Streaming reached an historic milestone in the United States in May as its share of total television viewing achieved a higher proportion than broadcast and cable combined.
According to Nielsen’s monthly report of The Gauge, streaming represented 44.8% of TV viewership in May 2025, its largest share of viewing to date, while broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) combined to represent 44.2% of TV.
The Gauge is commemorating four years since its first edition in May 2021. During that time the use of streaming services has increased by 71%, while broadcast and cable viewing have declined (down 21% and 39%, respectively).
“It’s fitting that this inflection point coincides with the four year anniversary of Nielsen’s The Gauge, which has become the gold standard for streaming TV measurement,” said Karthik Rao, Nielsen CEO. “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.”
Along with the 71% increase in streaming usage, six additional streaming services are now reported in the list of platforms that exceed a full share point of TV usage. The original list included Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Prime Video and Disney+, and has expanded to 11 platforms in May 2025.
Free services have been a major driver of streaming’s overall success. Most notably, YouTube Main (excluding YouTube TV) has exhibited steady, significant growth and is up over 120% since 2021. YouTube represented 12.5% of all television viewing in May, its fourth consecutive monthly share increase and the highest share of TV for any streamer to date. Additionally, FAST services have become increasingly popular, and three have reached the reportable threshold in The Gauge. PlutoTV, Roku Channel and Tubi combined for 5.7% of total TV viewing in May, which is larger than any individual broadcast network this interval.
