MrBeast who? When “reach” replaces views, ‘Saturday Night Live’ becomes the top U.S. YouTube channel.

Close your eyes and envision the channel you see as the most popular YouTube hub based in the United States. You may think of MrBeast’s eye-popping spectacles, Ms. Rachel’s kid-friendly tunes, or Alan Chikin Chow’s sprawling content empire, but if your mental image didn’t include Coneheads, Californians, or David S. Pumpkins, then you thought wrong.

According to research shared by Digital i, the official Saturday Night Live hub had the highest reach among all U.S.-based YouTube channels during the first half of 2025. Via YouTube, NBC’s venerable sketch comedy program connected with 38.6 million unique viewers across that six-month period.

Previous Digital i reports have covered topics like original content and streaming services. The software company’s findings sometimes run contrary to popular wisdom, and that seems to be the case here. Despite the creator economy’s rising cultural import, Digital i’s reach ranking is dominated by media companies. News networks (ABC News, NBC News, ) claimed six spots in the top ten, with the other four positions going to entertainment destinations (SNL, YouTube Movies, Netflix, and the NFL).

To be clear, the totals here are meant to omit repeat viewership and hits that come from automated sources like viewbots. That formula explains why news organizations fared so well in Digital i’s accounting: They’re channels that are designed for one-off visits rather than repeated viewing of specific videos.

In the case of SNL, a prosperous YouTube push has been supported by several platform-wide trends. SNL was already one of the most-watched YouTube channels before the advent of Shorts, and the popularity of comedy clips within short-form feeds presented NBC with a golden opportunity to repackage classic bits as vertical video uploads.

With its multiformat YouTube strategy in place, SNL headed into its 50th season, which hit its peak during the six-month period measured for the Digital i report. The 50th anniversary special was tailor-made for viewership on TV screens, where much YouTube traffic now flows. Digital i noted that TV screens outpaced other YouTube viewership locales during the first half of 2025.

So, to recap: SNL offers a rare combination of traditional media resources and short-form cultural tastes. No wonder the show continues to find new cast members online. That’s where its viewers are, and it is meeting them on their turf.

As for “reach,” it isn’t an agreed-upon stat, but in the age of generative AI, the measurement favored by Digital i starts to look more suitable. There’s fakery everywhere on YouTube, from its creators right down to its viewers. If, as a result, view counts are going to be artificially inflated, then perhaps analysts are right to look elsewhere for a preferred metric.