Netflix has taken the throne from YouTube in the battle for streaming viewers
Netflix/House of Cards51% of internet-using Americans say they've streamed video from Netflix in the past year, according to a survey by RBC Capital Markets quoted by Quartz.
This number is an all-time high for the video powerhouse, and has catapulted it above YouTube in the category.
According to RBC, Netflix leads the video field, ahead of not only YouTube but also Amazon, Hulu, and HBO Go.
Netflix has bet heavily on original content in a bid to dominate the video streaming market, and it seems this investment has paid off. Research suggests Netflix is now outperforming the major networks in creating quality content.
You can see this quality reflected in the current release cycle. Netflix has rolled out the most-loved new show by critics this fall, Aziz Ansari's "Master of None." The show has scored an average rating of 8.8/10 from 50 critics, according to reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
But Netflix is not the only company investing in original content.
YouTube, for its part, recently rolled out its own ad-free subscription network, YouTube Red. The service costs $9.99 per month, and will include exclusive content mainly created by YouTube superstars like PewDiePie.
The two services have been neck and neck over the past few months, and we'll see if its premium service can help YouTube regain the top spot.