Sophie Blake
YouTube’s ad revenue continues its steady climb, with Alphabet’s latest quarterly report confirming that the video platform pulled in $9.8 billion in advertising sales during the second quarter of 2025. That marks a 13% year-over-year increase from $8.7 billion in Q2 2024 and pushes the platform’s year-to-date total ad revenue past $19 billion. The results slightly outpaced Wall Street expectations, which pegged YouTube’s Q2 ad sales at around $9.6 billion.
Alphabet’s broader performance remains strong. For Q2 2025, the tech giant reported total revenue of $96.4 billion, also up 13% compared to the same period last year. Google’s core advertising business, which includes YouTube, search, and other ad products, continues to make up the bulk of the company’s income.
The earnings report highlights YouTube’s ongoing effort to maintain its dominant position in the digital advertising ecosystem at a time when competition for video ad dollars is increasing. YouTube has worked aggressively to expand its presence on connected TVs and streaming devices, aiming to attract advertisers shifting budgets away from traditional linear TV.
Part of YouTube’s recent growth can be attributed to its push into Shorts — its TikTok-style short-form video feature — which has seen rapid adoption among creators and advertisers alike. According to Alphabet, YouTube Shorts now generates over 70 billion daily views globally. Although Shorts remains less lucrative per view than long-form content, it has quickly become a major traffic driver and engagement hook, helping the platform keep pace with changing user habits.
To capture more brand spending, YouTube has also expanded its ad formats, adding new interactive ad products, shoppable video ads, and tools that allow advertisers to target campaigns across multiple screens, including mobile, desktop, and living room TVs. This multi-platform reach has become a selling point for brands looking for alternatives to traditional broadcast.
However, YouTube’s lead in the video ad market is facing new challenges. Rival platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are aggressively scaling up their ad-supported offerings. Netflix, for example, told investors last week that it expects to double its advertising revenue this year. Although Netflix has not disclosed its exact ad revenue numbers, industry analysts estimate it could reach $3 billion in 2025, thanks in part to new ad formats and a growing base of subscribers on its lower-cost, ad-supported tier.
Amazon has also increased the frequency of ads on Prime Video after rolling out its own ad-supported plan, while Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max has expanded its advertising load as well, tapping into growing interest from marketers looking to diversify their streaming spend.
The intensifying competition underscores a broader trend: as streaming viewership soars, platforms are under pressure to balance subscriber growth with robust advertising businesses to offset rising content and production costs.
For YouTube, which doesn’t rely on costly original shows to the same degree as its streaming rivals, its vast library of creator-driven content and music videos continues to attract huge global audiences. YouTube Premium, its ad-free subscription, and YouTube TV, its live TV streaming service, have both contributed to diversifying revenue streams, but advertising remains the platform’s main driver.
Alphabet’s CFO Ruth Porat said during the earnings call that the company sees continued opportunities to grow YouTube’s ad business by investing in AI-driven recommendations, improving ad targeting tools, and expanding e-commerce integrations that link video content directly to shopping experiences.
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