Surveys of ~16,000 US adults per brand: 86% of Gen Z aged 18 to 25 have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable opinion of YouTube, 73% of Instagram, and 69% of TikTok
Jennifer A. Kingson / Axios : Tweets: @jstrauss Tweets: @jstrauss : I feel attacked by this @Techmeme headline referring to Gen Z as “adults.” https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Favorability tracking has become the scoreboard for a cohort whose usage patterns keep shifting: back in 2018, Pew found 94% of 18-24 year olds already used YouTube while Snapchat led Instagram among that age band (78% versus 71%), and by 2020 Politico was measuring Gen Z voters getting election news from YouTube and Instagram daily. The new ~16,000-adult-per-brand surveys extend that line into sentiment rather than raw usage — and they show YouTube holding its long-run lead with 86% Gen Z favorability, well clear of Instagram at 73% and TikTok at 69%.
Instagram's gap matters because internal documents show it ran an aggressive, yearslong campaign to win back teen users, adjusting its recommendation algorithm toward teen-friendly content and boosting teen-friendly influencers. The favorability numbers suggest that push is fighting an uphill perception battle against both YouTube's incumbency and TikTok's momentum.
First-order effects
- Advertisers planning Gen Z reach get a clean preference ranking — YouTube leads on favorability even though Pew's later teen survey shows TikTok used by 63% of US teens versus Instagram's 59%, meaning the most-used platform is not the best-liked one.
Second-order effects
- Instagram's teen-retention machinery — algorithm tweaks and influencer boosts documented in its internal campaign — now has a measurable favorability deficit to close against both rivals, raising the stakes on whether content-side fixes can move sentiment, not just session time.
Third-order effects
- As this cohort ages past 25, platform favorability hardens into default behavior for ad targeting and political outreach — Morning Consult already found 14% of Gen Z adults starting major-news-event research on TikTok versus 1% for other generations, and first-time Gen Z voters told Bloomberg they oppose parental-consent and time-limit rules, so the platforms winning this cohort's affection also inherit its policy battles.
The trend: Brand-favorability surveys are becoming the leading indicator platforms compete on as Gen Z moves from teen user base to the core adult advertising and voting demographic.