YouTube Ads Are Out of Control? Here’s How to Comfortably Watch It in 2025

Alex B

Author

Once upon a time, YouTube was a truly cozy place. You’d come in to watch a couple of videos, and you actually watched them. There were no interruptions for the fifth shampoo of the day, no intrusive voices convincing you that this particular online school would change your life.

There were ads, but they didn’t bother you—they were short, infrequent, and mostly appropriate. You could sit down with a cup of tea and peacefully watch your favourite blogger from start to finish. More and more people today say that YouTube ads are out of control.

And now it seems that YouTube has decided to compete not with Netflix, but with a TV from the 2000s. The videos are 10 minutes long, but they have so much advertising that they feel like an hour-long documentary. There are two ads at the beginning, one in the middle, and a final ad. Sometimes it feels like the video is being used as a backdrop for the ads, rather than the other way around.

Moreover, the ads are increasingly interrupting the context of the video, disrupting the viewer’s immersion. Or toothpaste, or investments in some strange assets.

What happened? Why did the platform we trusted turn into a showcase for everything from dubious courses to clickbait-named games?

And most importantly, who is to blame, and is it possible to stop it?

What is Going on with YouTube? 

Once upon a time, YouTube was a real treat. You’d turn on a video, and you’d just watch it, with maybe a short ad at the beginning. It was fast, unobtrusive, and almost never irritating. But now? It feels like the platform has gone completely crazy.

Nowadays, ads are everywhere. You’ll watch an 8-minute video, and there are already four ads in the middle. And they always appear at the most inconvenient moments, when the protagonist is saying something important or when the climax is about to unfold. And it would be okay if it was just one, but it’s literally an attack: “investment course,” “pump yourself in 7 days,” “subscribe to the millionaire’s channel”… who are you all?

The level of absurdity is off the charts. The volume of advertising is like someone yelling at you from the basement. Skip it? Ha, sometimes they don’t even let you. And AdBlock? It’s already been deceived: instead of direct advertising, there’s a banner, a sidebar from a blogger, or a sponsor in the middle of a sentence. You can’t skip YouTube ads anymore in majority of cases.

It feels like YouTube is no longer a platform for viewers, but a marketplace where your attention is being sold around the clock. You’re trying to watch content, but you’re constantly being interrupted, distracted, and disrupted. It’s like being on pins and needles.

It makes you wonder where the cozy YouTube has gone, where you could just watch and enjoy?

And most importantly, how much more advertising do we need to cram in before viewers finally say, “Enough is enough”?

10 Points of How Ads are Ruining YouTube

1. It’s Everywhere

The beginning of the video, the middle, and the end, if you’re lucky. Some videos are literally torn apart by commercials. There are some cases when the add even lasts longer than the video itself. 1 minute video may have 2 unstoppable ads

2. Ads are Louder than the Content

You’re sitting quietly, listening to the video, and suddenly, “How did I make my first million?” It’s scary not only for your ears but also for your cat. Everybody understands that grabbing users attention is hard and important. But this is not a way out. Ads should be more creative and developed and not artificially pushed.

3. It’s Distracting

Especially when watching a lecture, interview, or educational content. An important moment — and then: “Upgrade your life in 30 seconds!”Maybe not all content should have adds implemented or at least moderated better. It is a very common thing when the important speech is interrupted.

4. Often off-topic Videos

You’re watching a video about yoga, but you’re getting ads for fast food. The algorithm? It’s just whispering, “I don’t care.” The topic of the advertisement should be at least somehow actual to the potential target audience. But it seems like Google just shows randomly without any analysis which is bad for both users and advertisers.

5. It’s Endless

One ad ends, and another begins. Sometimes it feels like the video is interrupting the ads, rather than the other way around. there is no limit a user can see the ad throughout the video. Sometimes it happens very often and seems eternal.

6. It’s Become More Cunning

Banners, embedded sponsors, hidden ads from bloggers — now you can’t turn them off, skip them, or ignore them. There absolutely no any way to escape it without the help from special additional software. It used to be different

7. It Ruins the Atmosphere

You immerse yourself in a video, only to be jolted out of it like a dream by an alarm clock. Imagine you having SPA procedure and all of a sudden you get an ad of double cheeseburger. How will it feel? Will it make you buy one?

8. Users Waste more Time

Five seconds here, ten seconds there. Over the course of an evening, you’ll waste at least half an hour. And no one will give it back. Percentagevize you can easily spot it on small videos which may last a minute or two. You can have the same amount of video ads. Basically it doubles the time you spend on a video.

