Free time in the UK still shows up, but it arrives in fragments: A podcast while cooking, a streaming episode queued while someone answers messages, a quick scroll that turns into ten minutes. Leisure now looks less like an evening plan and more like a sequence of small decisions.
The shift is visible in the measurement. Ofcom’s Online Nations report, published in December 2025, put average daily time spent online at 4 hours 30 minutes, based on May 2025 data, with smartphones accounting for most of that time.
“On average, users spent 4 hours and 30 minutes online each day.”
That statistic reflects a changing shape of downtime: portable, personalised, and easier to fill at short notice.
Devices are multiplying, but the phone remains the hub
Ofcom said smartphones accounted for 77% of time spent online on an average day in May 2025, underscoring that the primary leisure device is also the primary communications device. The same report recorded women averaging 4 hours 43 minutes online per day, compared with 4 hours 17 minutes for men.
The phone is portable. What used to be at-home entertainment can now happen in transit or between tasks because the content and connection move with the user.
Coverage has improved, too. Full-fibre and 5G rollout has expanded across the UK, making streaming and social platforms more reliable in more places.
Streaming and YouTube are turning the living room into a menu
Broadcast schedules have not vanished, but their pull has weakened. Ofcom’s Media Nations work found that average broadcast TV viewing on TV sets fell to 2 hours 24 minutes a day in 2024, while younger adults watched far less live television, with 16- to 24-year-olds averaging 17 minutes a day.
In an Ofcom update published in July 2025, the regulator said people spent 39 minutes a day on YouTube at home in 2024, and described YouTube as the UK’s second most-watched service, behind the BBC.
“Scheduled TV is increasingly alien to younger viewers, with YouTube the first port of call for many.”
The quote was attributed to Ed Leighton, Ofcom’s interim group director for strategy and research. It also reflects a shift in format, creator-led video, broadcaster clips, subscription streaming, and catch-up services now sit in the same evening routine.
Gaming, casual play, and the paid layer of downtime
Gaming has become easier to fit around work and family life. It now sits on phones as much as consoles, and it is often designed for shorter sessions, quick matches, or daily check-ins rather than long play.
The business model has shifted with it. Microtransactions, cosmetic upgrades, and season passes have normalised a style of play that is both entertainment and ongoing retail. Ofcom’s December 2025 update also noted that children and teenagers spend money online across social platforms and gaming platforms.
That same attention economy has adjacent products. Mainstream games, short-form video, and regulated online gambling compete in the same swipe-based environment, and language reflects that. Phrases like “best online slots option” can sit alongside “battle pass” and “watch later” in the everyday vocabulary of taps and retries.
A second screen often completes the picture. Live sport and major TV moments routinely trigger parallel activity, messaging, searching, clips, and reaction content, turning one event into a multi-platform experience.
Messaging and micro-communities are becoming the front door
Leisure increasingly travels through private channels. Group chats circulate links, coordinate plans, and maintain a running conversation that sits alongside whatever is playing on the main screen.
In the same December 2025 Ofcom update, WhatsApp was listed among the most commonly used apps, alongside Facebook and Google Maps. Messaging is no longer just a utility; it is where recommendations happen and where audiences decide what to watch, listen to, or book next.
This private layer reshapes the influence landscape. A forwarded clip from a friend can carry more weight than a trending list, and it can steer attention without ever becoming visible to the wider platform.
Offline leisure is being arranged, priced, and tracked online
Technology has reorganised leisure beyond the living room. Tickets, maps, and payment flows reduce the gap between discovery and attendance, with confirmations stored on the same device that first displayed the recommendation.
Fitness sits inside the same logic. Wearables and subscription workout services make activity measurable, and the measurement becomes part of the leisure experience, whether users chase streaks, targets, or social accountability.
This is also where the subscription stack becomes clear. Video, music, gaming libraries, cloud storage, and fitness apps often sit on recurring charges, turning free time into something partly assembled through monthly billing.
| Leisure activity | Typical tech touchpoint | What’s changed in the last decade | Example signals (non-numeric) |
| Watching TV and films | Streaming apps, smart TVs, YouTube, catch-up services | Less appointment viewing, more on-demand choice, creators and broadcasters competing on the same screen | Homepages that refresh daily, autoplay queues, “continue watching” rows, and clips shared in chats |
| Listening and audio downtime | Podcasts, music streaming, smart speakers, and in-car Bluetooth | Audio slips into routine time, cooking, walking, commuting, and short breaks | Personalised mixes, “up next” prompts, daily podcast drops, saved episodes for later |
| Social time and planning | WhatsApp groups, DMs, private communities, event links | More organising happens in private channels, recommendations travel friend-to-friend | Group polls, forwarded reels, link shares, “Are we doing this?” message threads |
| Gaming and casual play | Mobile games, console subscriptions, cloud gaming, live services | Shorter sessions are easier to start, spending shifts on ongoing extras rather than one-off purchases | Daily rewards, seasonal updates, cosmetics, “streak” mechanics, limited-time events |
| Out-of-home entertainment | Ticketing apps, venue QR codes, maps, contactless payments | Discovery-to-booking compresses, nights out become easier to coordinate, and more trackable | QR tickets, live travel updates, venue reminders, digital receipts, shared itineraries |
| Fitness and active leisure | Wearables, health apps, subscription workouts, connected equipment | Movement becomes measurable and shareable, and leisure is paired with tracking | Weekly summaries, rings/targets, route maps, progress badges, “you hit a new best” notifications |
| Shopping as leisure | Retail apps, social shopping, price alerts, next-day delivery | Browsing and buying blends with scrolling, impulse is easier to convert | Wishlist notifications, “back in stock” pings, one-tap checkout, personalised offers |
| News and “scroll breaks.” | Search, social feeds, notification alerts, short-form video | Updates arrive in fragments, and headlines compete with entertainment content | Push alerts, explainer clips, live blogs, trending prompts, endless feed refresh |
| Travel and mini-break browsing | Booking platforms, review apps, maps, travel content | Planning happens earlier, and more often, travel ideas surface through feeds | Saved lists, map pins, deal alerts, review sorting, influencer itineraries |
| Play with money and paid downtime layers | App-based payments, regulated online gambling platforms, and in-game stores | Spending attaches to small moments of downtime, and entertainment and retail patterns overlap | Top-ups, deposit prompts, in-app bundles, time-limited offers, “recommended” tiles |
The Friction Points: Fatigue, privacy, and inequality
The growth in digital leisure has carried a more sceptical public mood. Ofcom’s December 2025 update said that only a third of adults felt the internet was good for society, a decline from the previous year.
Inequality sits underneath the averages. Work on a minimum digital living standard, involving academics and the Good Things Foundation, suggests that many households with children still fall short in terms of devices, connectivity, or digital skills.
There is also a regulatory and cultural layer. The Online Safety Act has increased pressure on platforms to improve age-assurance and safety systems. At the same time, Ofcom has reported that AI-generated summaries appear in search results for many users.
Conclusion
For UK consumers, technology has not replaced leisure so much as restructured it. Time off is more fragmented, more personalised, and more tightly linked to platforms that recommend, bill, and measure.
More time online, more video flowing through YouTube and streaming services, and more social life organised in private channels. Free time remains free time, but its shape keeps changing.
