Amid its growing dominance in online video and creator-driven entertainment, YouTube has quietly been building a massive advertising business behind the scenes. The platform reportedly generated about $36.1 billion in ad revenue in 2024, signalling just how powerful its ad ecosystem has become. And now, projections suggest that growth could push YouTube past the combined streaming advertising revenue of several major Hollywood rivals.

The Google-owned video giant has changed the game even further with its latest 2025 advertising projections. The platform is estimated to have pulled in roughly $40.4 billion in ad revenue in 2025 alone per media research firm MoffettNathanson, surpassing the combined advertising earnings of several long-standing media rivals, including The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

With MoffettNathanson crowning YouTube the “new king of all media,” the Google-owned platform now carries an estimated valuation of $500 billion to $560 billion, placing it far ahead of many of its closest competitors in the global media industry.

However, beyond advertising, YouTube’s subscription business has also grown into a massive pillar of its ecosystem, spanning services like YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, YouTube TV, and the NFL Sunday Ticket package. YouTube TV alone now counts around 10 million subscribers, while estimates from MoffettNathanson place YouTube’s global subscriber base at roughly 334 million, including 143 million Premium users.

With advertising soaring, subscriptions expanding across hundreds of millions of users, and its valuation now towering over much of the media industry, the Google-owned platform increasingly looks like a platform edging closer to Hollywood’s long-held crown.

Is YouTube quietly outpacing Hollywood with its TV viewership?

With that growing influence becoming increasingly visible across screens, YouTube’s dominance is no longer confined to phones or creator feeds, as the platform now commands the very television screens Hollywood’s biggest studios long considered their home turf. According to Nielsen, best known for determining TV viewership, shows that in January alone, YouTube captured 12.5% of total U.S. TV viewing, drawing more viewers on television sets than the combined totals of The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros. Dis

Adding to this momentum, the franchise retains nearly half of the advertising revenue generated on its platform, while creators receive about 55% of the ad share on standard videos, a model that continues to fuel its vast creator-driven ecosystem. According to CNBC, the company has paid out more than $100 billion to creators, music companies, and media partners between 2021 and 2025, highlighting the sheer scale of the economic engine behind the platform.

Nevertheless, with its estimated $40.4 billion advertising haul in 2025 already surpassing the combined ad earnings of long-dominant Hollywood players like The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros. Discovery, YouTube now seems to be quietly tightening its grip on the entertainment throne once ruled almost exclusively by the traditional studio system.

What are your thoughts on YouTube’s $40.4 billion advertising revenue in 2025? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Lisa Roy

Edited by

Itti Mahajan