A recent study found that more than half of people watch TV with captions enabled. The main reason is not medical necessity, but rather a desire to catch every word or understand accents in movies and shows in other languages. 50% use captions to ensure they don’t miss any dialogue, while 40% enable them due to poor audio quality or being in a noisy environment. Additionally, 25% multitask while watching TV with captions on.
This trend is more noticeable among younger adults under the age of 45, where nearly half of those aged 18-44 use captions almost always, compared to only 28% of people over 45 who do so. The study involved 1,182 adults and was conducted in August 2025.
Source: https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/more-than-half-of-people-use-captions-when-they-watch-tv-heres-why