YouTube hit another high point in TV usage in March, and Prime Video’s Reacher flexed its considerable muscle as well.
Nielsen’s monthly Gauge report on TV use in the United States has YouTube commanding 12 percent of all viewing time, the highest mark for the platform since the ratings provider began tracking that data in 2021. It grew from 11.6 percent — YouTube’s previous high — in February.
Streaming as a whole was responsible for 43.8 percent of TV use in March (the reporting period runs from Feb. 24-March 30). That’s up from 43.5 percent a month earlier and again almost equaling the combined totals for cable (24 percent of TV use) and broadcast (20.5 percent). Other TV usage, including gaming and physical media playback, accounted for the remaining 11.7 percent.
Cable did see its share grow from 23.2 percent in February, thanks in large part to March Madness: The men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments helped drive a 29 percent monthly increase in cable sports viewing. Broadcast, however, fell off from 21.2 percent in February following the end of the NFL season.
Nielsen says Reacher was the most streamed show in March, with 6.6 billion minutes of viewing time. Seven different streamers had shows or movies in the top 10, with Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix and Paramount+ joining Prime Video.
As it did with Disney in January, Nielsen is now aggregating streaming use for Paramount (Paramount+ and Pluto TV) and Warner Bros. Discovery (Max and Discovery+). Paramount’s streamers combined for 2.3 percent of all TV use in March, the same as their February total. Max has averaged 1.2 percent of TV viewing for the past six months, suggesting Discovery+ adds about 0.3 points to the WBD total.
Nielsen’s Gauge numbers and the top 10 streaming titles for March 2025 are below.
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