The Business of YouTube

A weekly strategic lens for senior leaders into how YouTube is reshaping the business of technology, sports, music, entertainment, and culture.

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To your favourite newsletter, The Business of YouTube, brought to you by Paola Marinone and Bengü Atamer, founders of BuzzMyVideos and previously at YouTube and Google. We are bringing our exclusive insights from 20 years of experience leading strategy at YouTube and Google.

Who’s making the smartest moves on YouTube? | A breakdown

We’re used to ranking football clubs by on-pitch success and trophies. But there’s an off-pitch battle that is maturing and becoming increasingly important - YouTube.

2025 has definitively marked football’s full entry into the era of digital maturity. YouTube has become an influential playing field for clubs and leagues globally. A field where the next generation of fans are discovering their clubs. Where narratives are being shaped. And where the battle for global attention plays out, 24/7, 365.

In collaboration with the Social Football Summit, we’ve analysed YouTube performance over the past year across the top five European leagues, the Saudi Pro League, and Major League Soccer. We looked at views, subscriber growth, and upload activity, to understand who’s strategy is winning on the platform.

Here are three stories the numbers revealed👇

1. 2025’s Fastest Climber 🧗🇪🇸

One of the most noticeable shifts in the past year has been the significant subscriber growth of Spanish clubs on YouTube. With La Liga clubs now ahead of Premier League clubs and topping the table for total YouTube subscribers. The top 3 teams globally for subscriber growth, are all now also La Liga clubs.

Atlético Madrid grew from 525K to nearly 6M subscribers in just 12 months. A significant improvement, but it wasn’t just because they posted more. Their content strategy evolved and was culturally resonant, they were more than just a football club. From a Christmas campaign around pet adoption to a Valentine’s message about love and loyalty, they created content that resonated beyond the pitch.

It wasn’t just them. UD Las Palmas went from 27K to nearly 1M subs. Girona jumped from 28K to 339K. These aren’t clubs dominating on the pitch, but their YouTube growth shows what happens when you take the platform seriously.

And whilst Barcelona were already the biggest club in the world on YouTube, they still added 5.1M subscribers, and now sit on 22.4M subscribers.

Key Takeaway: Subscriber growth isn’t just about on-pitch success. Clubs that tell original stories, upload consistently, and create culturally resonant content are the ones growing fastest.

2. All eyes on 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿👀

La Liga might’ve seen the biggest jumps in subscribers, but the Premier League remains the most-watched league on YouTube. With 15.6Bn views across its clubs in 2025, a huge 61% increase on the viewership across La Liga.

Liverpool lead the way, with 3.6M views in 2025, a 769M increase from 2024. This was helped by the fact they uploaded more videos than any other PL club, 1,853. They’ve figured out how to combine the narratives from match day content on-pitch with the storylines off-pitch, allowing the club to maintain an impressive upload frequency.

Manchester United crossed the 10M subscriber mark and also featured in the the top 5 teams globally for viewership increase, where Liverpool also featured. Proof that the Premier League brand and the individual club’s global pull still translates well into YouTube viewership.

If La Liga showed us what big jumps can look like, the Premier League shows what consistent growth across the board looks like when you have global demand for a product and a structured approach to content and distribution.

Key takeaway: The Premier League’s YouTube success comes down to scale, consistency, and structure. Clubs that post regularly and serve global fanbases with familiar, reliable formats continue to perform.

3. Building from scratch 🧱

The most interesting shifts, though, might be happening outside Europe.

In Miami, the impact of Messi Mania was felt by the club. Inter Miami’s views more than tripled in a year, going from 14.9M to 64.8M. But what’s worth noting is how they leveraged Messi Mania. The club invested in original formats, mini-documentaries, new formats. To ensure the audience stuck around, once Messi Mania drew them in.

Over in Saudi Arabia, Al Nassr added over half a million new subscribers and racked up 219M views, more than any other Saudi club. Leveraging the star profile of Cristiano Ronaldo and the awareness he brings globally.

These leagues don’t have the same heritage on-field or on YouTube, but they’re catching up fast by building a content ecosystem, not just places to dump highlights.

Key Takeaway: You don’t need history to win on YouTube. Clubs like Inter Miami and Al Nassr are proving the value in leveraging star talent and the moments they bring to create content that lives beyond the field, and resonates with audiences globally.

Final Thoughts

Football content on YouTube is maturing. It’s now become a field where everyone can thrive, as long as the right strategy has been deployed.

Whether it’s Atlético experimenting with culturally resonant formats, Inter Miami turning a headline signing into a content strategy, or Liverpool relentlessly uploading, the common thread is intent.

The clubs performing best are the ones that treat YouTube as a core pillar of their comms and brand-building, not an afterthought.

📥 Want the full data breakdown? Download the full report here.

• AEW’s Tony Khan on YouTube’s role in wrestling growth. AEW’s CEO Tony Khan explains how YouTube and social media highlights serve as a primary discovery funnel, attracting younger viewers and boosting viewerships. Dispelling the myth of YouTube cannibalising views.

• Advertisers still struggle to avoid illicit content on YouTube. Despite YouTube’s ongoing efforts to police content and assure brand safety, advertisers are still unsure if their ads are appearing next to illicit or copyright-infringing videos. Highlighting the trust gap that still exists between YouTube and advertisers.

• YouTube TV is getting huge upgrades. YouTube is turning 20 years old this year and ahead of this milestone YouTube TV is expected to receive new features. One of which is a new version of multi-view that can be used on non-sports content.

• YouTube monetisation update from next week. YouTube will implement a new monetisation policy from July 15, 2025, aimed at limiting the earnings of channels that publish mass-produced, repetitive, or low-effort videos. Requiring creators to ensure content is ‘original’ and ‘authentic’.

We have exciting news to share with you this week! We have a masterclass launching on the 15th July, with strategic insights on How to Win on YouTube in the 2025/2026 Sport Season. Make sure you sign-up here to ensure you are prepared for next season on YouTube!

Also if you missed out on our previous masterclasses, don’t worry they are now available to watch on the BuzzMyVideos YouTube channel!

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