YouTube Q2 2025 Ad Revenue Soars 13% as Shorts Surge

YouTube Reports Double-Digit Growth in Q2 2025 Ad Revenue as Shorts Surge

YouTube’s advertising revenue saw a strong increase in the second quarter of 2025, climbing 13% year over year to reach $9.8 billion. This jump comes as part of broader growth across YouTube’s ecosystem, with services like YouTube Music posting an 11.7% boost compared to the same period last year.

These insights were shared in the latest Q2 earnings report from Alphabet, Google’s parent company. While artificial intelligence remained a focal point during the company’s earnings call, the financials showed notable progress across several divisions. Overall, Alphabet’s revenue surged 13.8% year over year, totaling $96.43 billion. The majority of that, about $82.5 billion-came from Google Services, a category that includes core products like search, YouTube, and subscription platforms such as YouTube Premium and YouTube Music.

Within Google Services, revenue from search and related areas contributed approximately $54 billion during the quarter. Although Alphabet does not break down revenues by individual services in its reports, similar to Apple’s approach, a more granular look is expected in the forthcoming 10-Q filing.

Still, some key figures emerged. Alphabet’s CFO Anat Ashkenazi noted that “Subscription, platforms, and devices revenues increased 20% to $11.2 billion, primarily reflecting growth in subscription revenues.” She pointed out that this growth was largely fueled by YouTube subscription products, followed by Google One.

CEO Sundar Pichai echoed this sentiment, highlighting YouTube’s performance as a standout: “We continue to see strong performance in YouTube as well as subscriptions, reflecting great momentum across these high-growth businesses,” he said. Notably, Pichai revealed that in the U.S., YouTube Shorts now generate equivalent ad revenue per watch hour as traditional in-stream videos, and in some international markets, Shorts even outperform in-stream formats.

Shorts, YouTube’s short-form video feature, has become a powerhouse of engagement. According to Pichai, the format now exceeds 200 billion views per day on average, boosted by a growing segment of “super-viewers.”

During the Q&A segment of the earnings call, a question arose about how YouTube balances revenue between advertisements and subscriptions. Philipp Schindler, Alphabet’s chief business officer, offered a diplomatic take: “We love our ads business, we love our subscription business,” he said. “YouTube subscriptions are increasingly important for YouTube… We had strong growth across YouTube subscription products, including YouTube TV, YouTube Music, and Premium.”

Schindler emphasized that Alphabet plans to continue advancing this “double-tier strategy,” referring to both ads and subscriptions as central to YouTube’s revenue model moving forward.

Despite surpassing both revenue and earnings expectations—reporting earnings of $28.2 billion—Alphabet’s stock (NASDAQ: GOOG) experienced only a slight bump in after-hours trading, with shares holding around $195.

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Yoel Molina Law

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