YouTube‘s advertising business crossed $40 billion in 2025, but the growth rate behind that figure is slowing, according to a new “Platform Insights” report from WARC Media. Global ad revenue reached $40.4 billion, up 11.7% year-on-year, a deceleration from 14.7% growth in 2024. WARC forecasts the rate will slow further to 7.0% in 2026, reaching $43.2 billion, before ticking up slightly to 7.9% by 2027.
Total platform revenue, including YouTube Premium subscriptions, exceeded $60 billion for the first time in 2025.
Source: WARC Media
Competitive Pressure from TikTok and Netflix
WARC attributes the slowdown in part to a maturing platform, but also to intensifying competition for performance ad budgets. Marketers are increasingly directing spend toward TikTok for social commerce, and WARC projects that TikTok’s ad revenue could overtake YouTube’s by 2028 if current growth rates hold.
Source: WARC Media
Netflix has also emerged as a competitive threat through its ad-supported subscription tier, which WARC expects to pull ahead of YouTube within the next 18 months.
Alex Brownsell, WARC Media’s Head of Content, framed the gap as one of funnel positioning rather than viewership: “Rising consumption of video content on YouTube, and in particular on TV screens, has not yet translated into the kind of year-on-year ad revenue growth we see elsewhere in the digital ad market. YouTube has been less successful than rivals such as TikTok in its attempts to persuade marketers of its role in driving lower-funnel outcomes, hence its growing focus on winning a greater share of TV budgets.”
Despite the deceleration, research from DoubleVerify’s “2026 Global Insights,” Kantar’s “Media Resources 2025,” and WARC’s own “Voice of the Marketer” found that marketers globally intend to increase YouTube ad investment this year.
Engagement Deepens, Especially on TV Screens
YouTube’s monthly user base stands at roughly 2.6 billion, led by India at 500 million users, followed by the U.S. at 254 million, Indonesia at 151 million, and Brazil at 150 million. Average daily time spent rose to 58 minutes in 2025, up from 48 minutes in 2024, which WARC characterizes as deepening engagement among an already-large audience rather than continued audience expansion.
Source: WARC Media
Connected TV now accounts for 45% of total U.S. watch time on YouTube, with average session lengths exceeding 45 minutes and completion rates of 95% or higher. The 25-34 age group is YouTube’s largest demographic segment at 21.7% of users.
Shorts and Format Performance
YouTube Shorts averages more than 200 billion daily views globally. Monetization is following that volume: in several major markets, including the U.S., revenue-per-watch-hour for Shorts has overtaken traditional in-stream formats, though WARC notes further ad revenue growth in the format depends on advertisers adapting to its creative requirements.
Ad performance also varies by format. In-feed ads deliver the strongest click-through performance, per Store Growers research, with click-through rates of 1% to 3% against an all-platform average of 0.65%. Non-skippable in-stream ads generate under 0.3% click-through rates, positioning them for awareness objectives rather than direct response.
Gen Z is described as YouTube’s most commercially valuable audience: 51% of Gen Z men and 43% of Gen Z women reported making a purchase after watching an ad on Shorts.
Trust, Podcasts, and AI Visibility
For a third consecutive year, YouTube ranked as the most preferred and most trusted media brand among marketers globally, according to Kantar, and placed second for brand safety behind Netflix.
YouTube has also overtaken Spotify in podcast viewing on TV screens: viewers watched more than 700 million hours of podcasts on YouTube via TV in a month, up 70% year-on-year. Separately, YouTube has surpassed Reddit as the leading social platform cited as a source by large language models, which WARC frames as a new visibility layer for brands with an established YouTube presence.
This article is drawn from reporting on the report by Podnews and Affiliate Leaders, both of which quote WARC Media data and commentary from Alex Brownsell, WARC Media’s Head of Content.
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
YouTube‘s advertising business crossed $40 billion in 2025, but the growth rate behind that figure is slowing, according to a new “Platform Insights” report from WARC Media. Global ad revenue reached $40.4 billion, up 11.7% year-on-year, a deceleration from 14.7% growth in 2024. WARC forecasts the rate will slow further to 7.0% in 2026, reaching $43.2 billion, before ticking up slightly to 7.9% by 2027.
Total platform revenue, including YouTube Premium subscriptions, exceeded $60 billion for the first time in 2025.
Source: WARC Media
Competitive Pressure from TikTok and Netflix
WARC attributes the slowdown in part to a maturing platform, but also to intensifying competition for performance ad budgets. Marketers are increasingly directing spend toward TikTok for social commerce, and WARC projects that TikTok’s ad revenue could overtake YouTube’s by 2028 if current growth rates hold.
Source: WARC Media
Netflix has also emerged as a competitive threat through its ad-supported subscription tier, which WARC expects to pull ahead of YouTube within the next 18 months.
Alex Brownsell, WARC Media’s Head of Content, framed the gap as one of funnel positioning rather than viewership: “Rising consumption of video content on YouTube, and in particular on TV screens, has not yet translated into the kind of year-on-year ad revenue growth we see elsewhere in the digital ad market. YouTube has been less successful than rivals such as TikTok in its attempts to persuade marketers of its role in driving lower-funnel outcomes, hence its growing focus on winning a greater share of TV budgets.”
Despite the deceleration, research from DoubleVerify’s “2026 Global Insights,” Kantar’s “Media Resources 2025,” and WARC’s own “Voice of the Marketer” found that marketers globally intend to increase YouTube ad investment this year.
Engagement Deepens, Especially on TV Screens
YouTube’s monthly user base stands at roughly 2.6 billion, led by India at 500 million users, followed by the U.S. at 254 million, Indonesia at 151 million, and Brazil at 150 million. Average daily time spent rose to 58 minutes in 2025, up from 48 minutes in 2024, which WARC characterizes as deepening engagement among an already-large audience rather than continued audience expansion.
Source: WARC Media
Connected TV now accounts for 45% of total U.S. watch time on YouTube, with average session lengths exceeding 45 minutes and completion rates of 95% or higher. The 25-34 age group is YouTube’s largest demographic segment at 21.7% of users.
Shorts and Format Performance
YouTube Shorts averages more than 200 billion daily views globally. Monetization is following that volume: in several major markets, including the U.S., revenue-per-watch-hour for Shorts has overtaken traditional in-stream formats, though WARC notes further ad revenue growth in the format depends on advertisers adapting to its creative requirements.
Ad performance also varies by format. In-feed ads deliver the strongest click-through performance, per Store Growers research, with click-through rates of 1% to 3% against an all-platform average of 0.65%. Non-skippable in-stream ads generate under 0.3% click-through rates, positioning them for awareness objectives rather than direct response.
Gen Z is described as YouTube’s most commercially valuable audience: 51% of Gen Z men and 43% of Gen Z women reported making a purchase after watching an ad on Shorts.
Trust, Podcasts, and AI Visibility
For a third consecutive year, YouTube ranked as the most preferred and most trusted media brand among marketers globally, according to Kantar, and placed second for brand safety behind Netflix.
YouTube has also overtaken Spotify in podcast viewing on TV screens: viewers watched more than 700 million hours of podcasts on YouTube via TV in a month, up 70% year-on-year. Separately, YouTube has surpassed Reddit as the leading social platform cited as a source by large language models, which WARC frames as a new visibility layer for brands with an established YouTube presence.
This article is drawn from reporting on the report by Podnews and Affiliate Leaders, both of which quote WARC Media data and commentary from Alex Brownsell, WARC Media’s Head of Content.
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