Last fall, YouTube revealed that they had overtaken Disney in the ratings game in July 2024, which made them the first-ever streaming service to take the crown. Most people assumed that it was a combination of children watching more YouTube thanks to summer break, lack of new network programming, and the fact that basic YouTube is still free, while Disney and the rest of the media companies with streaming services have continued to raise prices. Well, oops, they did it again. In February 2025, YouTube once again toppled the Mouse. In July, they received 10.4 percent of viewership, but in February, their share had grown to 11.6 percent. Their secret sauce? People over age 50 now account for around 36 percent of their viewership.
YouTube commanded more TV time than any other media provider in the United States in February, and its top ranking was thanks in part to viewers over the age of 50.
The service accounted for 11.6 percent of all TV use in the country in Nielsen‘s rankings of media distributors for the February period (which ran from Jan. 27-Feb. 23). That’s an all-time high for YouTube and the second time it has placed atop the distributor rankings; it previously did so in July 2024.
YouTube improved from 10.8 percent of TV use in January and passed Disney (10 percent) for the overall spot among TV content distributors. Nielsen notes that the rise for YouTube was fueled partly by a somewhat surprising source: people over 50, who accounted for about 36 percent of all time spent watching YouTube on TV screens — more than the combined 28 percent for teenagers and adults 18-34. The media distributor rankings don’t include viewing on computers or mobile devices, which means the demographics Nielsen cited might not be fully representative of YouTube’s total usage across all devices.
Fox moved into third place in February — its highest ranking to date — thanks in large part to a record-setting Super Bowl. It claimed 8.3 percent of U.S. TV use, edging ahead of Netflix and Paramount (8.2 percent each and both down a little from January).
Power to the content creators out there. I had no idea that it was such a big deal among the older demographic, but it makes total sense. From news and politics to how-to videos to educational content to niche community representation and beyond, there’s such a wide variety of content available on YouTube and it’s all available, generally for free, on demand. For better or for worse, there is literally something for everyone on YouTube.
We only let my kids watch YouTube Kids on the weekends, but they and all of their friends are obsessed with it. They even like watching people play games like Roblox together. Both my husband and my brother-in-law turn to YouTube first when they want to be entertained. Since Nielsen doesn’t include cell phones, iPads, and computer streams in their totals, I absolutely believe that YouTube’s viewers are even higher than this. I only hope that its parent company, Google, doesn’t smell profit and mess with their business model too much. It would be a shame if corporate greed once again ruined a good thing.
Images credit Hot and Flashy, WWE/John Cena, The Dodo/wolfgang2242, Oprah’s Book Club/Viola Davis.