9. It turns YouTube into a garbage dump

The level of advertising “purity” has fallen below the plinth — now anyone can push a dubious product with a loud headline. And the whole platform is surrounded with different adds, because content creators have their own add on top of that too.

10. It imposes

At first, you just didn’t want to watch it. And then you find yourself getting irritated with everything in general — with the video, with the ads, and with the fact that it used to be different. The mood is now formed around these things too which influences the general atmosphere.

All in all, everybody is unhappy. Lower conversions for advertisements, higher costs, more irritating vide content and add flood.

What’s Next for Our Favourite Video Platform? 

If things continue as they are, YouTube will have a future where content becomes secondary and advertising becomes the main feature of the platform. We can already see how videos are starting to resemble advertising dolls: advertising at the beginning, in the middle, at the end, in the blogger’s text, and even in the description of the video. But what’s next?

• Imagine: you click on a video, and instead of 5 seconds of advertising, there are 30 seconds. You can’t skip it. Then, at the 2nd minute, there’s another one. And then some more. And this is no longer an exception, but the norm. A paid subscription? Of course, it will be. But with new rates. YouTube Premium 2.0: “Pay more, get a little less annoyance.”
  
• Algorithms will suffocate authors who do not embed sponsors. The audience will get tired and move to new platforms. Perhaps not immediately. Perhaps not en masse. But the fatigue is accumulating. And one day, people will simply stop opening YouTube, as they once stopped turning on the TV with endless advertising blocks.
  
• The content will become formulaic, loud, and oversold. Authors will adapt to advertising trends rather than the interests of viewers. And the user? They will finally cease to be a viewer and become “monetized attention.”

And all of this for what? To increase Google’s profits by a couple of billion more?

But who will be left to watch when everything that was once soulful and alive is drowned out by the relentless flow of advertising?

How to Block YouTube Ads

YouTube is increasingly like a greedy landlord: you just came to watch a video, and they’re already charging you for the air. But! There are ways to save your nerves and watch content without these endless “invest in yourself in 3 days.” Anyway, there are some ways to block YouTube ads.

Here are some proven methods to get rid of ads (in a human way, without magic):

1. YouTube Premium, yes, it’s paid. But if you watch YouTube every day and don’t want to blink at the sudden shout from an ad, it’s worth it. Life hack: you can set up a family account and pool your money with friends, which will be much cheaper.
2. Browser with a blocker (on PC) AdBlock, uBlock Origin are free extensions that really work. Suitable for Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Opera, and others. But YouTube is fighting this, and sometimes you have to update or turn it on/off manually.
3. Brave Browser (for PC and smartphone) is built-in with an ad blocker. It works fast, doesn’t let anything in, and doesn’t require fine-tuning. It’s especially useful on Android.
4. NewPipe (Android)is an alternative app for YouTube without ads and It doesn’t require an account, doesn’t track you, and doesn’t tax your brain. Just don’t use it from Google Play — look for it on F-Droid.
5. Pi-hole (for advanced users) is like a personal filter for everything connected to your Wi-Fi network. It filters ads at the network level, including YouTube, apps, and even your TV. However, it requires a bit of technical expertise and hands-on experience.

YouTube may be turning into an advertising machine, but there are ways to fight it.

Just choose what’s closer: pay a little, dig into the settings, or switch to alternative apps.

 There will be as much advertising as we’re willing to tolerate. So, we can start small and click “skip.” Just do it our way.

Best YouTube Skipper Tools in 2025 Comparison

If you’re getting more and more annoyed by YouTube ads, don’t worry — there are several ways to get rid of them, each with its own advantages. The easiest option is YouTube Premium, where you pay to access a clean browsing experience without any ads.

However, if you don’t want to pay, you can install AdBlock or uBlock Origin on your computer. These tools work well, but YouTube is increasingly trying to bypass them. If you’re using a smartphone, Brave is a convenient browser with built-in ad blocking features. You can learn more about 5 easy ways to bypass-geo restricted content in our article.

And if you’re on Android and want to avoid the official app altogether, try NewPipe, which offers a clean browsing experience without ads, tracking, or other unnecessary features. Well, for those who like to be “smart”, there is Pi-hole: filters ads on the entire home network. Neither is perfect, but it’s definitely better than tolerating a “rich trader for 18 years.”

Frequently Asked Questions