Last week Google reported its 2nd quarter 2023 earnings. In that number, we learned that YouTube had $7.67 billion in ad revenues. This is up from $7.34 billion in the same period of 2022. This all comes as YouTube has launched new efforts to stop ad-blockers and push YouTube Premium to help drive up YouTube revenue.
This all works out to be over $84 million in ad revenue made by YouTube every single day during the second quarter of 2023.
YouTube generates revenue for both the streaming service and content creators by either playing ads or having members sign up for an $11.99 monthly individual subscription plan ($119.99 per year). Ad blockers have been a little loophole around this for quite some time, but YouTube is saying enough is enough.
YouTube ran a limited test of this ad block blocking system last month with select users and it appears to have implemented this as a new policy from here on out. If you try to play a video while an active ad blocker is in place, a pop-up notification will appear, displaying the following message:
The video player will be blocked after three videos:
- It looks like you may be using an ad blocker. Video playback will be blocked unless YouTube is allowed listed or the ad blocker is disabled.
- Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide.
- You can go ad-free with YouTube Premium, and creators can still get paid from your subscription.
Recently YouTube quietly raised the price of YouTube Premium by $2 a month to $13.99 or an annual subscription of $139.99.
A family plan that allows multiple accounts to watch ad-free now costs $22.99, allowing five family members to use YouTube Premium at once. Student plans cost $7.99 a month.
With Google’s new efforts to stop ad-blockers, they are likely hoping ad revenue will continue to grow. For now, we will have to wait and see if that becomes a reality.