Most of that revenue comes from advertising, but an increasing amount of money flows in from YouTube's $14-per-month subscription plan, YouTube Premium. YouTube Premium's primary perk is the lack of ads. You also get YouTube Music Premium, Picture-in-Picture mode, playback with the screen off, and more. And yet, the concept of paying for YouTube may seem baffling to many, not only due to Premium's considerable cost and questionable value, but also because anyone can still, technically, enjoy YouTube without paying a dime.
While some were quick to jump to the conclusion that YouTube itself was down, it appears that users on Reddit might have found another culprit ( via Windows Central). Instead of being an issue with the YouTube website or Google's servers, it looks like the problem might have been tied to ad blockers in the Opera GX browser, as multiple people mentioned the issue persisting in Opera GX but not other browsers.