TLDR
- YouTube hit $62.3B in revenue in 2025, overtaking Disney’s media properties ($60.9B) to become the world’s largest media company
- MoffettNathanson values YouTube as a standalone business at $500B–$560B — more than all five major Hollywood studios combined
- YouTube is 50% larger than Netflix by revenue, its nearest media rival
- Nearly one-third of YouTube’s revenue now comes from subscriptions (YouTube TV, Premium, NFL Sunday Ticket)
- MoffettNathanson rates Alphabet a Buy with a $350 price target
YouTube just quietly became the biggest media company on the planet — and most people were too busy watching cat videos to notice.
🧵 YouTube just became the largest media company in the world
YouTube just became the largest media company in the world.
2025 revenue:• YouTube → $62.3B
• Disney media → $60.9BWhat started as a platform for user-generated videos has quietly surpassed the biggest…
— NoiseToAlpha (@noisetoalpha) March 10, 2026
Research firm MoffettNathanson confirmed that YouTube generated $62.3 billion in revenue for full-year 2025, edging out Disney’s media properties which brought in $60.9 billion. It’s the first time a tech-owned platform has topped the media revenue rankings.
Google acquired YouTube back in 2006 for $1.65 billion. That’s now looking like one of the great deals in business history.
Revenue grew 14% in 2025, a slight slowdown from 19% growth in 2024. But YouTube still outpaced most of the industry — Fox came in second among traditional media at just 9% growth.
Alphabet reported in its Q4 earnings that YouTube “exceeded $60 billion” for the year, but declined to give a more precise number. MoffettNathanson’s independent analysis filled in the gaps.
The Numbers Behind the Crown
Advertising on the free platform drove over $40 billion in revenue last year. Subscriptions — YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, and NFL Sunday Ticket — made up nearly a third of total revenue.
That dual revenue model is what sets YouTube apart, according to analyst Michael Nathanson. “YouTube’s global scale and innovative offerings create an uncommonly high moat,” he wrote in a note to clients.
If spun off as a standalone company, MoffettNathanson values YouTube at $500B–$560B, or roughly 8–9x its 2025 revenue. That would make it worth more than Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros., Sony, and Paramount Skydance put together.
YouTube is also 50% larger than Netflix by revenue — its closest rival in the streaming space.
TV, Not Just Phones
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos made the point clearly at a recent congressional hearing: more than half of YouTube’s audience now watches on television, not on their phones. “YouTube is not just cat videos anymore. YouTube is TV,” he said.
That testimony came during a hearing on Netflix’s failed $82.3 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance ultimately outbid Netflix with a $110 billion offer.
On Nielsen’s distributor index, YouTube has held the top audience share spot for 11 consecutive months as of January, sitting at 12.5% of total aggregated audience.
MoffettNathanson said that even a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. entity would have posted $66.2 billion in 2025 pro forma revenue — but notes that YouTube’s growth rate makes that lead “short-lived.”
The firm also points to AI as a future tailwind. “The continued development of GenAI will help creators produce even more impactful content that will be increasingly better targeted and better monetized,” Nathanson wrote.
MoffettNathanson rates Alphabet as a Buy with a $350 price target.
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