President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech was a hit on YouTube. The White House YouTube feed was the most popular stream of the night, according to statistics shared exclusively with the Daily Mail, beating any other media sourced YouTube feed of the night including Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS and other brands. The livestream peaked with 300,000 concurrent viewers with 5 million total views by the end of the night. 'This was undeniably one of the greatest speeches ever given, and the administration is leveraging every tool available to innovate ways that drive his America First message through the legacy media barricades and into the new media landscape,' a senior White House official told the Daily Mail.
YouTube Viewership Jumps 250%
The president's viewership on YouTube marks a 250 percent jump in YouTube viewership from the 2 million total viewers of former President Joe Biden's State of the Union address from 2024. Trump's 2025 joint address to Congress earned 3.4 million viewers on the White House YouTube channel. The 2026 SOTU drew about 27.8 million viewers across the seven most-watched broadcast and cable outlets - down roughly 12 percent from the 31.45 million who watched those same networks for Trump's address to Congress last year. So while the White House is celebrating YouTube wins, the primary viewership metric is actually trending down.
Those 5 million YouTube views represent roughly 18 percent of the concurrent TV audience. Three-hundred-thousand concurrent viewers is a number regularly matched or exceeded by popular gaming streamers and mid-tier YouTubers for content. This year the Trump White House digital team amplified the feed with live substantiation and graphics on the video stream, offering viewers additional context for the president's remarks. 'The streams will continue. The memes will continue,' the official told the Daily Mail.
Many Viral SOTU Moments
Trump featured many viral moments during the night, including a recognition of American military heroes, awarding them the highest honors for their service ot the country. A cameo from the gold-winning Olympic hockey team also drove audience numbers after video of the president's phone call congratulating the team went viral. During the call, Trump invited the team to attend his State of the Union speech, which they enthusiastically accepted.
'Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it,' Trump said, prior to bringing in the Olympic hockey team. The president announced he would award the Olympic team goalie Connor Hellebuyck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, drawing further attention to their victory and his State of the Union address.
Traditional TV audiences for presidential addresses continue to decline, and while digital platforms like YouTube are attracting a growing share of viewers, it's not yet clear that the shift to digital can compensate for total audience losses.