They have always been encoding in VP9 though. But it doesn't mean they will be serving it.
For example OSX doesn't support it at all and iOS only supports VP9 in 4K/HDR mode and only for certain versions.
For example OSX doesn't support it at all and iOS only supports VP9 in 4K/HDR mode and only for certain versions.
Heck, even the M1 supports VP9 in hardware up to 8K60.
I'm not sure where you got that macOS has no VP9 support, it works quite well.
YouTube uses so much bandwidth that this is still measured in millions of dollars but it’s really worth remembering that “at scale” to them is beyond what almost anyone else hits.