Gen Z and Millennials “consistently converge” on YouTube, where they have better recall and find the best quality ads, according to Precisify’s new data

“In an increasingly fragmented media ecosystem, YouTube has become the backbone of modern audience planning across both TV screens and mobile devices.”

That’s the core of Precisify‘s new research. The London-based ad tech firm has collected granular and legally-compliant data about kids’ and teens’ video viewership for years. Now, for the first time, it’s expanding its measurement beyond The Youths to include information about us olds, too.

And that research shows just how important YouTube is in the digital video (and digital ad) ecosystem.

Its latest report, Precisify Insights: Gen Z & Millennials, USA, contains data from an American audience panel of people ages 13-44, and “highlights significant differences in how Gen Z and Millennial audiences consume media across streaming, social, gaming, and creator-led environments,” Precisify said in a press release.

Those differences manifest in which platforms command the attention of each age group. Precisify–which was Precise TV before rebranding earlier this year on the heels of a $26 million raise–found that 68% of Gen Z uses TikTok, compared to 46% of Millennials.

Disney+ was also stronger with Gen Z (57% vs 28%); Millennials, meanwhile, are spending their time on Netflix (65%), Amazon Prime Video (50%), and Facebook (67%). Occasionally the numbers are closer: Hulu, for example, commands 50% of both Gen Z and Millennials.

But the one place “where both audiences consistently converge,” Precisify found, is YouTube. It counts 83% of Gen Z and 78% of Millennials as users, beating every other platform for sheer audience size.

“How these generations consume media dictates our culture and drives the flow of billions in subscription and ad dollars every year,” Evan Shapiro, the self-dubbed “media cartographer” who lent his insights to Precisify’s report, said in a statement. “Understanding their daily consumption habits helps us know where our culture is headed and how the business of media will continue to evolve.”

We’re watching YouTube for hours each day

Nearly 45% of both age groups spend between 30 and 60 minutes watching YouTube content each day.

11% of both groups are real long-haulers, watching between two and 2.5 hours of content per day. Beyond that, Millennials and their 90s-born attention spans start to trend upward. 5% of them watch between 3 and 3.5 hours per day (compared to 3% of Gen Z), 8% watch 3.5-4 hours (compared to 2%), and a whopping 12% watch more than 4 hours (compared to 3% of Gen Z).

These findings shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, if you’ve been paying attention to YouTube data from other sources. Per Nielsen, YouTube is the single most-watched distributor of content on TV screens in the U.S., beating not only streaming services like Netflix and Disney+, but all traditional TV networks.

What might be surprising, though, is the related marketing data Precisify found…

Looping back to its position as an ad tech company, Precisify also measured Gen Z and Millennial recall for ads, and found that for over 50% of audience members in both age groups, ad recall is strongest on YouTube.

The next closest platform for Gen Z is TikTok, with 38% of teens having ad recall there, and for Millennials it’s Facebook, with 36%.

On top of that, 36% of Gen Z respondents said they see the best quality ads on YouTube long-form, followed by Netflix (20%), TikTok (18%), Facebook and Instagram (16%), Amazon Prime (13%), and YouTube Shorts at the bottom with just 11%.

“What this data makes clear is that creator influence is no longer as fragmented as many marketers assume,” Mark Bassett, Head of Influencer at Precisify, said in a statement. “Creators are now central to how Gen Z and Millennials discover brands, form opinions and ultimately take action. For brands, that fundamentally changes the role of influencer marketing–it is no longer just about reach or relevance in isolation, but about understanding where creator attention is actually driving consumer behavior.”

Precisify’s further findings include:

• 34% of teens co-view YouTube with friends
• 57% of parents co-view YouTube with their teen(s) multiple times a week
• 43% of Gen Z and 50% of Millennials second-screen while watching YouTube
• 79% of teens watch YouTube on their phones
• Comedy is the most popular genre on YouTube across both generations
• MrBeast is one of YouTube’s most-watched IPs for teens, alongside content from Disney, Cartoon Network, and TheSoul’s 5-Minute Crafts

You can see the full report here.