• by Wayne Friedman , March 25, 2025

For the first time, YouTube has ascended to the top spot among Nielsen Media Distributor Gauge in February -- with a 11.6% share -- succeeding Walt Disney, now in second place with a 10%.

In January Disney was at 12%, while YouTube came in at 10.8%. Disney scored strong results due to heavy sports coverage, including the College Football Playoffs from its ABC and ESPN coverage.

After YouTube and Disney comes a close four-way race for third place among Fox Corp., 8.3%; Netflix and Paramount, each at 8.2%, and NBCUniversal at 8.1%.

YouTube's move to the top follows its climbing results via Nielsen Total TV/Streaming Snapshot, which looks at specific individual streaming platforms and broad genres of the entertainment TV landscape -- broadcast, cable, and streaming categories. YouTube’s February 2025 ‘Snapshot’ -- was at 11.6%, easily was ahead of Netflix’s 8.2% result.

Nielsen notes that YouTube has seen steady gains from February 2023, when it was at a 7.9% share.

It adds that YouTube has seen rising viewership across all age demographics groups. The biggest gains going to those 65 years and older (96%) to 15.4% of YouTube’s entire audience composition versus two years ago.

YouTube’s largest share remains viewers 18-34 -- at 21%, up 48% since February 2023. In second place are 50- to-64-year-old viewers with a 20.4% share (up 62%), followed by viewers 35 to 49, at 19.4% (50% higher).

Nielsen Media Distributor Gauge calculates total viewing by media distributors across broadcast, cable, streaming and other categories.

YouTube results under Nielsen Total TV/Streaming Snapshot do not include viewing data from YouTube TV, the virtual pay TV retailer distributor.