Streaming services have been coming for the broadcast television crown in the U.S. for years.
Led by free services like YouTube, streaming represented 44.8% of television viewership in May 2025, its largest share of viewing to date, according to a Nielsen report.
During the same month, broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) combined to represent 44.2% of all TV viewing. It was the first time in Nielsen’s history that streaming outpaced cable and broadcast TV combined.
Despite hundreds of millions of signups across the major streaming platforms, streaming services have had trouble changing Americans’ viewing habits.
Streaming usage has jumped 71% over the past four years, as the original list of five streaming services (Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Prime Video, and Disney+) has ballooned to 11.
“It’s also a credit to media companies, who have deftly adapted their programming strategies to meet their viewers where they are watching TV – whether it’s on streaming or linear platforms,” Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao said.
Nielsen says free streaming services, like YouTube Main (excluding YouTube TV) have been a major driver of the success.
YouTube’s viewership has increased 120% since 2021, and it represented 12.5% of all television viewing in May.
YouTube recently partnered with the king of broadcast television, the National Football League, for its first-ever live broadcast of the sport, and the results for the company were fantastic.
Image source: Almeida/AFP via Getty Images
YouTube reports record-breaking viewership for NFL streaming debut
YouTube broadcast its first-ever live NFL game on Friday, August 5, as the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Los Angeles Chargers in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
It was the first global broadcast of an NFL game on YouTube and set the record for the most concurrent live stream viewers on the platform.
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The broadcast drew a global average-minute audience of over 17.3 million, including 16.2 million in the U.S. and another 1.1 million internationally.
Fans from over 230 countries and territories tuned into the game on YouTube for free.
The broadcast featured popular YouTubers including MrBeast and IShowSpeed, as well as a musical performance by Karol G.
The NFL is still the king of live television, despite the streaming takeover
Every year, the list of the top 100 most-viewed shows is dominated by the NFL’s Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, and Monday night broadcasts.
Over 70 of the top 100 most-viewed broadcasts last year were NFL games, including the perennial big-ticket winner, the Super Bowl.
Last season’s Super Bowl averaged a record 127.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl and single-network telecast in history.
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The game saw a 3% increase over the previous year, and set a new record for reach with 191.1 million unique viewers tuning in for at least one minute, according to Nielsen.
However, the NFL recently revealed that it isn’t too happy with how Nielsen measures its viewership.
NFL considers adding more competition for viewership ratings measurements
Right before the launch of the 2025 season last week, NFL Chief Data and Analytics Officer Paul Ballew said the league’s viewership is being systematically undercounted by the millions.
The NFL says it is concerned enough to begin experimenting with “alternatives to Nielsen” for additional data.
A Nielsen spokesperson responded that the agency is “confident this will be the most accurately rated football season in history,” while adding that the company is working closely with the league to “innovate its data collection.”
Ballew serves on Nielsen’s quality advisory board, so he is familiar with the company’s advances in streaming reporting. However, he also says the company’s new Big Data panel doesn’t yet include first-party audience data from most streaming services that carry NFL games.
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