MoffettNathanson: YouTube became the world's largest media company in 2025 with an estimated $62B in revenue, passing the $60.9B made by Disney's media business
Context & Ripple Effects
YouTube’s rise has been visible for years: it was projected to approach Netflix-scale revenue in 2021, and Alphabet recently said its annual ads-and-subscriptions revenue had surpassed $60 billion. The new estimate places that trajectory against Disney’s media business rather than another streaming service.
The comparison matters because it measures YouTube as a combined advertising-and-subscription media platform. Its reported annual revenue above $60 billion provides the company-reported backdrop for MoffettNathanson’s estimate.
First-order effects
- MoffettNathanson’s estimate puts YouTube marginally ahead of Disney’s media business on 2025 revenue, recasting YouTube as the largest player in this particular media-company comparison.
- The result reinforces YouTube’s scale with advertisers, subscribers, and creators; the platform’s creator economics had already been emphasized in YouTube’s account of more than $100 billion paid to creators.
Second-order effects
- Disney and other incumbent media groups face a more direct benchmark: YouTube is now comparable not just on audience attention but on total media revenue, increasing pressure to defend ad and subscription growth.
- Advertisers and content partners gain another reason to treat YouTube as a core TV-scale distribution channel, rather than a supplementary digital-video buy.
Third-order effects
- If this revenue ordering persists, media competition will be defined less by the legacy divide between studios, TV networks, and internet platforms, and more by who can combine global video distribution, advertising, subscriptions, and creator supply at scale.
- The shift also raises the strategic value of the operating systems behind video publishing, monetization, and creator payouts; whether traditional media can match that model remains uncertain.
The trend: YouTube’s move past legacy media revenue benchmarks is one data point in the convergence of creator platforms and television-scale media businesses.