Nielsen gets analyzing streaming right: Ratings you need to know

Nielsen’s shift toward minutes-watched metrics has kept its data relevant as viewing habits keep changing. The company’s 2025 reports now show how streaming has moved from a pandemic-era spike into a permanent majority of U.S. television consumption.

Spikes in streaming

Adults sixty-five and older have continued to adopt streaming at a rapid clip. Nielsen’s February 2025 Media Distributor Gauge found YouTube viewing among that age group rose ninety-six percent from February 2023 levels, now accounting for fifteen-point-four percent of the platform’s total audience. The same report shows the two-to-eleven age bracket at sixteen-point-nine percent, confirming that both ends of the demographic spectrum are driving measurable growth in streaming minutes.

YouTube is still big

YouTube remains the single largest platform by share. In multiple 2025 months it captured between twelve-point-five and thirteen-point-four percent of total television viewing, ahead of every other service tracked by Nielsen. Viewership on connected televisions has climbed more than one hundred twenty percent since 2021, underscoring that the platform’s scale now extends well beyond mobile phones.

FAST services gain ground

Ad-supported free services have carved out a distinct slice of the market. In May 2025, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi together accounted for five-point-seven percent of total viewing, a figure larger than any individual broadcast network. Their growth reflects viewer appetite for no-cost options that sit alongside traditional pay-TV bundles and premium subscription libraries.

Streaming overtakes traditional TV

May 2025 marked the first month streaming alone surpassed the combined share of broadcast and cable. Nielsen’s The Gauge report placed streaming at forty-four-point-eight percent of total U.S. television consumption, edging past the forty-four-point-two percent held by broadcast at twenty-point-one percent and cable at twenty-four-point-one percent. Streaming usage itself has risen seventy-one percent since May 2021 while broadcast fell twenty-one percent and cable dropped thirty-nine percent.

Big five streaming services

Even with the rise of FAST platforms, the original five major services continue to shape viewing patterns. When analysts remove YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ from the equation, traditional MVPDs and their streaming counterparts still command significant minutes. The broader picture, however, shows streaming overall eclipsing broadcast-plus-cable for the first time, confirming that the shift first tracked in 2020 has now become structural.

Disney reigns supreme for movies

Family titles continue to dominate movie minutes on streaming. Nielsen’s 2025 ARTEY data ranked Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters at twenty-point-six billion minutes and Disney+’s Moana 2 at nine-point-four billion. Both performances were propelled by repeat viewings among younger households, echoing the pattern observed with earlier animated releases that rack up hours through habitual rewatches.

Kids content drives repeat viewing

Animated series and family films post the highest cumulative minutes because households replay them across weeks and months. Bluey alone reached forty-five-point-two billion minutes on Disney+ in 2025. The same repeat-viewing dynamic lifted KPop Demon Hunters and Moana 2 into the top ranks, demonstrating that children’s content converts single downloads into extended engagement far more effectively than most adult-oriented originals.

YouTube on the big screen

Television sets have overtaken smartphones as the primary screen for YouTube in the United States. Nielsen’s 2025 reports show that the majority of minutes now occur on connected TVs, a reversal from earlier years when mobile dominated. The shift expands YouTube’s reach into living-room viewing and further blurs lines between traditional lean-back television and on-demand clips.

The Office beats everything

Current Nielsen ARTEY rankings place Bluey at the top with forty-five-point-two billion minutes, followed by Grey’s Anatomy at forty-point-nine billion minutes across Netflix and Hulu. Among original series, Stranger Things led with forty-point-zero billion minutes. The data confirms that acquired library titles and long-running procedurals still generate the largest sustained audiences, while premium originals deliver concentrated spikes rather than year-long volume.