The record-setting audience for the Super Bowl in February wasn’t enough to stop a decline in linear TV viewing for the month.
In fact, streaming’s share of all TV use in the United States — 43.5 percent — came within a single percentage point of matching the combined total for broadcast (21.2 percent) and cable (23.2 percent). Despite the Super Bowl driving one of the biggest single TV days in the four-year history of Nielsen‘s Gauge reports, broadcast and cable viewing for Nielsen’s February reporting period (which ran from Jan. 27-Feb. 23) both declined compared to January.
While events like the Grammy Awards and Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special drew big audiences, the end of football season in the U.S. contributed to declines for linear outlets after a steady diet of college and NFL playoff games in January. Broadcast viewing fell from 22.5 percent of all TV use in January, and cable came down from 24.4 percent.
The gains for streaming platforms were led by YouTube, which hit an all-time monthly high of 11.6 percent of TV use — more than a quarter of the total for streaming as a whole. Netflix was second among streamers at 8.2 percent of TV use, down a bit from January.
As for Super Bowl Sunday, Nielsen says the game drove 110 billion minutes of viewing on Feb. 9 (including a record-setting day for Fox’s free streamer, Tubi). That’s the second largest single day since Nielsen began its monthly Gauge reports in May 2021; Super Bowl Sunday in 2024 remains No. 1.
Nielsen’s platform and streaming service rankings for February are below.