YouTube Is Now the World’s Largest Media Company

YouTube is coming for Hollywood’s crown. 

YouTube’s ad machine has quietly become bigger than the combined streaming ad businesses of some of Hollywood’s biggest names. YouTube created more advertising revenue last year than its four biggest rivals combined, reports Business Insider. 

The Google-owned video streaming service generated $40.4 billion in ad revenue for 2025, exceeding the $37.8 billion total from its four closest competitors: Disney, Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. That makes YouTube not just the largest single video platform, but the world’s largest media company by ad revenue, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

The Google-owned streaming giant increased its ad revenue from $36.1 billion in 2024. According to financial research firm MoffettNathanson, in 2024, YouTube’s total ad revenue fell short of the $41.8 billion total from Disney, NBCU, Paramount and WBD.

YouTube retains nearly half of its ad revenue. Creators on the platform receive a 55% cut for ads on standard videos. YouTube has given creators, music companies and media partners more than $100 billion in payouts from 2021 to 2025, per CNBC. 

MoffettNathanson crowned YouTube the “new king of all media,” and valued the company at $500 billion to $560 billion, far ahead of its competitors. The nearest rival would be Netflix, which has a market capitalization of about $409 billion at the time of writing. 

“In a world filled with business model concerns, YouTube’s global scale and innovative offerings create an uncommonly high moat,” per MoffettNathanson’s analysis.

YouTube’s dominance extends to TV viewership, subscriptions

According to Nielsen, YouTube had more viewers on U.S. TVs in January than Disney, NBCU, Paramount and WBD put together. 

YouTube had a 12.5% share of TV viewers. The only paid streaming service that came close to challenging YouTube’s dominance was Netflix, with 8.8% of the share of TV viewership. 

YouTube’s subscription business is also massive, including YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. YouTube TV has around 10 million subscribers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. MoffettNathanson estimated that YouTube had 334 million global subscribers, including 143 million from YouTube Premium. 

MoffettNathanson predicted that YouTube would experience more subscription revenue growth than ad revenue growth in the coming years. The research firm still expects ad revenue to grow at a rate of about 10% over the next three years. 

While YouTube may be the leader compared to Hollywood players, its ad revenue is still below that of tech giants like Meta, which had about $196.2 billion in ad revenue in 2025. YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, also made $63.07 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 from Google search ads alone.  

YouTube has an advantage that could pay off in the coming years. The social media giant is uniquely positioned to be “one of the only” media companies that “will become stronger in the age of AI,” MoffettNathanson analysts wrote. YouTube could flourish in the age of AI videos, as users upload new AI content.

YouTube is coming for Hollywood’s crown. 

YouTube’s ad machine has quietly become bigger than the combined streaming ad businesses of some of Hollywood’s biggest names. YouTube created more advertising revenue last year than its four biggest rivals combined, reports Business Insider.