Which US news outlets had the largest audiences in 2025 and how do their ratings compare?
Executive summary
Fox News was the unrivaled audience leader in U.S. televised news in 2025, posting the largest average prime‑time audience—roughly in the mid‑2‑million range—while its closest basic‑cable rivals (MS NOW/MSNBC and CNN) averaged well under one million primetime viewers, with notable year‑over‑year declines at CNN and mixed gains at NewsNation; digital and platform‑specific metrics (Spectrum, web visits) paint a more complex picture that depends on measurement scope and audience segment [1] [2] [3] [4]. The following lays out who drew the biggest audiences, how those figures compare across measurement windows and platforms, and what the caveats are in interpreting 2025’s ratings story.
1. Fox News: an outsize primetime audience and record year
Fox News finished 2025 as the dominant cable news channel, averaging roughly 2.65–2.76 million prime‑time viewers for the year and posting its highest non‑election‑year numbers and strongest quarter performance in cable history, including record quarter shares and leadership even vs. major broadcast nets in certain primetime windows [5] [3] [6]. Across multiple quarterly and yearly recaps, Fox not only led total‑viewer counts in primetime and total day among cable news but grew year‑over‑year in total viewers even as competitors faltered, and secured a disproportionate share of the cable news audience [1] [6].
2. MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) and CNN: mid‑pack cable players with shrinking demos
MS NOW (the rebranded MSNBC) and CNN settled into distant second and third places on many measures: MS NOW averaged roughly 802,000–915,000 total primetime viewers in reported quarters of 2025 depending on the period, and CNN averaged about 573,000 primetime viewers for the year with a marked decline in the key A25‑54 demo (CNN down –16% total viewers and –31% in the demo vs. 2024) [2] [7] [1]. Those numbers underline a gap: while MS NOW often outpaced CNN in total viewers in some quarterly snapshots, both networks recorded demographic and year‑over‑year softness that contrasted with Fox’s gains [2] [1].
3. NewsNation and smaller cable entrants: gains, but from a smaller base
NewsNation posted notable year‑over‑year gains and recorded moments of competitive parity—its programming pulled enough audience to top CNN and MSNBC in certain demo measures at times and posted its highest ratings since launch, yet absolute audience sizes remained far below the big three cable leaders (e.g., NewsNation’s Cuomo program and prime‑time demo improvements) [8] [6]. That pattern—double‑digit percentage increases from a lower base—illustrates how relative growth can draw attention without changing the overall pecking order of total reach [8] [6].
4. Beyond basic cable: Spectrum, broadcast networks and digital traffic complicate the “largest audience” label
Claims about the “most‑watched” outlet depend on the metric: Charter’s Spectrum reported Spectrum News averaged 1.84 million daily viewing households on its platforms—more than several national networks among Spectrum customers—yet that figure is drawn from set‑top and app data limited to Spectrum’s footprint and cannot be equated to national Nielsen ratings without qualification [4]. Meanwhile, broadcast networks and sports/entertainment channels show different leaderboards in overall prime‑time P2 measures (Fox News led cable while NBC remained strong on broadcast metrics in year‑end summaries), and web traffic rankings such as The New York Times’ hundreds of millions of visits reflect a separate digital audience universe [9] [10].
5. Who’s watching matters: demos, platforms and the interpretive limits of the data
Audience size is not monolithic: Nielsen big‑data+panel numbers drive the standard cable rankings cited here, but other measures (platform analytics, set‑top box data, P2 household averages, and web visits) produce different winners depending on the slice used; demographic shifts—declines in the A25‑54 demo at CNN and MS NOW, Fox’s strength in overall viewers, and Pew findings that audiences differ dramatically by age and education—mean raw viewers tell only part of the story about influence and advertiser value [1] [7] [11]. Reported gains at outlets like NewsNation and platform‑specific claims from Spectrum highlight implicit agendas: networks and distributors tout metrics that make them look strongest within particular business narratives or customer bases [8] [4].
Conclusion
Measured by industry Nielsen tallies for 2025, Fox News was the clear leader in television news audiences, averaging roughly 2.6–2.8 million primetime viewers and widening its margin over MS NOW and CNN, which logged under one million primetime viewers for the year and showed demographic erosion; sectoral nuance—platform‑specific data from Charter/Spectrum, growth stories from smaller cable players, and separate digital audience metrics—complicates any single “largest outlet” claim and must be weighed when deciding which metric best answers the question at hand [5] [2] [1] [4] [8].