Netflix’s Battle Against YouTube Continues to Gain Momentum

Netflix has been engaged in a fierce battle against YouTube for the past few years, and it appears that the streamer’s strategy to lure top content creators is finally paying off. According to Netflix’s What We Watched report, which highlights viewing data for the first six months of 2026, the likes of Ms. Rachel, Mark Rober, and Salish & Jordan Matter have helped attract audiences to the platform.

The report shows that Ms. Rachel’s first season was Netflix’s ninth biggest title of the period, with 37.3M views, despite launching in the early part of 2025. The second season was the 15th most popular title with 31.3M views. Ms. Rachel is the creation of educator Rachel Accurso, who has been described by some parents as their children’s Mister Rogers. The show incorporates singing, dancing, and play to help children learn how to talk and express themselves and their emotions.

Salish & Jordan Matter, a father/daughter duo who broke on YouTube, also performed well, entering the top 30 with 25.8M views after its April launch. The second season, which premiered just over two weeks ago, has already received 3.6M views. Danny Go!, a kids series featuring entertainer Daniel Coleman, also made it big on Netflix with 26.4M views.

Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs made the top 75 with the second season of the show, featuring the NASA engineer who became famous on YouTube, recording 14.4M views. The third season got 9.6M views, and season one got 8.4M views in the first six months of the year.

The strategy is clearly working for Netflix as it continues to double down on these creators. In the last week, it has signed similar deals with celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni, Alan Chikin Chow, Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal’s Good Mythical Morning, and The Stokes Twins.

“We have a history of working with the most talented storytellers from around the world and, increasingly, that includes top creators from open content platforms. We’ve had success with creators including Danny Go!, Ms. Rachel, Mark Rober, and Salish & Jordan Matter,” Netflix said in its second quarter earnings report.

The report also noted that Ms. Rachel has spent 27 weeks in the Global Top 10 since debuting on Netflix last year, and Salish & Jordan Matter and Danny Go! have spent eight and seven weeks, respectively, since April. Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said YouTube was useful for creators to “cut their teeth on” and called the Google-owned platform a “little bit of a farm league”.

However, Netflix’s move into video podcasts has not popped in quite the same way. The streamer did not break out individual numbers for video podcasts such as The Pete Davidson Show, The Bill Simmons Podcast, and Therapuss with Jake Shane. It included these titles in “Other Shows” in the report, which “capture total viewing from titles with [under] 50k views”. “All video podcasts are calculated under ‘Other Shows. These rows allow the report to reflect 100% of viewing,” it noted.

Netflix told Deadline that video podcasts are “still an emerging content bet for us since we first started launching these on the service earlier this year but we are seeing encouraging signals in terms of engagement including daytime viewing and on mobile – an indicator of the potential incremental engagement opportunity as we continue to scale”. It has a number of new titles such as Ellison Barber’s Allegedly and Jay Shetty’s On Purpose as well as titles from Lele Pons, Kate Hudson, and Oliver Hudson, and Martha Stewart coming soon.

Netflix is clearly committed to working with top creators and is willing to invest in new content and formats to attract and retain viewers. With its growing list of high-profile creators and new titles, Netflix is well-positioned to continue its battle against YouTube and other streaming services.