YouTube Now Controls 9.7% of U.S. Television Usage, Nielsen Says

Person watching YouTube on a TV set.

Connected TV usage of YouTube accounted for 9.7% of all U.S. TV viewing in March, according to Nielsen's latest monthly tube consumption tracker, The Gauge. 

That's up from 7.8% in March 2023 and 6% in March 2022. 

(Image credit: Nielsen)

Also read: Who's No. 1 in Subscription Streaming? Muddled Metrics Methodologies Make Matters Murky

We made an effort to better understand Nielsen's not-so-transparent methodologies  two years ago. We think we know that for The Gauge, the company is measuring "glass usage" (watching on actual TVs) among U.S. TV denizens age 2 and older, with viewership on virtual MVPDs not included in the tally. 

So we're talking about ad-supported YouTube programming here, not the YouTube TV virtual pay TV service. 

YouTube’s viewership share expansion has coincided with the overall growth of streaming, which accounted for 29.7% of all U.S. consumption two years ago, according to Nielsen, and reached 38.5% in March.