Streaming reached a record share of total TV viewing last month, says Nielson

Netflix on TV
Netflix on TV (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Nielson says that streaming has a bigger share of the TV market than ever before according to new numbers.
  • More than 30% of all TV viewing is done via streaming services.
  • Netflix accounted for 6.6% of all streaming.

Streaming services were responsible for a record share of the total television viewing across the United States for the month of April, according to new data.

Numbers shared by Nielson have streaming services accounting for record 30.4% of the total television viewership for the month, a number that beats out the previous 29.7% number. That record was set recently — in March 2022.

Notably, TV viewing as a whole saw a drop in April while the number of people watching via streaming services was unaffected as people settled down to watch Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and others.

The Gauge, the monthly total TV viewing snapshot from Nielsen, revealed that streaming reached another record high in April, capturing 30.4% of total TV viewing and surpassing its previous record of 29.7% set in March 2022. While overall TV viewing dropped by 2.1% from March, streaming volume was virtually identical to the prior month, helping to increase its share by over 0.6%.

Monthly streaming share in pie chart form

Monthly streaming share in pie chart form (Image credit: Nielsen)

The same report notes that HBO Max achieved a 1.1% share of the streaming market for the first time, moving it out of the "Other Streaming" category for the first time. That's where you'll find Apple TV+, while Netflix is the biggest streamer thanks to its 6.6% share.

Streaming as a whole is a cutthroat business that continues to add major players to the market. Disney+ and Netflix are already working on ad-based tiers to try to keep prices down and compete with the likes of Apple TV+ and its $4.99 per month price point. A price point that is ad-free, it has to be noted.

If you want to enjoy your streaming content in style, be sure to check out our list of the best Apple TV deals on the market today.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.