YouTube Q3 Ad Revenue Beats Forecasts, Rising 12% to $8.92 Billion

YouTube generated a cool $8.92 billion in advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2024 as the world’s biggest video-streaming platform continues to turn in double-digit growth on already big numbers.

In addition, YouTube’s total ads and subscription revenue surpassed $50 billion over the past four quarters for the first time, according to Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. That averages out to more than $12.5 billion in revenue per quarter. The internet company doesn’t regularly report total quarterly revenue for YouTube.

YouTube’s ad revenue, reported as part of parent Alphabet’s Q3 earnings, was up 12.2% year over year. Wall Street analysts had forecast YouTube advertising revenue coming in at $8.89 billion for the quarter, according to StreetAccount. The ad-revenue figures don’t include subscription revenue from YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium or NFL Sunday Ticket.

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YouTube recently wrapped its upfront, with ad commitments up 20% year over year, Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, said on the Q3 earnings call. He also told analysts that content from the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics generated 12 billion views on YouTube across 850 million unique viewers, with 35% of viewing time on TV screens.

Alphabet overall reported revenue of $88.27 billion (up 15%) and net income of $26.3 billion (up 34%), translating to earnings per share of $2.12. That handily topped Wall Street estimates for $86.3 billion in revenue and EPS of $1.85, according to LSEG.

Pichai said in prepared remarks that “the momentum across the company is extraordinary. Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools.”

On the Q3 earnings call, Pichai noted YouTube’s recent announcement that it will let creators organize their content into seasons and episodes on YouTube’s TV apps, making those look more akin to subscription streaming services like Netflix.

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Earlier this month, YouTube extended the maximum length of videos on YouTube Shorts, its TikTok-like short-form format, from 60 seconds to 3 minutes — a top-requested feature, according to YouTube, which gives creators a bigger canvas. YouTube also has announced that it will begin integrating Google DeepMind’s Veo generative AI video model into YouTube Shorts later this year.

During the third quarter, the company’s Google Cloud division pulled in revenue of $11.35 billion, up 35%, while operating income jumped more than sevenfold to $1.95 billion. As of Sept. 30, Alphabet reported 181,269 employees, up from 179,582 as of the end of June 2024.

Pictured above: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan at the 2024 YouTube Brandcast event in New York City