YouTube continues to vacuum up digital advertising dollars, mostly at the expense of traditional TV ad budgets, notching its biggest-ever ad sales number to date for the fourth quarter of 2025. However, the video giant's ad haul came in below Wall Street forecasts. In the last three months of the year, YouTube's global ad revenue totaled $11.38 billion, a year-over-year increase of 8.7%, parent company Alphabet reported. Wall Street analysts on average forecast YouTube ad revenue coming in at $11.84 billion, per StreetAccount.
Consolidated Revenue -- $102.3 billion, up 16% year over year or 15% in constant currency. Net Income -- $35 billion, a 33% increase, with earnings per share up 35% to $2.87. Operating Income -- $31.2 billion, up 9%; operating margin reached 30.5%, or 33.9% excluding the European Commission fine. Free Cash Flow -- $24.5 billion free cash flow; $73.6 billion for the trailing twelve months, benefiting from recent tax changes on R&D expensing and increased operating cash flow.
