YouTube report: Why fans are the biggest force in pop culture right now

We’re seeing a fundamental shift in video viewership. Today, 85% of people describe themselves as a fan of someone or something.¹ And as more people become engaged, fans have also moved from being consumers of culture to directly shaping it. YouTube is at the center of this shift, as a platform where viewers deeply engage with things they’re fans of, find new fandoms, share a space with other fans and express their own creativity. According to a SmithGeiger study conducted in the U.S., 80% of fans (online 14- to 44-year-olds) use YouTube to consume content about the person or thing they're a fan of at least weekly.² To learn more about fandom's impact on culture, the YouTube Culture & Trends team researched hundreds of trends from the past year, consulted the Fandom Institute and ran surveys with SmithGeiger, asking thousands of people about how they spend their time online as fans. Here are three of the top insights, as well as how brands can leverage these fan dynamics to get business outcomes. 1. More Gen Zers than ever before describe themselves as video content creators. Viewers once participated in their fandoms by consumption. Now, they do it by creating content. In the SmithGeiger survey, 65% of Gen Zers describe themselves as video content creators.³ This isn’t limited to super fans either, as new tools, YouTube Shorts and generative AI have made creation easier for all fans. And what does that look like? They’re creating fancams, explainers, reaction videos, costume recreations, fan art, deep-dives, commentary, podcasts and more. On YouTube, this large volume of fan content means that viewers often spend more time with fan content than the actual original source material. Consider this: Vogue’s Met Gala livestream on YouTube this year has 14 million views. Videos related to Met Gala 2024 posted by fans and creators have been viewed over 550 million times. While “RuPaul's Drag Race” season 16 aired in 2024, YouTube creators uploaded 1,500 hours of content related to the show. What this means for brands: Make it easy to display fandom Consider providing remixable videos—to help your brand benefit from the exponential power of fan-generated content. After all, 74% of Gen Z fans agree they like seeing brands engage with things they’re a fan of.⁴ 2. Creators use YouTube to make cultural moments even bigger. Fans constantly turn to YouTube to deepen their fandoms, and creators provide them with a perspective they can’t find anywhere else. In fact, 66% of Gen Z agree they often spend more time watching content that discusses or unpacks something than the thing itself (e.g., movie trailer, new music video, big cultural event).⁵ When the “Deadpool & Wolverine” movie trailer launched in April, it hit No. 1 on the YouTube Trending charts, but more notably, it was accompanied by four other creator videos on that list that were either reactions to or analyses of the trailer. During the rap battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, one of the biggest cultural moments in the U.S. this year, the artists released nine tracks on YouTube in six weeks—more than 40 minutes of music. It was a huge moment for their fandoms, and fan creators made it even bigger. They posted covers, remixes, interpretations of the lyrics, dances, reactions and their compilations, leading to over 250,000 uploads related to Drake or Lamar, tallying over 3.5 billion views on YouTube. If you were into this feud, YouTube was the best place not just to keep up with the content that artists were posting but also to express your fandom. And that’s why our survey showed significantly more fans turn to YouTube (73%) for content about their fandom than any other social media platform (32% on average).⁶ What it means for brands: Go where creators are fueling communities of fans Partnering with creators—who understand how to encourage their own fandoms, and direct their fans to things they’re fans of—can be hugely beneficial. For example, for Halloween, candy brand Reese’s partnered with YouTube creators including Kyle Hanagami and Katie Feeney to launch a dance challenge on Shorts, gaining millions of views, remixes and responses to the challenge, ultimately reaching 38 million unique users with the campaign. With Partnership Ads by BrandConnect, advertisers can further leverage authentic creator voices to drive brand outcomes. Brands can now turn content that lives directly on a creator’s channel into powerful ads, and even create audience segments from viewers of those videos. 3. Fans are shaping the future of pop culture. Today, many of Gen Z’s cultural touchstones come directly from creators and creative communities. The size of these fandoms allow these projects to transcend YouTube and become part of mainstream culture. Movie studio A24 signed 18-year-old Kane Parsons to make a horror feature film based on his YouTube mini doc on “The Backrooms.” Animator VivziePop’s YouTube pilot for her comedy show ”Hazbin Hotel” was picked up and expanded into a full season by Amazon Prime earlier this year, and ended up being its biggest global debut for any animated program in the platform's history. This record was no doubt facilitated by Vivziepop’s YouTube release of a complementary series, Helluva Boss, set in the same universe. And this phenomenon is only growing. Take the example of “The Amazing Digital Circus.” Released last fall, the pilot episode of this animated comedy quickly racked up over 300 million views. But the show’s fandom also put this on the radar of a massive audience. During the six months between the first and second episodes, fan content related to the show, from songs to memes, accrued over 25 billion views. What this means for brands: A new era of entertainment Creators are revolutionizing well-loved TV formats like game shows and reality TV, generating their own franchises and fandoms that brands can be a part of. With Creator Takeovers, brands can go deeper with some of the most influential YouTube creators by owning 100% share of voice on the creator’s channel, delivering maximum brand visibility across engaged audiences. The future of fandom Today’s fans understand the value their participation creates. And the people and things they are fans of have become increasingly responsive to their participation, from conceptualization to distribution. McDonald’s is a great example. The brand tapped into anime fandom by launching “WcDonald’s,” a global campaign based on how their brand is often represented in anime. They introduced a four-episode anime shorts series on YouTube and even produced a fan-created music video. Fans responded by creating even more content on YouTube explaining the WcDonald's universe, giving an inside look of the immersive pop-up, reviewing the new savory chili sauce, and more. With these new dynamics, we’ll continue to see fandom become a primary generator of emerging pop culture rather than a reaction to it, especially as generative AI and new video tools continue to improve. And as more fandoms emerge and reach huge audiences, we’re reaching a point where brands will need to have a clear strategy for how to engage with fan communities. The tactics below will come in handy: 1. Google/SmithGeiger, YouTube Trends Survey, US May 2024, N=1000 online people aged 14-44. 2. Google/SmithGeiger, YouTube Trends Survey, US May 2024, N=847 online fans age 14-44. 3. Google/SmithGeiger, YouTube Trends Survey, US May 2024, N=350 online Gen Z respondents ages 14-24. 4. Google/SmithGeiger, YouTube Trends Survey, US May 2024, N=312 online Gen Z respondents fans age 14-24. 5. Google/SmithGeiger, YouTube Trends Survey, US May 2024, N=350 online Gen Z respondents ages 14-24. 6. Google/SmithGeiger, YouTube Trends Survey, US May 2024, N=847 online fans age 14-44. Average includes: TikTok, Instagram, X/Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Discord About Google Build durable measurement. Make stronger customer connections. Generate more effective creative at scale. Put Google AI to work for you.

YouTube report: Why fans are the biggest force in pop culture right now

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