YouTube has broken a huge viewership record and now accounts for nearly 12% of all TV watched, beating out streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video by a wide margin.
In February 2025, time spent watching YouTube on TV rose by 2.5%, setting a new record for the Google-owned app and Nielsen’s streaming category as a whole.
In total, YouTube was responsible for 11.6% of all TV watched, and this number becomes even more impressive when excluding cable channels. For streaming alone, YouTube absolutely crushed the competition, with nearly 27% of all time spent watching TV during the month.
Streaming services made up the majority of TV viewing with 47%, nearly double that of cable. And don’t forget, February also had monumental sporting events such as the Super Bowl and the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off to help it out.
YouTube dominates Netflix, Paramount and Max combined
According to The Gauge, YouTube was the only streaming platform to hit the double digits in viewership percentages over the past 12 months before setting this massive new milestone record in February.
In second place, Netflix had 8.2% while Disney+ was a distant third at 4.8%. Prime Video trailed with 3.5%, while other big names, such as Paramount+ and Max, couldn’t get above 1.3%.
This chart-topping rise even came before YouTube announced Premium Lite in the US, giving users a cheaper, scaled-back version of Premium with ads only appearing on select content.
As such, many users were using a free version of YouTube with numerous ads, some as long as 60 minutes, as they didn’t have access to Premium Lite yet.
Meanwhile, the Google-owned platform has continued to see success with Shorts, directly competing with TikTok by offering short-form content.
Also during the month of February, a MrBeast short titled, ‘Would You Fly To Paris For A Baguette?’ dethroned Despacito to become the platform’s most-liked video ever.
Content shared from www.dexerto.com.