debuted, things began to go in a different direction. Leisure began to consist less of going outside or spending time with those closest. It turned to people staring at screens, whether it was to watch sports, enjoy movies and TV shows, or play games.
These days, the average Canadian’s digital leisure primarily encompasses watching Netflix on a home TV, having Spotify on in the background, playing popular games, or partaking in some gambling fun on sites like those featured at Casino Days. Watching streams and YouTube has too gotten a hold on Canadians, as have various social online challenges.
Per the available data, in 2024, Canadians spend, on average, seventy days on their phones, indicating a 76% jump from 2019. The majority of this time gets devoted to scrolling social media, checking email, and instant messages. Moreover, more than half of the country’s population now classifies as gamers, and around 70% do their banking over the Internet. Hence, the digital takeover has already taken place, and improvements in 5G infrastructure, Starlink getting rolled out in rural areas, and Interac e-Transfer being more available will only further solidify it. Digital pastimes have totally out-convenienced every analogue rival, and below we list the top four ones in Canada.
Streaming Audio/Video Content
The term video streaming is broad, and it encompasses essentially all platforms that supply some form of video content that can be accessed on demand or in real time. According to Statista, more than 90% of Canadians stream some sort of video every day, a fact evidenced by ad-supported content growing. Revenues in this CA sector account for 14% of the global market in 2023, and now get projected to reach almost $17 billion in 2025, with expected powerhouses like Amazon Prime, Spotify, and Netflix leading the charge, getting a decent boost from Pluto TV and YouTube.
Though it is not all gravy in this industry, as 90% of consumers say that the rise of so many platforms makes it hard for them to afford several subscriptions, which makes them rotate from service to service and pick ad plans instead of fully-paid ones, free trial exhaustion is a popular practice in Canada as well. Sadly, inflation has too put a squeeze on CA wallets.
CBC/Radio-Canada, Radioplayer Canada, and iHeartRadio are the top native players when it comes to Great White North residents listening to music, podcasts, and live radio through dedicated apps, or just via any Internet-connected device. The appeal of these and their video counterparts lies in that they let users enjoy what they want, when they want, and they have robust content libraries that have something for everyone’s taste.
Online Video Gaming
Gaming, as in playing video games, not as in casino gambling. That comes next. Per a December 2023 Faze study, 33% of Canadians polled said they partake in video gaming as a common hobby, and 23% also listed tech/computers, something they spend most of their time on. That shows that Canada is a technology-savvy nation. Further evidence of this is the fact that the Canadian Mobile Games market is estimated to hit $1.96 billion this year, which it will do by prioritizing local cultural themes, a highly apt strategy to boost domestic engagement.
Canadians are expectedly to be big into competitive gaming, as this sector should expand by a staggering annual compound rate of 24% over the next six years, eventually reaching a projected size of $6.7 billion. The widespread use of smartphones gets listed as a top driver, and major cities, predominantly Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, are developing dedicated eSports hubs. These centers have already given the nation top eSports athletes such as Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey, and Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling.
Internet Casino Gaming
Pre-2010, there were no Canadian online casino sites. The first one launched in 2010, and the regulated market in the country began to really thrive after Ontario regulated its Internet gaming sphere in 2022. That shifted millions of Canadian dollars spent at offshore hubs to those operating within provinces’ borders.
Online casinos are all the rage owing to their massive game lobbies, which at internationally-regulated platforms number in the several thousands, covering pretty much every theme imaginable, and most casino genres. Live products, ones streaming from studios that mimic gaming floors, are too big hits with Canadians, and this category has branched out from table classics into presenter-run game show picks, many of which include random number generation-powered rounds, on top of wheel or lottery draw machines.
Social Media Activity
DataReport notes that, in 2025, Canada had 41.6 million active cellular connections, which is more than the number of people in the country. Furthermore, 38 million people used the Internet, marking one of the highest online penetrations globally. From its adult population, 28.3 million people use social media platforms in the nation, which is also at the top of the world chart in this area, percentage-wise.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram are the main social media platforms in Canada, with 60% of its population utilizing Facebook Messenger as their go-to chat app.
LinkedIn is an unsuspecting force in the nation as far as these services go, as it has over 27 million Canadian users, being most popular in the twenty-five to thirty-four demographic.
Polls strongly suggest that Canadians dominantly use social media to stay connected with friends and family, to keep up with the news, and watch videos. They are an important source of current event info, and TikTok and Instagram are geared more to entertainment, creativity, and social sharing avenues.
