YouTube Premium is quietly winning the war against ad blockers

YouTube has been toiling hard to keep freeloaders away by inventing new ways to thwart ad blockers and force them to pay for a Premium subscription. Some of those tactics may be working, as suggested by the latest increase in YouTube’s paid subscribers, which the company revealed at a recent event.

During its Q1 2026 earnings call earlier this week, Google announced a new milestone for YouTube. CEO Sundar Pichai noted that the company gained 25 million subscribers in the last quarter alone, increasing the total number of paid subscribers to 350 million. This tally comprises subscribers across Google One, Gemini, YouTube Premium, and YouTube Music.

While the executive didn’t announce specific increases for each paid service, he noted that YouTube Premium and Music saw the “largest quarterly increase in the total number of non-trial subscribers” since the launch of the service in 2018. While Google typically combines figures for all services, it revealed last month that YouTube’s paid services alone had reached 125 million subscribers, although the figure also included free trials.

In addition to Pichai’s official note, Google’s Chief Business Officer, Philipp Schindler, was quoted by CNBC as saying that YouTube’s paid subscriptions have become a bigger revenue source than ads on the platform.

The recent uptick in the number of subscribers suggests this may finally be working.

It remains to be seen whether Google can maintain the same growth through Q2, especially after it announced a significant price hike. Earlier in April, YouTube’s individual plan price was revised from $13.99 to $15.99 per month, while the family plan, with up to five members, was increased from $22.99 to $26.99 per month.