RESEARCH
Global Streaming Revenue for 2025 Splits Between $177B and $214.6B Across Analyst Firms
Two of the media industry's most-cited analyst firms published conflicting totals for global streaming revenue in 2025: Omdia reported $214.6 billion (subscriptions plus advertising, +12.8% year-over-year), while Ampere Analysis reported $177 billion for the same combined metric. The 21% gap narrows to roughly 5% when isolating subscription revenue alone ($157.1B from Ampere vs. an implied ~$165.2B from Omdia's 77%-subscription split), suggesting the larger headline discrepancy stems mainly from how each firm scopes and counts advertising-supported streaming revenue rather than a disagreement over subscriber-driven revenue itself. Both firms are established, named trackers with public methodologies, and no third comparable independent estimate was found to break the tie.
Findings
- Omdia's October 30, 2025 report put global streaming revenue at $214.6 billion for 2025 (+12.8% YoY), with subscriptions at roughly $165.2B (77% of total) and premium advertising revenue at $42.1 billion (+15.6% YoY).
- Ampere Analysis's March 2026 report put global streaming subscription revenue at $157.1 billion (+14% YoY) and total streaming revenue including advertising at $177 billion for 2025.
- Comparing the two firms' total-revenue figures (subscriptions plus advertising) shows a 21% gap -- $177B vs. $214.6B, a $37.5 billion difference for the same calendar year.
- Narrowing to subscription-only revenue shrinks the gap to about 5% ($157.1B vs. ~$165.2B), indicating the larger headline discrepancy is driven mostly by differing treatment of advertising-supported/AVOD revenue and market scope, not core subscriber revenue measurement.
Delta Engine result
↔ Divergence Detected — Δ 0.2716 (threshold 0.05)
Evidence quality
avg 25 · min 25 · max 25 · spread 0