In 2025, YouTube generated about $62 billion in revenue and surpassed Disney as the world’s largest entertainment company by revenue. It did so without a single film studio, without decades-old franchises behind it, and without making contracts with any of its main content creators. The model that made it possible has been being built in silence for twenty years.
The figures. These 62 billion dollars exceed for the first time the media segment of The Walt Disney Company, which generated 60.9 billion excluding its theme parks and experiences, that is, we are talking strictly about the audiovisual sector (Disney parks and resorts contributed around 9 billion additional dollars to the group). The comparison measures the content and media distribution business, where it competes with YouTube. And in that area there is no longer any doubt who is in charge.
Advertising, first notice. It was clear that the surprise. YouTube earned $40.4 billion in advertising alone during 2025, more than Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery combined, whose combined advertising revenue amounted to 37.8 billion. A year earlier, in 2024, that same combination of studios still surpassed YouTube in advertising: 41.8 billion compared to 36.1 billion.
The rest of YouTube’s income comes from subscriptions: YouTube TV has around 10 million subscribers, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music have approximately 107 million according to the studies cited. These are lines of business that did not exist before or were marginal, and that now represent about 22 billion dollars annually.
The secret of low risk. The important question is not how much YouTube earns but how it earns it. Disney maintains studios, pays salaries to directors, actors and scriptwriters, finances productions with budgets that in franchises such as Marvel or ‘Avatar’ frequently exceed $200 million in revenue per film, but assumes the risk that this investment will not be recovered at the box office. YouTube doesn’t do any of that. Not even hiring its creators.
Although that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deliver. The YouTube Partner Program, launched in 2007, established that the platform shares 55% of the advertising revenue generated by each video with the creator who produces it. The creator provides the content, the risk and the work. YouTube provides the infrastructure, distribution and monetization system. In total, the platform has paid more than $100 billion to creators, record labels and media partners throughout its history, according to YouTube itself. It is, in terms of costs, a structure that traditional studies can hardly replicate.
Hearing, second notice. The 2025 revenue is not the first time YouTube has surpassed Disney in something relevant. On the audience front, the gap opened earlier. YouTube, according to the studies cited, captured 12.5% of the total television consumption time in the United States, overtaking Disney, Fox and Netflix. The figure includes consumption on connected televisions, a rapidly growing segment and that has transformed YouTube from a mobile platform to a regular presence in the living room.
The great risk. The great creators of the platform are those who have their own studios, production teams and budgets that rival those of conventional television. They have been, in practice, media companies for years. The externalization of risk that has put YouTube in first position has a reverse: the platform’s income depends on millions of people who, at any time, can migrate to another environment or stop producing, without contractual obligations. Disney can lose money due to a movie’s failure at the box office. YouTube, in theory, can take a significant blow to its ecosystem. Disadvantages of outsourcing everything.
Featured image | Xataka
In Xataka | YouTube’s lawyers are clear that “YouTube is not a social network.” The future of the platform depends on it
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings