YouTube‘s advertising revenue grew 13% YoY to USD $11.06 billion in Q2 2026, up from $9.80 billion a year earlier, according to parent company Alphabet‘s earnings report published on Wednesday (July 22).
But on the earnings call, Alphabet Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said, as he had a quarter earlier, that YouTube‘s subscription business is growing faster than its ads.
“Beyond advertising, YouTube subscription business, which thrives across living room screens, is growing faster than ads, particularly driven by YouTube Music and Premium,” Schindler said.
Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said the company’s “Subscriptions, Platforms and Devices” segment – which includes YouTube subscriptions, Google One, the Play Store and hardware – grew 15% to $12.9 billion.
Ashkenazi attributed that to “strong growth in both YouTube subscriptions, particularly YouTube Music and Premium and Google One, which was driven by demand for AI plans.”
“Beyond advertising, YouTube subscription business, which thrives across living room screens, is growing faster than ads, particularly driven by YouTube Music and Premium.”
Philipp Schindler, Alphabet
Alphabet does not break out subscriber numbers for YouTube Music and Premium separately from its broader subscription total.
In Q1, Sundar Pichai said YouTube Music and Premium had seen their largest quarterly increase in non-trial subscribers, both globally and in the US, since YouTube Premium launched in June 2018.
This quarter, Alphabet made no equivalent claim, nor did it disclose an updated paid-subscriptions figure for YouTube or its wider services.
Pichai‘s Q2 remarks instead centered on YouTube‘s FIFA World Cup viewership and its Ask YouTube feature.
Alphabet last shared a total subscriptions figure in Q1, when it reported 350 million paid subscriptions across its services, up from 325 million at the end of 2025 and 270 million a year earlier.
In March 2025, YouTube‘s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen said YouTube Music and Premium had reached 125 million subscribers worldwide, including trials, up from 100 million a year earlier.
That amounted to around 25 million new subscribers in 12 months, or roughly 2 million a month.
YouTube has since raised its US subscription prices across its Premium and Music plans, its first US increase since 2023.
Ashkenazi said Alphabet “experienced strong ad growth related to the World Cup, particularly in YouTube ads,” with YouTube‘s advertising driven by direct response and brand.
Over 1.7 billion unique viewers watched World Cup-related videos on YouTube during the FIFA World Cup 2026, Pichai said. Over 550 million of them watched on their televisions, Schindler added, making it the most-viewed World Cup in YouTube’s history.
Advertisers reached fans during the tournament through FIFA channel takeovers and game-day mastheads on YouTube, Schindler said.
In the living room, he added, YouTube is seeing continued momentum across both brand and direct response advertising.
Across the company, Alphabet‘s Q2 revenues rose 24% YoY to $119.8 billion, which it said marked its 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
The Google Services division, which houses YouTube, reported 15% YoY growth to $94.5 billion, driven by the 17% growth in Google Search and other, the 15% rise in Subscriptions, Platforms and Devices, and the 13% increase in YouTube ads.
Pichai said: “Q2 was an amazing quarter, with Alphabet revenues growing 24% year-over-year and Google Cloud revenues accelerating to 82% growth, driven by demand for AI infrastructure and AI solutions.”Music Business Worldwide
