As YouTube celebrates its 20th birthday, Wall Street is giving it a shiny new crown — “King of All Media.” According to analysts at MoffettNathanson, the Google-owned video giant is not only leading the pack in engagement, it’s about to overtake Disney in annual revenue (yes, really).

For 2024, YouTube pulled in a jaw-dropping $54.2 billion, second only to Disney’s media division. But in 2025, YouTube is expected to take the top spot — and it’s not stopping there. If it were spun off as its own company, analysts say it would be worth between $475 billion and $550 billion. That’s about 30% of Alphabet’s total market cap, which means YouTube alone is now worth more than every traditional media company combined.

The secret sauce? Massive scale, sticky content, and a multi-pronged revenue engine. YouTube brought in $36 billion from ads last year — up 15% — and over $15 billion from subscriptions across YouTube TV, Premium, and Music. That subscriber count? 125 million and climbing.

And while Hollywood execs have spent the past decade debating whether to fight or befriend YouTube, the platform has quietly become a juggernaut. In February, Nielsen crowned it the most-watched TV content source in the U.S., ahead of Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBCUniversal. Yes, even on your living room TV.

But here’s the kicker: YouTube’s engagement on TV is still under-monetized, according to MoffettNathanson, who predict YouTube TV could seize 10% of the $85 billion U.S. pay-TV market by the end of 2026. As traditional pay TV keeps bleeding subscribers, YouTube is building a future-proof bundle that could combine legacy networks with streamers like Max, Peacock, and Paramount+.

“YouTube has substantial runway for further growth — not just in monetization but in becoming the central aggregator of professional video,” said principal analyst Michael Nathanson.

In plain English? YouTube isn’t just the future of streaming. It’s the future of TV, advertising, subscriptions — and maybe even Hollywood itself.