NBC News Blows Past Media Rivals on TikTok With Record 2.5B Views in Q1

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NBC News dominated TikTok’s news ecosystem in Q1 2025, blowing past other major media rivals with a record 2.5 billion views in 2025’s first quarter.

The surge came during a relentless stretch of breaking news — from the LA wildfires to the final days of former President Joe Biden’s presidency and President Donald Trump’s return to office.

During that time, according to data from ListenFirst, NBC News’ flagship TikTok account racked up its staggering 2.5 billion video views, January alone delivered 1.2 billion of those views, NBC’s best TikTok month on record, edging out CBS News by 300k views.

The numbers give NBC News its highest quarterly TikTok total in network history, a 76% jump from Q4 2024. Compared to the same period last year, it’s 18 times higher — underscoring not just the continued shift of audiences to mobile-first news consumption on vertical video but the network’s strategic ability to meet that need.

While NBC’s main account led the charge, the network’s wider TikTok portfolio — including Dateline, TODAY, Stay Tuned, Meet the Press, and NBC Nightly News — piled on with hundreds of millions more views.

The competition wasn’t even close. CBS News trailed behind with 2.0 billion views, followed by ABC News at 1.5 billion, CNN at 1.4 billion, and Fox News at 1.3 billion. Far further down the list, The New York Times logged 133 million views, while The Washington Post brought in 52 million.

And it’s not just TikTok. NBCNews.com also flexed serious digital muscle in 2025, averaging 89 million monthly unique visitors. In January the site drew 97 million uniques, its third-best month in four years.

The message from viewers is clear: In a breaking news moment, they are turning to NBC in big numbers — and increasingly, they’re doing it on TikTok.