Streaming’s midsummer surge set new marks in July, with YouTube, Netflix and The Roku Channel each posting record shares of TV viewing as streaming rose to 47.3% of total usage. Nielsen’s monthly Gauge report shows YouTube leading platforms at 13.4% (a 2% month-over-month viewing lift), Netflix climbing 5% to 8.8%, and The Roku Channel reaching 2.8% after the month’s largest usage increase across services at 7.5%. Broadcast accounted for 18.4% and cable 22.2% amid lighter summer schedules.
The report credits Netflix’s result to breadth: the service claimed eight of the ten most-watched streaming titles, led by Squid Game at 5.4 billion minutes. Peacock’s Love Island USA ranked second overall with 5.3 billion minutes and helped the service tie its non-Olympic high at a 1.6% share. The data window for July ran June 30 through July 27 under Nielsen’s broadcast-calendar methodology.
YouTube’s gains skewed younger, with viewers aged 18 to 24 posting the biggest monthly jump at plus 8%, reinforcing the platform’s position as the top destination on TV screens this summer. The Roku Channel’s momentum continued a spring trend that has seen the free, ad-supported service notch successive highs as audiences sample a broader mix of library TV, studio films and FAST channels.
While overall TV usage typically softens without marquee sports, streaming’s share has expanded across the season: in June, Netflix reached 8.3% and YouTube 12.8%, and in May, streaming surpassed the combined total of broadcast and cable for the first time in The Gauge’s four-year history.
Taken together, July’s figures underscore a persistent shift toward on-demand viewing even as individual platforms take different routes to growth—subscription originals and licensed series lifts for Netflix, creator-driven and live programming for YouTube, and free, ad-supported bundles for Roku’s channel. With fall sports and new broadcast lineups approaching, the next report will test whether streaming can hold near the 50% threshold it approached in July.
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