YouTube pulled in more than $11 billion in advertising revenue during the second quarter of 2026, a 13% jump year over year. Parent company Alphabet posted $119.8 billion in total quarterly revenue, up 24%. Google Services accounted for $94.5 billion of that after 15% growth.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai credited part of YouTube’s quarter to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. More than 1.7 billion unique viewers watched World Cup-related content on the platform. Live sports paired with steady growth in connected TV viewing to lift engagement through the quarter.
AI and the living room stay front and center
Advertising wasn’t the only story. Alphabet pointed to continued artificial intelligence investment across Search, Cloud and YouTube.
Pichai said AI Overviews and AI Mode are driving more engagement with Google Search. On the YouTube side, the company keeps shipping tools for producing, organizing and monetizing content. Recent months brought AI-powered editing features along with updated monetization policies for AI-generated content. YouTube also launched Shows, a TV-focused format that lets creators package playlists as episodic series for living room viewers.
Google Cloud posted the quarter’s biggest gain at 82% year over year, driven largely by enterprise demand for AI infrastructure.
YouTube’s ad business keeps compounding
YouTube has now strung together multiple consecutive quarters of year-over-year ad growth. Steady, not explosive.
Several businesses drove Alphabet’s earnings, but YouTube is still one of its largest consumer platforms. Creator-led programming, sports content and Shorts all feed it, as do subscriptions and connected TV viewing. The company says it will keep expanding monetization options for creators while it rolls out AI features and transparency tools.