Ranking the most important third-party media platforms for the global sports industry.

In year two of our platform power rankings, we have seen notable changes to the top 12. There is a new king, and its name is YouTube. The Google-owned platform was clearly number one in the eyes of our analysts.

YouTube is a behemoth with more than 2.7 billion active users, over 100 million of whom subscribe to its Premium or Music services. More than 150 million Americans watch it on their TVs every month, and it became the first streaming platform to surpass 10% of overall viewership in the market.

It is undoubtedly a priority platform for our partners in the sports industry. A lucrative home for publishers of all sizes and shapes – from long-form content to vertical virals and paywalled creators to multi-camera live broadcasts – thanks to its ability to reach, engage and monetize audiences. An increasing number of athletes past and present have also successfully launched their own channels, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Bryson DeChambeau and Tom Brady.

TikTok, the former holder of the number one spot on our list, falls to #3 in the 2025 rankings. Although it remains influential, it has been a turbulent 12 months for its parent company, ByteDance, with security concerns, legal challenges, and an ongoing struggle for creators to effectively monetize on their platform. Several of our clients have also seen year-on-year declines in engagement.

Facebook remains in the #4 position, but almost by default and remains cut adrift of a dominant top three. Meta stablemate WhatsApp also remains in the #5 position, but there has been widespread disappointment among our clients relating to the lack of evolution on its Channels feature over the past 12 months.

Reddit is the biggest riser on the list, going from #10 to #6, and one year on, it is a much more credible consideration for sports industry rights holders. This coincides with a wider industry shift towards community-focused platforms, but Reddit has also grown up and signed major highlights deals with several sports leagues while also rolling out enhanced tools to make it more accessible for channel managers.

X falls one spot to #7, and although we have seen many clients take steps to reduce their reliance on the platform for live news and updates, no other platform has shown itself capable of taking its place in this regard.

Threads rises from #12 to #10 after a year of sensible and strategic product iteration combined with a growing user base, despite largely failing to grow in influence meaningfully.