Tracking the Shift in Consumption of Right vs. Left-Leaning News Channels on YouTube

Americans increasingly get their news and political information from YouTube, and recent data from Ad Fontes Media and Pixability shows some fascinating trends about who is tuning in and out since Trump’s inauguration. 

In an analysis of viewership and political bias across 2,000+ news-focused YouTube channels, we’ve seen significant swings correlated with post-inauguration time periods. For those not familiar, Ad Fontes has a technology and process for assessing YouTube channels based on their bias leaning right, left, or middle,  and on their reliability to provide verifiable, fact-based information. Of the 2,000+ news channels analyzed by Ad Fontes, 25% of channels have a left bias of varying degrees, 25% have a right bias of varying degrees, and 50% land in the middle.

Based on our joint data, we’ve seen some interesting trends emerge in the past 4 months. From January 2025-April 2025, there has been a notable shift in consumption of information on channels based on their left versus right lean:

• Left-leaning channels earned 25.6% more views in March + April compared to January + February
• In contrast, right-leaning channels have showed a -10.08% decline in March + April compared to January + February

There are several reasons why this shift could be happening. This could simply be a natural ebb and flow, or it could be a sign that folks on the left are becoming more engaged and need information more than right-leaning consumers. Let’s look at a few channel-specific examples that have played a part in these shifts: 

• Left-leaning GZERO Media grew a whopping 797% from January-April (not to mention a 1018% increase in MoM traffic from March to April alone)

This growth was (at least partially) due to GZERO supplementing their typical news content with parody news content. This type of trending content is similar to what we’re seeing from programs like The Daily Show, where GZERO has videos showing Trump and Putin puppets engaging in comedic “political” conversations – mainly for entertainment’s sake. 

GZERO had clearly noted the virality of this parody-like news vs. standard news videos (wherein parody news often gains millions of views per month vs. only thousands for typical news content), and has seen great success since adopting a similar tactic.

• The Ezra Klein Show is another example of a recent high-growth, left-leaning channel. From January-April, traffic to the channel increased by 183%.

A likely driver of Klein’s channel growth is his increased presence on reputable news platforms, like CNN, enhancing his overall reach and visibility to a larger audience more frequently. 

On the flip side, many right-leaning channels have shown a steady decline in traffic since earlier this year:

• The Heritage Foundation experienced a notable decline in traffic from January-April of -82%.

Interestingly enough, the think tank saw traffic spike in February (from 2.2M views in Jan to 12M in Feb). During this time, the channel frequently posted videos highlighting media-heavy decisions and changing povs coming from the White House. For example, their interview with a Jan. 6 prisoner who was released in Feb due to Trump’s executive pardon garnered 1.2M views. Further, content surrounding RFK’s inauguration as the new U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in mid-February also drove unusually high traffic to the channel. 

At the time, right-leaning supporters were hyper-engaged with this type of news and appeared excited about these upcoming changes. That said, the significant drop in traffic since then could be attributed to those then-novel pov’s becoming “old news,” or speak to those on the Right now paying less mind to those highly anticipated “gotcha” moments. 

• Right-leaning The Free Press also experienced a decline of -76% from January-April.

This shift is likely due to a similar “dying-down” of initial excitement and buzz surrounding Trump’s earliest days in office.

That said, there are still certain right-leaning channels that are on the rise, and therefore important to note:

• Political activist and author Charlie Kirk’s channel grew by 154% from January-April.  

Similar to Ezra Klein on the left, Kirk’s increased visibility and publicity efforts as of late have likely contributed to his increased channel traffic. For example, he recently went viral for an interview with CA governor, Gavin Newsom, which has undoubtedly helped boost his following.

The question remains: Is this a temporary shift wherein consumers are yearning for more left-leaning content, and we’ll soon see the pendulum swing back to the right? Or is this the beginning of a larger political shift? Either way, it’s clear that YouTube content consumption can be a great measuring stick for what’s happening in our society at any given time. 

“YouTube continues to be a very popular platform where people get their news. And just like all news platforms, there are channels on both left and right that can vary greatly in bias and reliability,” said Vanessa Otero, CEO and Founder of Ad Fontes Media. “Now more than ever, news consumers and advertisers should pay attention to not just what is popular and gaining more views, but the actual nature of that popular content. Engagement isn’t the only reason to align with content; it’s important to look at the whole picture.”