Key Points
- YouTube daily viewing rose to 99.1 minutes in 2025, from 87.2 in 2024.
- Netflix fell to 93.4 minutes, from 100.5 the year before.
- It is the first time YouTube has overtaken Netflix on the metric.
- TV's share of YouTube viewing rose from 28% to 35%.
For the first time, people spent more time per day on YouTube than on Netflix. Average daily YouTube viewing rose to 99.1 minutes in 2025, up from 87.2 the year before, while Netflix slipped to 93.4 from 100.5, according to measurement firm Digital i's "The YouTube Era" report across 20 markets. The platform built on free user-generated video now holds more of the day's attention than the company that defined prestige streaming.
That fight over discovery is also driving dealmaking, with Netflix and rivals circling Letterboxd.
The shift to the television
The number that matters most for Netflix is where YouTube is being watched. TV's share of YouTube viewing time rose from 28% to 35% between January 2024 and December 2025, while mobile fell from 35% to 31%. YouTube is no longer the phone-in-bed platform; it is increasingly the thing on the living-room screen, in the slot Netflix considers its home court.
Why it matters
Netflix spends tens of billions a year producing and licensing content. YouTube pays its creators a share of ad revenue and produces almost none of the video itself. Two business models with opposite cost structures now compete for the same couch — and it rhymes with what is happening across the screen business, where platforms are muscling into film's prestige institutions too. The audience has already voted with its time. The monetization question is what the next few years decide.
Source: Digital i, Advanced Television
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