YouTube ad revenue rose 20.9% in the first quarter to $8.09 billion, with the global video platform enjoying its best sales quarter since Q4 2021, according to Alphabet's first-quarter earnings report delivered Thursday.
The revenue performance soundly trounced analysts’ forecasts of around $7.7 billion. It also represented the fifth consecutive quarter during which YouTube has expanded its ad sales.
The YouTube revenue figures don't include revenue from YouTube subscription business, including YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, which collectively generated revenue of around $15 billion in 2023.
Much of YouTube’s sales expansion is coming through the platform’s proliferation on connected TV. As noted by LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield Thursday, Marc Hustvedt, president of MrBeast, recently noted 50% of his company’s viewing comes via TV screens vs. only around 15% to 20% just a few years ago.
“In the first quarter [YouTube in the] living room benefited from a combination of strong watchtime growth, innovation in the user and advertiser experience, and a shift in brand advertising budgets from linear TV to YouTube,” Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler said Thursday. “Viewers are watching YouTube because they expect to access everything in one place across screens and formats, their favorite creators, live sports, breaking news, educational content, movies, music and more. And advertisers continue to lean in to find audiences they can’t find elsewhere.”
Last week, Nielsen released figures showing that YouTube controls around 9.7% of U.S. TV usage, up from 7.8% in March 2023 and 6% in March 2022.
Shares for Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet soared in after-hours trading by more than 18%, with the company reporting a 15% overall uptick in Q1 revenue to $80.5 billion.
