YouTube and TikTok now beat Google for younger UK shoppers

YouTube and social platforms now sit ahead of Google as the default way Gen Z consumers find new products, games and shows, according to a new study from IGN Entertainment in partnership with Kantar and UC Berkeley.

The Generations in Play 2026 report, conducted across the UK, US and Australia between August and November 2025, ranks social media as the top discovery channel for Gen Z, followed by YouTube, with Google relegated to third place.

Millennials place YouTube first, Google second and social media third. Gen X, the oldest cohort surveyed, still leads with Google, followed by streaming services and personal recommendations.

The findings position social platforms and creator-led video as the new front door of consumer discovery for under-30s, with Google increasingly serving as a fallback rather than a default.

How the discovery gap splits by age

The data shows that Gen Z respondents are 16% more likely than the average to subscribe to and browse specific YouTube channels, and 10% more likely to discover content through algorithmic recommendations rather than search queries.

85% of Gen Z respondents use social media as a primary news source, a figure that places platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts ahead of traditional editorial outlets for this group.

By comparison, Gen X are 10% more likely to search for video categories directly and 6% more likely to search for a specific type of video, behaviours that map cleanly onto Google’s traditional query-and-click model.

AI search is widening the gap

Generative AI is compounding the trend, as Gen Z are 13% more likely than average to use AI tools for discovery, and 55% more likely to agree that AI summaries are as good as human ones.

Gen X sit at the opposite end, 38% less likely to use AI for discovery and 44% less likely to trust AI-generated summaries.

Millennials occupy the middle ground, with 46% using AI for discovery and 50% rating AI summaries as equivalent to human content.

The data suggests that the established Google journey of typing a query, scanning blue links and clicking through to a website is fragmenting into three distinct routes shaped by age, with younger users increasingly bypassing the open web entirely.

What this means for UK retailers

The shift has direct implications for UK retailers and consumer brands. Search-led marketing built around Google rankings and keyword bidding assumes an audience that opens a search bar first.

Younger UK shoppers increasingly open an app instead. Recommendation engines on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram now decide what they see, with creators acting as the editorial layer that brands once owned through PR and on-site SEO.

For retailers, visibility depends on creator partnerships, short-form video performance and AI search optimisation rather than Google rankings alone.

Marketing budgets weighted towards Google Ads risk reaching an audience that no longer starts there. Younger UK consumers are forming product opinions inside YouTube videos, TikTok recommendation feeds and AI summaries, often before they ever type a search query.

The wider research from IGN Entertainment tracked 6,250 high-intensity entertainment users who qualified through 10+ hours of weekly gaming, streaming, YouTube viewing or social browsing, or four or more films watched per week.

The dataset combines responses across the three markets without a UK-specific breakout, but the directional shift away from search-led discovery is consistent across the cohort.

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