Super Bowl Bolsters Streaming to 43.5% Share of TV Viewing in February

Super Bowl Sunday was the second most-watched day of TV in the history of Nielsen’s monthly Gauge reports, exceeding 110 billion viewing minutes, Neilsen revealed Tuesday.

That milestone is thanks in large part to the 127.7 million viewers who watched the big game via Fox, and the simulcast on free ad-supported platform Tubi that accounted for a third of streaming usage.

Viewers that watched Tubi during the Super Bowl were 38% more likely to be in the 18 to 34 age range than the total game average and also skewed slightly female. Tubi’s February usage was up 17% over January to finish with 2% of total TV watch-time, its largest share since July 2024.

Overall, TV viewing on Feb. 9 trailed the all time leader, Super Bowl Sunday 2024, by just 500 million minutes.

Despite Tubi’s gains, YouTube still reigned supreme with the largest share of TV viewing for the month at 11.6%, a 2.5% increase versus the previous month. Nearly 27% of time spent streaming in February was dedicated to watching YouTube.

Following behind was Netflix at 8.2%, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ at 4.8% on an aggregated basis, Prime Video at 3.5% and the Roku Channel at 2.1%. Trailing behind Tubi was Peacock with a share of 1.5%, Paramount+ with 1.3%, Max with 1.2% and Pluto TV with 1%.

Overall, the streaming category added 0.9 share points month-over-month for a total share of 43.5%, its largest to date. By comparison, broadcast (21.2%) and cable (23.2%) combined to account for 44.4% of TV in February.

Netflix had the top streaming program for the month with “The Night Agent” capturing 6 billion viewing minutes, followed by “Bluey” on Disney+ with 4.2 billion minutes.

Among cable viewing, the championship game in the inaugural NHL 4 Nations face-off drew the category’s largest audience for the month with 9.3 million viewers on ESPN. FOX News Channel represented the next 13 top cable telecasts, as cable news gained 8% over January to represent 27% of all cable viewing in February. 

On broadcast, the Super Bowl and its pregame and postgame programs on Fox were followed by NBC’s Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special with 16.5 million viewers, and The Grammys on CBS with 16.2 million viewers. Broadcast dramas, which accounted for the largest share of broadcast viewing in February (27%), were up 15% versus last month and led by CBS’ “Tracker” (10.6 million) and “Matlock” (9.4 million).

Despite strong showings by the Super Bowl and the other top telecasts, total broadcast viewing fell by 10% to account for 21.2% of TV and cable declined 9% and totaled 23.2% of TV. Sports events viewership fell 54% on broadcast and 42% on cable versus January.

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