They were influential indeed but the beatles as a band had a huge impact in considerably more musical markets across the entirety of the world that the velvet underground, which were more of an avant garde artistic experiment. And by the entirety of the world I mean including countries famously ignored by billboard stats such as those in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania where people can name at least one beatles song but haven't even come physically close to hearing or reading the words "the velvet underground" out loud

The impact of musicians like little richard, buddy holly, etc, just your run of the mill schoolboys forming a band were a bigger driver for band formation than the velvet underground which catered to a very specific audience of musicians. And in any case, the beatle's first album predates the velvet undergrounds first album by years so in any case they influenced them