Streaming Hits Like ‘Love Island,' ‘Squid Game' Are Squashing Broadcast TV

Forbes

15-07-2025

A pair of record-breaking television shows on Netflix and NBC's Peacock drove streaming to account for nearly 50% of all television usage in June and pushed traditional broadcast viewing to its lowest-ever share of TV use, despite airing the NBA Finals and several top-rated evening news broadcasts.
Olandria Carthen, Amaya Espinal, Chris Seeley, Iris Kendall and Nicolas "Nic" Vansteenberghe on ... More "Love Island." Kim Nunneley/Peacock via Getty Images
Streaming accounted for 46% of all TV use in June, up 5.4% from May, and both Netflix and Peacock saw viewership jump 13.5% and 13.4%, respectively, from May to June, new Nielsen numbers show.
Netflix can spread the love around—its surge was thanks to a number of hit originals and acquired shows—while Peacock has just one show to thank: 'Love Island,' which hit a new high in popularity in its seventh season to become the platform's most-watched entertainment series of all time.
"Love Island," which aired its anticipated finale over the weekend, was still streamed for 4.4 billion viewing minutes last month.
On Netflix, the third season release of 'Ginny & Georgia' made the show the most-streamed title of the month with 8.7 billion viewing minutes, followed by acquired series 'Animal Kingdom' and 'Blindspot' (5.71 billion and 5.69 billion minutes, respectively) and the final season of 'Squid Game,' which didn't debut until the end of the month but notched nearly a billion viewing minutes per day in the final three days of June.
'Squid Game' broke the Netflix three-day streaming record with 60.1 million views in the period and became the first-ever show ranked No. 1 in its first week in all 93 countries where Netflix has a Top 10.
"Squid Game" was the most-watched streaming original series of the first half of the year, Nielsen data released Monday showed, followed by Prime Video's "Reacher" and "The Night Agent" and "Ginny & Georgia" on Netflix.
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19. That's where "Love Island" falls on Nielsen's list of most-watched original streaming content for the year so far.
It's not unusual for there to be a summer lull in viewing for traditional broadcast and cable viewing, but June brought the worst-ever month for broadcast television. Broadcast viewing was down 5% from May to represent just 18.5% of total TV, marking the first time ever the category has fallen below a 20% share despite a small boost from the NBA finals. Things weren't as dark for cable, which stayed fairly flat compared to May and finished June with a 23.4% share of television. The NBA Conference Finals on ESPN and TNT ranked as the top two cable telecasts and cable news viewing was up 12% over May. Special programming also helped bring viewers including the Army 250 Parade on FOX News, which ranked fifth among cable programs with 2.8 million viewers, and a live airing of Broadway's 'Goodnight and Good Luck' on CNN, which was seventh among cable programs in June with 2.4 million viewers. Surprising Fact
"Bluey," a children's cartoon, was the most-watched show across all of streaming in the first half of 2025. The show was streamed on Disney+ for more than 25 billion minutes from Dec. 29, 2024 to June 28, 2025. "Grey's Anatomy" was the second most popular (22.6 billion minutes viewed), followed by "NCIS" (19.1 billion), "Family Guy" (19 billion) and "Bob's Burgers" (17.1 billion). Further Reading Forbes 'Bluey' Outranks Streaming's Most Popular Originals—Including 'Squid Game' By Mary Whitfill Roeloffs Forbes 'Love Island USA' Season 7: Who Won And Which Couples Are Still Together? By Monica Mercuri Forbes 'Squid Game' Smashes Netflix Records: No. 1 In 93 Countries By Mary Whitfill Roeloffs