July was another strong month for streaming, according to the newest edition of The Gauge—Nielsen’s monthly breakdown of TV viewing trends in the US—published on August 20.
YouTube hit a new record by becoming the first streamer measured by The Gauge to cross 10% of total TV usage. The platform had already been hovering near this double-digit milestone in previous Gauge reports, reaching 9.9% in June.
Overall, streaming captured a 41.4% share of all TV viewing for the month— the “most dominant performance by a single viewing category ever,” Nielsen noted. Cable (26.7%) finished at second, seeing no big shift from June, while broadcast (20.3%) saw a slight increase, likely buoyed by the Olympics near the end of the month.
When it comes to the top-performing streaming shows, Bluey (pictured, Disney+) emerged as the biggest kids title, generating 4.3 billion viewing minutes in July. The Mouse House’s flagship streamer saw a 9.2% uptick in usage, with a platform-best 2.1% share of the TV pie. And Peacock saw the biggest monthly usage increase (33%) in July across all streamers—in large part because of its Olympic programming—followed by Prime Video (12% increase) and The Roku Channel (10% increase).
Total TV usage for July saw a 3.5% year-over-year increase and a 2.3% uptick compared to June.