YouTube is still teens’ top social media site–and that popularity translates to sales

TikTok and Gen Z have become somewhat synonymous, but according to Pew‘s latest look at social media usage, YouTube is still the clear winner when it comes to sheer number of teenage users.

According to a study of 1,453 13- to 17-year-olds, 90% of teens say they use YouTube. 70% of those users said they use it daily and 16% of them said they’re on the site “almost constantly.”

As for TikTok, 63% of those surveyed said they use it; 58% of them said they’re daily users and 17% said they’re on the app “almost constantly.” (Interesting that that “almost constantly” percentage is slightly higher than YouTube’s…)

Once you get past YouTube and TikTok, there’s Snapchat (60% of teens use it; 50% of them use it daily; 14% use it “almost constantly”) and Instagram (59%; 50%; 8%). Pew also asked about Facebook and found that 33% of teens use it; Discord, 28%; WhatsApp, 21%; Twitter, 20%; Twitch, 17%; Reddit, 14%; and BeReal, 13%.

But certainly the most interesting finding here is that YouTube–for all its struggles to compete with TikTok’s short-form sweep–is still #1 among Gen Z.

And keeping Gen Z’s attention is translating into sales for some content creators. A separate study from Morning Consult found that 33% of Gen Z consumers have bought a product from an influencer-founded brand in the past year. So, the major marketing pushes for brands like Prime and Feastables are paying off.

“If you look at the influencers that have done particularly well in this space, not only do their products have to be aligned with their own brand, they have to be authentic,” Morning Consult analyst Blake Droesch said. “But before all that, [influencers] need to have that platform, and that massive reach.”

YouTube is still the top way to get that reach. TikTok, though, isn’t lagging far behind. Morning Consult found that the top two influencers of this year for teens have been MrBeast, who of course calls YouTube home base, but also Alix Earle, a TikToker who just launched a podcast and is looking to start her own brand.