The 2024 holiday season brought a boost to the ecommerce landscape, and it was also a prosperous time for a related industry: streaming. Platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube soared to record-high viewership numbers in November and December, with much of that traffic coming on live sports broadcasts.
Nielsen noted that Netflix accounted for 8.5% of all TV traffic during December 2024; that was the highest monthly share it had ever received. Prime Video’s 4% share also set a new one-month record, and YouTube — which was already dominating watch time on TV screens — pushed its top-ranked viewership share up to 11.1%.
Per Nielsen, the most-watched broadcasts during the holiday season were sporting events, and an increasing number of those broadcasts went live on subscription-based streaming services. Both Netflix and Prime Video boasted NFL broadcasts on Christmas Day. Netflix also benefitted from the ballyhooed event Paul v. Tyson; the streamer rode the influencer boxing wave to achieve record subscriber growth.
Even though FOX delivered the top broadcast of the holiday season with its Thanksgiving Day football coverage, the increasing number of big-ticket sports contests on streaming services represents an ongoing sea change in the streaming world. To chase the 43.3% of TV viewers who watch via streaming (according to Nielsen), media partners like the NFL are handing the keys to the broadcast to companies like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon.
But there’s more to the holiday season streaming bump than just the shifting landscape of live sports. Buzzy scripted debuts, such as the second season of Squid Game on Netflix, also turned millions of heads in December. The streaming industry’s means of measuring watch time may produce uneven results, but Nielsen’s watch time measurements tell us a clear story about the family that once crowded around the TV during holiday season. These days, that family seems to be sitting in front of the over-the-top device.
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