YouTube Premium is quietly winning the war against ad blockers

YouTube has worked 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 surge in paid YouTube 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 count includes subscribers to Google One, Gemini, YouTube Premium, and YouTube Music.

While the executive did not announce specific increases for each paid service, he noted that YouTube Premium and Music saw the “largest quarterly increase in total non-trial subscribers” since the service launched 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 commercial director, Philipp Schindler, was quoted by CNBC like saying that paid YouTube subscriptions have become a greater source of income than ads on the platform.

The recent increase in subscriber numbers suggests this might finally be working.

It remains to be seen whether Google will be able to maintain the same growth during the second quarter, especially after it announced a significant price increase. In early April, the price of YouTube’s individual plan 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.