Streaming accounted for a 47.5% total TV share in December 2025. This not only resulted in the Streaming category smashing its November share, but also every month that came before, with Streaming’s December share setting a new record for the category.
Key Takeaways
- Streaming hit a record 47.5% of total TV viewing in December 2025, boosted by a historic Christmas Day.
- Broadcast and cable continued to decline, while major streamers like Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount Streaming, Warner/Discovery, and The Roku Channel all saw gains.
- Not all platforms benefited. While Disney’s services saw no monthly change, YouTube, Peacock, and Tubi all lost share in December 2025.
The last time Streaming came near this total was back in July 2025, when the category managed to secure a 47.3% total TV share.
In the months following, the category continued to encounter decreases in TV share, dropping to as low as 45.2% in September.
While the category has slowly been rebuilding its share since then, the 47.5% total TV share reported by Nielsen for December 2025 is still a major increase on the 46.7% reported for November.
Not to mention, December also included what Nielsen referred to as “a historic Christmas Day” for the category.
With 55.1 billion viewing minutes of streaming usage, Christmas Day smashed the previous single-day streaming record by 8%, with back-to-back NFL games on Netflix helping to fuel the historic day.
“Streaming’s dominance in December was further evidenced by the fact that the category exceeded 50% of daily TV usage twice, having occurred for the first time ever on Saturday, December 13 when streaming represented 50.4% of TV,” Nielsen explained.
While a good month for Streaming, Broadcast saw its share decrease last month, dropping from 23.2% in November to 21.4% in December.
Following previous declines in recent months, Cable also saw its share decline, dropping from 20.5% in November to 20.2% in December 2025.
A Good Month For Many Streaming Services
With the overall Streaming category setting a new record, it shouldn’t be too surprising that many individual streaming services also saw some major increases in December.
Thanks to the NFL and the final season of Stranger Things, Netflix saw its share jump from 8.3% in November to 9% in December, marking one of the largest changes during the month.
Prime Video also had a good month. After ending November with a 3.8% share, the same it was in October, Amazon’s streaming service saw its share jump to 4.3% in December.
Other winners for November included Paramount Streaming (Paramount+ and Pluto TV) with its share increasing from 2.3% in November to 2.5% in December, and Warner/Discovery (HBO Max and Discovery+) which saw its share increase from 1.3% in November to 1.4% in December.
Although a good month for these services, as well as the category as a whole, not all services benefitted from the record month.
The market leader YouTube saw its share decrease from 12.9% in November to 12.7% in December. Likewise, Peacock’s share decreased from 1.9% in November to 1.7% in December.
While Disney (Disney+, ESPN Select and Hulu) didn’t encounter a decline, it didn’t benefit either, with its share remaining at to 4.7% in December 2025.
Another Good Month For The Roku Channel But Not For Tubi
Similar to last month, December proved to be another mixed month for the most popular free streaming services.
In the case of The Roku Channel, the free service saw its share increase to 3%, up from 2.9% in November and 2.8% in October.
In contrast, Tubi saw its share decline again. After dropping from 2.2% in October to 2.1% in November, Tubi’s share dropped down to 2% in December 2025.
Start the conversation