Nielsen: Streaming nears 50% of TV consumption in US
August 20, 2025
Streaming viewership continued to rise across the US in July 2025 as its portion of TV watch-time edged closer to the 50 per cent threshold, according to Nielsen’s monthly report of The Gauge – a snapshot of total TV and streaming consumption.
Driven by an influx of streaming options across platforms, streaming usage trended upward slightly as audiences spent a record 47.3 per cent of overall TV viewing time in July watching its content.
Netflix rode the momentum of a strong June into July, seeing a 5 per cent monthly viewing increase to achieve a platform record of 8.8 per cent of TV. Netflix’s consecutive monthly uptick was driven by a continued steady flow of new releases among original and acquired titles, which led the streamer to represent eight of July’s top 10 streaming titles. Its original series Squid Game was this month’s most watched title with 5.4 billion viewing minutes.
Peacock also carried some of its June momentum into July as its original series Love Island USA was July’s second most-streamed title with 5.3 billion viewing minutes. Overall Peacock was up 3 per cent versus June and added 0.1 share points to tie its non-Olympic monthly record of 1.6 per cent of TV. The rest of July’s top titles included:
- #3 – Blindspot, 4.15 billion minutes, Netflix
- #4 – Untamed, 4.14 billion, Netflix
- #5 – Animal Kingdom, 4 billion, Netflix
- #6 – Bluey, 3.53 billion, Disney+
- #7 – KPop Demon Hunters, 3.51 billion, Netflix
- #8 – Sullivan’s Crossing, 3.4 billion, Netflix
- #9 – Happy Gilmore 2, 2.9 billion, Netflix
- #10 – Grey’s Anatomy, 2.8 billion, Netflix / Hulu
In addition to Netflix, The Roku Channel (2.8 per cent) and YouTube (13.4 per cent) also set platform records in July. The Roku Channel exhibited the largest monthly usage increase across all platforms with a 7.5 per cent lift vs June, while YouTube viewing climbed 2 per cent with 18-24 year-old viewers notching the largest increase among age demographics (+8 per cent).
Broadcast and cable were each affected by standard summer programming slates, which remained light on sports and original shows before those return on a larger scale in the fall. Broadcast’s 18.4 per cent share of TV was helped slightly by a 28 per cent increase in news viewing, which was illustrated by ABC World News Tonight collecting 19 of this month’s top 20 broadcast telecasts. The MLB All-Star Game on Fox took the remaining slot at 13th.
Cable finished with 22.2 per cent of TV watch-time in July. Although it exhibited monthly declines in news (-11 per cent) and sports (-17 per cent) viewing, with the latter feeling the absence of the NBA Playoffs, the MLB Home Run Derby on ESPN was the bright spot, topping cable telecasts for July with 5.3 million viewers.
The July 2025 interval included dates 06/30/2025 through 07/27/2025. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar with measurement weeks that run Monday through Sunday.
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