YouTube’s advertising business just crossed a line that would have sounded unlikely a decade ago.
According to new estimates from MoffettNathanson, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, YouTube generated $40.4 billion in ad revenue in 2025, topping the combined $37.8 billion pulled in by Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a sharp illustration of how quickly audience attention and ad budgets have shifted away from traditional TV and toward digital video.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
A compact streaming device with Wi-Fi 6 support and 4K playback. It is relevant here as a simple way to access YouTube and other ad-supported streaming apps on a TV.
Check Price on AmazonThe comparison looks even more dramatic because the balance was reversed a year earlier. In 2024, YouTube’s ad revenue was estimated at $36.1 billion, while those four legacy media giants combined for $41.8 billion. In other words, YouTube did not just grow; it overtook a group that had still been ahead the year before.
That reversal says a lot about where video consumption is heading. Traditional media companies are still wrestling with shrinking linear TV audiences and the economics of streaming, while YouTube keeps benefiting from scale, creator supply, and a format mix that spans Shorts, long-form viewing, podcasts, sports, and TV screens. MoffettNathanson also said YouTube’s total 2025 revenue likely reached about $62 billion, putting it slightly ahead of Disney’s media business on that basis.
Alphabet, for its part, said YouTube revenue across ads and subscriptions exceeded $60 billion in 2025. That matters because the company is no longer just an ad machine: subscriptions from YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, and NFL Sunday Ticket are now a major part of the business.
For context, Netflix reported $45.18 billion in 2025 revenue, which still leaves YouTube’s broader business ahead on a full-year basis. Disney remains enormous too, with MoffettNathanson estimating roughly $60.9 billion in 2025 revenue for its media operations, excluding the experiences division.
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A USB microphone commonly used for YouTube videos, podcasts, and streaming. It fits the story as a practical accessory tied to the creator economy that helps power YouTube’s scale.
Check Price on AmazonYouTube’s ad business is still smaller than Meta’s overall advertising engine, but the gap does not change the broader takeaway. Advertisers are following viewers, and YouTube has become one of the clearest places to find younger audiences as viewing continues to migrate from cable bundles to app-based video.
The quarter-by-quarter numbers show that momentum is still intact. YouTube’s ad revenue reached about $11.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, while Alphabet also highlighted strong annual growth across YouTube’s subscription offerings.
The company is also trying to show that it can move quickly on AI safeguards as synthetic media becomes a bigger problem for public figures and newsrooms. This week, YouTube said it is expanding its likeness-detection pilot to journalists, government officials, and political candidates, giving them a way to identify AI-generated impersonations and request removal through YouTube’s privacy process.