YouTube took 15.8% of all US TV viewing time in August 2026, a record for the platform, according to Nielsen’s August report of The Gauge, released on October 22. Netflix had 7.7%. By our arithmetic, YouTube’s share was about 2.05 times Netflix’s, up from about 1.51 times a year earlier.
A Wall Street Journal chart of the same Nielsen data, with figures through July, circulated on X on November 7 in a post by Unusual Whales, which said YouTube had climbed to about 14% of TV viewing from roughly 9% at the end of 2023.
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The key insight: Nielsen put YouTube at a record 15.8% of US TV viewing time in August 2026, against 7.7% for Netflix; by our arithmetic, YouTube’s share went from about 1.51 times Netflix’s a year earlier to about 2.05 times.
Nielsen said YouTube “bucked the monthly downturn to capture a platform-record 15.8% of TV as monthly viewing climbed 6%, keeping the streamer in the lead in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge”. Total TV usage fell 4.4% in August, which Nielsen tied to the end of the World Cup and the back-to-school season (Nielsen).
Nielsen added that YouTube “benefited from a 9% increase in viewing among adults 50 and older”, while viewing among 6-17 year-olds faced back-to-school headwinds. Streaming as a whole took 49.6% of TV watch-time.
Share of total US TV viewing time by month, August 2025 to August 2026: YouTube (Nielsen’s ‘YouTube Main’) from 13.1% to a record 15.8%; Netflix from 8.7% to 7.7%. Data: Nielsen, The Gauge, August 2026 report, as published.
What Was Posted on X
YouTube is now the most-watched TV distributor in America, and it’s pulling away, per WSJ.
YouTube’s share of all US TV viewing time has climbed to about 14%, up from roughly 9% at the end of 2023, per Nielsen data charted by The Wall Street Journal.
That puts it ahead of every traditional media giant, including Disney, NBCUniversal and Fox, and well ahead of Netflix at about 8%.
A post by Unusual Whales at 21:01 UTC on 7 November, citing a Wall Street Journal chart of Nielsen data through July: it says YouTube’s share of US TV viewing time has climbed to about 14%, from roughly 9% at the end of 2023, ahead of Disney, NBCUniversal and Fox, with Netflix at about 8%. Nielsen’s August report, released after the chart’s July cut-off, puts YouTube at 15.8% and Netflix at 7.7%.
How the Distributors Rank
In the Media Distributor Gauge, Disney moved back to No. 2 with 9.3% of total TV watch-time. Nielsen said “Netflix moved up to No. 3 with 7.7% of TV, narrowly outpacing NBCU+Versant” by 0.03 share points. Paramount climbed to No. 5 with 6.8%, and Fox was No. 6 with 5.6%.
Our Number: About Twice Netflix
Nielsen’s trended table shows YouTube at 13.1% of TV in August 2025 and Netflix at 8.7%. By our arithmetic, YouTube gained 2.7 share points over the year, Netflix lost 1.0 point, and the ratio between them rose from about 1.51 to about 2.05. YouTube’s share rose in each month from February to August 2026 except June, when it held at 13.8%.
Where It Shows Up for Alphabet
Alphabet reported $11.21 billion of YouTube ads revenue in the third quarter of 2026, up 9.2% by our arithmetic, as we covered in our Alphabet results piece. On the earnings call, Google’s chief business officer Philipp Schindler said: “In Q3, Living Room accounted for over one-third of total YouTube ads revenues”. By our arithmetic, one-third of $11.21 billion is about $3.7 billion, so the TV-screen share of YouTube ads was above that in the quarter.
Sundar Pichai described YouTube on the call as “the number one streaming platform in the US in terms of watch time”. Nielsen’s August figures are measured in time spent, not revenue, so they do not show how much of the viewing turned into ad sales.
The Structural Read
As we read Nielsen’s table, the August jump stands out: YouTube went from 14.2% in July to 15.8% in August, while total TV usage fell 4.4%, so its share rose because its own viewing grew.
As we read the distributor ranking, YouTube now leads companies that own broadcast and cable networks: Disney had 9.3% of TV and NBCU+Versant just under Netflix’s 7.7%.
As we read Alphabet’s call, the TV screen is already a large part of the ad business: Schindler said living-room viewing was over one-third of YouTube ads revenues in the third quarter.
Nielsen, August 2026 Gauge
“YouTube bucked the monthly downturn to capture a platform-record 15.8% of TV”
Three Implications
FOR ALPHABET Schindler said living-room viewing was over one-third of the $11.21 billion of third-quarter YouTube ads revenue.
FOR OTHER DISTRIBUTORS Nielsen ranked Disney second with 9.3% of TV watch-time, Netflix third with 7.7% and Paramount fifth with 6.8%.
FOR READERS OF THE DATA Nielsen will publish September and October together later this year after a one-time methodology adjustment, so August is the latest month.
The analysis says: “The Barbelled Distribution Economy — value concentrates at the extremes (massive-scale platforms and deep-niche specialists); the middle hollows out.”
As we read it, Nielsen’s August figures show the scale end of that barbell in TV viewing: one platform at 15.8% of watch-time. The analysis does not discuss Nielsen’s data or YouTube.
What Is Not Established
Nielsen’s YouTube figure in The Gauge refers to “YouTube Main”, which excludes linear streaming on YouTube TV. The Journal’s chart, which runs through July, credits broadcast and cable content watched through services such as YouTube TV to its own distributor. Nielsen said its reports will undergo “a one-time methodology adjustment beginning with the September 2026 measurement interval” and that it will publish September and October together later this year, so August is the latest month available.
The roughly 9% end-2023 figure is the Journal’s reading of its chart as relayed in the post; we did not find it in Nielsen’s August release.
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Nielsen put YouTube at a record 15.8% of US TV viewing time in August 2026, against 7.7% for Netflix and 9.3% for Disney as a distributor. By our arithmetic, YouTube’s share went from about 1.51 times Netflix’s to about 2.05 times in a year, while Alphabet said living-room screens made up over one-third of its $11.21 billion of third-quarter YouTube ads revenue.
A note on sourcing. The viewing shares are from Nielsen’s August 2026 reports of The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge, released October 22, 2026, as published. The YouTube ads figures and quotes are from Alphabet’s third-quarter 2026 results and call, as covered in our earlier piece. The ratios, point changes and the $3.7 billion figure are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
