YouTube’s presence on TV screens continues to grow, and it appears that families played an important role in generating some very impressive “living room viewership” figures for the video-sharing site this year.

In a 2024 Recap of YouTube on TV blog post that was published earlier today, the platform revealed that global viewers streamed more than a billion hours of YouTube content daily on their TVs in 2024—with kids and sports content standing out as top-performing categories.

The Ms. Rachel channel (12.7 million subscribers) performed especially well in this regard, with YouTube sharing that it generated one of the year’s highest aggregated watchtime totals on TV screens. Run by educator Rachel Griffin-Accurso, this channel has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity over the past year, featuring a broad range of preschool-friendly learn-to-speak, ASL and nursery rhyme content, as well as high-profile collabs with kids brands like The Wiggles (pictured) and Sesame Street.

YouTube’s sports content also logged a lot of TV watchtime in 2024, triggering a 30% year-over-year uptick. The platform is a go-to destination for sports fans of all ages looking for things like game highlights, compilation videos and athlete interviews. This trend may have inspired Rebel Girls to build its new sports vertical, which launched this week to reach Gen Alpha girls on YouTube.

“This surge in living room viewership is no accident,” noted Kurt Wilms, senior director of product for YouTube on TV. “The share of videos uploaded to YouTube in 4K is up by over 35% year over year, as creators prioritize high-quality viewing experiences that truly shine on TV screens.”

In related news, YouTube is implementing a new safety feature whereby parent accounts can be code-protected to prevent kids from easily switching into the main YouTube profile (and potentially accessing content that isn’t age-appropriate). This change was made in response to unappreciative feedback logged by parents when YouTube’s parentco Alphabet made it easier to toggle between YouTube and YouTube Kids profiles on TV screens in 2023.