YouTube earned $40.4 billion in ad revenue in 2025, surpassing Disney, NBC, Paramount and WBD combined, the first time the tech giant beat the sum of those media players. Total revenue with subscriptions was $60 billion, allowing YouTube to leapfrog Netflix for the full year.
Highlights
- Besting four major Hollywood studios in ad revenue, YouTube took in $40.4 billion in 2025.
- Disney, NBC, Paramount and WBD combined had just $37.8 billion in ad revenue.
- In 2024, YouTube’s ad revenue was lower than other studios combined.
- YouTube’s total revenue, with subscriptions, hit $60 billion in 2025.
- YouTube is also developing AI tools to identify and remove deepfake videos from its platform.
YouTube Surpassed Hollywood in ad revenue
In 2025, YouTube hit $40.4 billion in ad revenue. This number is more than the ad revenue of Disney, NBC, Paramount and Warner Bros. together. In the same year, four of entertainment’s biggest names and one video platform triumphed over all. That is not something anyone would have said was even remotely likely a few years ago.
The year before that, it was the other way around, which only makes this any more interesting. Last year, YouTube earned $36.1 billion in advertising revenue and those four studios together generated $41.8 billion. The entire thing turned over in a year. YouTube not only caught up from being behind, it pulled ahead by a clear margin, and it didn’t need a single Hollywood movie to do it.
The Old Media Is Struggling to Keep Pace
For years the big Hollywood studios had everything. The movies, the series, the big budgets and loyal audiences. But the watching habits have changed for years and 2025 made that impossible to ignore. People are spending more time on platforms like YouTube, and advertisers are just following where people go.
Linear TV numbers have been declining for some time and producing big shows and films is increasingly costly. The studios have been developing their own streaming services to compensate, but that is expensive and can take years to pay off. YouTube doesn’t create the content itself. Millions upon millions of people upload videos every day and YouTube makes money on the ads that play next to all of it. That’s a very different kind of business.
Ads Are Just One Slice of the Revenue YouTube Generates
Ad money is important, but not the entire story. The total revenue for YouTube in 2025 is $60 billion when subscriptions are included, according to Alphabet, the parent of YouTube. That includes YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music and NFL Sunday Ticket. That total puts YouTube above what Netflix took in for 2022, which was $45.2 billion.
The Hollywood studios also earn revenue from subscriptions and other facets of their business besides ads. Disney’s total media business for instance generated $60.9 billion in revenue last year. So the studios remain large and are still making serious money. But on ad revenue alone, YouTube has now clearly pulled ahead and that’s the figure that brands and ad buyers pay most attention to when deciding where to allocate spending.
YouTube Is Also Addressing Fake Videos on Its Platform
But growing this quickly isn’t without its problems, either. YouTube said this week that it is scaling up a tool that uses AI to detect deepfake videos. The tool searches for content in which someone’s face or voice has been manipulated without their consent. The new pilot will include politicians, government officials and journalists who are frequent targets of this type of content.
If someone believes there’s a fake video of them on the platform, they can ask for it to be taken down, subject to YouTube’s own rules. It’s a step that makes clear YouTube knows being the biggest video platform in the world doesn’t just mean having to deal with big problems that come with being so large. With new A.I. tools making deep fake videos more easily generated, the pressure is only going to mount on platforms to be more rapid-fire in their response.
FAQs
- What was YouTube’s ad revenue in 2025?
YouTube generated $40.4 billion worth of ads, more than Disney, NBC, Paramount and WBD combined.
2. Was YouTube always two steps ahead of these studios?
No. In 2024, YouTube trailed those four studios combined. It only pulled ahead in 2025.
3. What has YouTube done in response to deepfakes?
It is launching an A.I. tool that detects fake videos of real people and allows those people to request their removal.
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