April 14, 2026
All hail the Tube—let the bickering begin
YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney
YouTube beats Disney to No.1—creators cheer, parents cry “addictive”
TLDR: YouTube’s revenue just topped Disney’s media business, making it the biggest media player by the latest estimates. Commenters are split between praising payouts and creator tools, calling it social media—not media—and blasting it for “addictive” short videos, while number nerds argue the Disney comparison ignores its giant parks money.
YouTube just leapfrogged Disney’s media arm with an estimated $62 billion in 2025 revenue, and the internet is losing its mind. On one side, creators are high‑fiving over that headline number and the $100 billion YouTube says it’s paid out to creators and partners. On the other, a wave of commenters is calling the platform the world’s biggest candy store for attention spans. One furious post blasted YouTube for “shov[ing] addictive, short form content” at kids and said Google staff “should be ashamed.” Drama level: spicy.
Then there’s the identity crisis. “It’s not a media company—it’s social media,” insists one commenter, as another nostalgic voice remembers “the old days before corporate greed” but still says, grudgingly, “good for them.” Meanwhile, the number-crunchers showed up: one reply notes the comparison excludes Disney’s theme parks and cruises (that division pulled in a casual $36 billion), basically yelling “apples vs. mouse-shaped oranges.”
Fans pointed to YouTube’s ads plus subscriptions—Premium, Music, NFL Sunday Ticket, and YouTube TV (now ~10 million subscribers)—as the rocket fuel, with AI tools letting creators pump out slicker videos faster. Skeptics countered that this is exactly why the feed feels like an endless slot machine. And the memes? Someone joked YouTube could “eat Spotify in a snap” if it just removed a pesky button—cue devs groaning.
Whether you call it YouTube or the world’s biggest remote control, the crown is on its head, with Disney and Netflix in the rearview. The community? Split between coronation and intervention.
Key Points
- •MoffettNathanson estimates YouTube earned about $62B in 2025, surpassing Disney’s $60.9B media business revenue (excluding Disney’s experiences division).
- •Alphabet reported YouTube’s 2025 revenue exceeded $60B; MoffettNathanson values YouTube at $500–$560B, with Netflix’s market cap at ~ $409B for comparison.
- •YouTube’s ad revenue reached $11.4B in Q4 and topped $40B for the year, complemented by subscriptions including YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, NFL Sunday Ticket, and YouTube TV.
- •YouTube TV has around 10 million subscribers and is expected to overtake pay‑TV leaders Charter and Comcast; YouTube plans to introduce skinnier bundles.
- •YouTube has paid out over $100B to creators and partners and is investing in AI tools to help creators produce content faster, supporting continued growth.