Google has revealed YouTube brought in more than $60 billion in revenue in 2025 as the firm targets getting more subscribers.
The figure, which totals the money generated through advertising on YouTube as well as paid subscriptions, far surpasses streaming rival Netflix’s $45bn revenue.
It appears to be the first time Google has individually highlighted its video platform’s yearly revenue since acquiring it in 2006.
Midia Research senior analyst Hanna Kahlert said while it was a big announcement, it was “perhaps not a surprising one” – with the platform becoming “almost infrastructural for digital natives”.
“YouTube is one of – if not the – most-used of all digital offerings, with more than 70 per cent of international consumers using it weekly, and more than 50pc using it daily,” she told the BBC, citing Midia consumer survey data.
Kahlert said the different ways the platform makes money – such as through adverts, or charging a monthly subscription to remove them – means it can “capitalise well” on its large audience.
While YouTube’s global advert revenue in the last three months of 2025 fell below Wall Street expectations at $11.38bn, Google boss Sundar Pichai highlighted YouTube’s broader growth as part of a “fantastic year” for the company.
He said YouTube Premium – its service letting users pay to remove adverts between videos, or songs on its music service – had helped boost paid subscriptions across Google consumer services to more than 325 million in 2025 overall.
The company has not released YouTube’s own subscriber numbers.
But Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, told investors on an earnings call on Wednesday YouTube was seeing “strong traction” in subscriptions.
He said it has been “innovating to meet consumers where they are” with new, cheaper YouTube TV and Premium tiers.
The firm has also been trying to find more ways to get people to subscribe – such as only allowing Premium users to play videos in the background on smartphones.
At the same time, Shorts, YouTube’s TikTok-style short videos, was also said to be averaging more than 200bn daily views.
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