Nielsen: Christmas Day 2025 set a record for US streaming usage with 55.1B minutes, or 54% of all TV viewing for the day, up by 3.9B minutes on Christmas 2024
The month of December also marked another all-time high for streaming usage. — With three streaming-exclusive NFL games …
Context & Ripple Effects
Streaming had already passed cable and broadcast in US viewing share in July 2022, then pushed linear TV below half of total usage in July 2023. Christmas Day 2025 extends that shift to a major live-TV holiday, with streaming taking a majority of the day’s viewing.
The result also follows Netflix’s multiyear Christmas NFL streaming arrangement and its NFL-aided December 2024 viewing share. The three streaming-exclusive NFL games made sports a material contributor to December’s new streaming high.
First-order effects
- Streaming platforms captured 55.1 billion minutes and 54% of US TV viewing on Christmas Day, concentrating audience attention on streaming during a traditionally linear-TV-oriented live event window.
- The NFL’s streaming-exclusive games immediately helped lift both the holiday’s streaming record and December’s all-time-high streaming usage.
Second-order effects
- Sports-rights buyers and distributors have stronger evidence that exclusive live games can move viewing at national scale, increasing pressure on linear-TV operators to defend marquee-event audiences.
- Measurement of streaming audiences becomes more consequential for sports packages and advertising decisions as major viewing occasions shift from linear schedules to platforms.
Third-order effects
- If holiday sports exclusivity continues to migrate to streaming, live rights may become an increasingly central tool for platforms seeking viewing share rather than simply subscriber acquisition.
- The broader US TV market is moving from linear channels as the default home for mass live audiences toward platform-led distribution, though the durability of holiday peaks will depend on future rights allocations.
The trend: Live sports is becoming a key accelerant of streaming’s shift from an on-demand complement to the primary venue for major US TV viewing events.