UK viewers ‘turning predominantly to US content on YouTube’

YouTube users in the UK watch less local entertainment, gaming and news/politics content on the platform than accounts in other key territories, according to research firm Digital i.

Digital i looked at the top 10 YouTube channels, ranked by percentage of total accounts reached, in these three key categories in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the US during the first half of 2025.

While the highest-reaching entertainment, gaming and news/politics YouTube channels are local in most countries, UK YouTube users watch less local content than other countries, Digital i has found.

In all but one of the six measured countries, these three top 10 lists are led by local YouTube channels, but the UK bucks this trend, favouring US content.

In the UK, only 12 out of those 30 channels (40%) were UK-based, whereas local channels in the other five measured countries all ranged between 25 (83%) and 29 (97%) of their respective top 30 ranked channels.

No local channels appeared on the UK’s top 10 Gaming list, which was instead topped by US-based IGN, and only three (BBC, This Morning and Still Watching Netflix) appeared on its entertainment list.

Nine out of the 10 news/politics channels for the UK were local, but US-based ABC News also appeared. Of the six measured countries, the UK was the only example where a non-local channel entered the news/politics top 10 list.

Meanwhile, the US was the country with the most local viewing, with 29 out of its 30 most viewed channels (97%) based in the US.

All the gaming and news/politics channels on its respective top 10 lists were local. However, the Canada-based WatchMojo.com channel appeared on its top 10 entertainment list.