University of Gothenburg: Record levels for YouTube in 2025

Published: 2026-05-05 05:26:08 ET NFLX

Published on 05/05/2026 at 05:26 am EDT

In 2025, more than half of the Swedish population watched YouTube on a typical day. The daily reach of the American video-sharing service has thus surpassed traditional TV in Sweden. This is shown by the 2025 Media Barometer from Nordicom at the University of Gothenburg. At the same time, the share of households paying for a streaming service such as Netflix or Spotify continued to increase. The largest increase was in the age group 65 to 85 years.

The Swedish population is spending more and more time on digital media. The use of social media and streaming services for moving images and sound is increasing every year, and today forms the basis of most Swedes' media habits. The largest increase in 2025 was the video-sharing service Youtube. According to the Media Barometer 2025 survey, which is presented today, 52 percent of Swedes between the ages of 9 and 85 watched YouTube on a normal day in 2025, an increase of as much as 5 percentage points compared to the previous year.

'The growing popularity of YouTube stands out in this year's report,' says Elisabeth Falk, who is the head of the Media Barometer and an investigator at Nordicom. And although use is still clearly most widespread among younger people, the fastest increase is in the older age groups. YouTube has an enormously wide range of content, and right now we clearly see that there are more and more older people who are also finding their way there.

Seven out of ten households have a paid streaming service

YouTube is characterized by the fact that the content is free for users in exchange for being exposed to advertising. When the internet was still young in the early 2000s, there was widespread uncertainty about whether Swedes would be prepared to pay for online media content at all. At that time, it was also common to use pirate services such as Napster and The Pirate Bay to download music, movies, and TV series.

Today, the situation is different. More than 70 percent of Swedish households subscribe to a streaming service for either moving images or audio, such as Netflix or Spotify.

'In 2025, interest in subscribed online streaming services continued to rise in the Swedish population, and is today at very high levels, also in an international comparison. Here, too, the fastest growth is taking place among the elderly,' says Elisabeth Falk. This means that digital gaps in access to digital media supply narrowed in 2025.

When it comes to the use of various streaming services for moving images, SVT Play and Netflix top the list, with a daily reach of 35 and 34 percent respectively in 2025. TV4 Play came third with 22 percent.

'The use of traditional TV is declining at an increasingly rapid pace, and therefore it is crucial for Swedish TV companies to attract audiences to their digital services. This applies not least to TV4, which from 2026 has chosen to stop broadcasting its channels in the traditional terrestrial network,' says Elisabeth Falk. From that perspective, it is of course positive that both SVT and TV4 are succeeding so well in the competition from the major American streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney and HBO.

60 percent of Swedes do not have an emergency radio

The deteriorating security situation in recent years has brought to the fore the vulnerability of the digital media landscape. In the event of power outages, extreme weather, interruptions in the telecommunications network or other societal disturbances, the internet and mobile networks are at risk of being knocked out. Swedish households have therefore been urged in campaigns by the Swedish Civil Defence Agency (formerly MSB) to acquire an emergency radio to be able to access important information even when the internet and mobile phones are not working. In the Media Barometer 2025, 40 percent of respondents stated that they had access to an emergency radio, powered by battery, solar energy or crank.

Despite active communication efforts from the authorities, the majority of Swedish citizens still do not have access to an emergency radio in crisis situations,' says Jonas Ohlsson, director of Nordicom. The most widespread access is among the elderly, among the highly educated and in rural areas. The availability is lowest among young adults. It is still the case that car radios are by far the most common way to receive live radio in Sweden.

The Media Barometer 2025 report can be downloaded free of charge from Nordicom's website. Media Barometer 2025

Watch a webcast seminar

On Nordicom's website, you can watch a webcast seminar that, based on the results of the 2025 Media Barometer, presents the main results and puts them in a longer time perspective. In addition, two in-depth analyses are highlighted:

Ulrika Facht, media analyst at Nordicom, sheds light on new movements in older people's media use and what may be behind them.

Nora Theorin, media researcher at Nordicom, shows how Swedes combine news, entertainment and social media, with impacts in the years 1997 and 2025. She also zooms in on young adults and how their media habits have changed in line with a growing supply.

Watch the presentation on the Media Barometer 2025: Presentation, Media Barometer 2025

By: Mia Jonsson Lindell

About the Media Barometer 2025

The Media Barometer is the largest annual survey of the Swedish population's access to, and use of, different types of media. The survey has been conducted since 1979 and this makes the Media Barometer the oldest study of its kind in the world. The results of the 2025 survey are based on responses from around 6,000 randomly selected people aged 9 to 85.

The Media Barometer is conducted by Nordicom at the University of Gothenburg on behalf of the Ministry of Culture. The survey is being conducted in collaboration with Bonnier News, Goteborgs-Posten, the Swedish Media Authority, Swedish Radio, and Swedish Television. The data collection has been carried out by Indikator - the Institute for Quality Indicators.