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YouTube has overtaken Netflix in average daily viewing among users around the world, according to analysis that reveals the digital platform’s ever greater media muscle.
A major shift to watching YouTube on television has fuelled a growing rivalry between the world’s pre-eminent digital and streaming platforms. “YouTube is not just cat videos any more,” Netflix’s co-chief executive, Ted Sarandos, said recently. “YouTube is TV.”
Average daily usage per YouTube account rose from 87.2 minutes in 2024 to 99.1 in 2025, according to analysis conducted by the Digital i agency across 20 international markets. The figure for Netflix dropped from 100.5 to 93.4 minutes.
In the UK, Netflix remains ahead, but it is close. The average daily minutes for a Netflix viewer last year was 88.2 minutes against YouTube’s 84.8.
YouTube’s shift from laptops and smartphones to television also accelerated last year. TV’s share of YouTube viewing time rose from 28% to 35% between January 2024 and December 2025, while mobile viewing fell from 35% to 31%.
Netflix itself is a huge force on YouTube. Its official channel had the highest reach of any channel last year, reaching 78.2m unique accounts. It includes whole episodes of its Our Planet series, narrated by David Attenborough.
Both platforms have been muscling in on each other’s territory in recent months. YouTube, owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has sought to underpin its growing TV success with forays into areas traditionally covered by television networks and broadcasters.
It bought the exclusive rights to stream the Oscars in December, in a multi-year deal that includes the red carpet coverage and behind-the-scenes content, which has been the staple of broadcast coverage.
It has also been dabbling in sports rights, showing its first NFL game last year. The game took the title of the most concurrent viewers of a livestream on the platform with more than 17.3m viewers.
Netflix has been fighting back with video podcasts, which have boomed on YouTube. It has struck a deal with The Rest Is Football podcast with Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards to stream a daily edition during the World Cup.
The major difference between the platforms is that, unlike streamers and public service broadcasters such as the BBC, YouTube does not commission content. It has attempted to commission shows through its YouTube Red and YouTube Originals projects in the past, but closed them both.
The Digital i analysis suggested traditional media had begun to “crack the YouTube reach code”, with some now securing huge views on the site. Among the top traditional media YouTube channels were Saturday Night Live with 55.8m viewers and Universal Pictures with 54.6m.
“YouTube’s evolution from a social video service into a dominant global attention platform is one of the defining media shifts of the decade,” said Digital i’s chief analytics officer, Matt Ross. “Our data shows audiences increasingly treating YouTube not as social media, but as a primary entertainment destination.”
Gen Z remained YouTube’s most engaged age group last year, averaging 111 minutes a day, but growth was strongest among men aged 55 to 64, whose viewing has increased 15% since 2024. Daily average YouTube usage also increased for women of all age groups.
Of the territories surveyed, South Koreans used YouTube the most, at 161.5 minutes a day. France recorded the biggest growth in daily usage, up by a third.
YouTube’s impact in the UK has attracted the attention of regulators and the government, which have indicated they will give the BBC and ITV enforced prominence on the site.
