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This is a quote from Jordan Peterson. I've provided two examples, one in which he qualifies the major viewership as being "young" males, in the other it's a generalised statement about all men. I've heard him make this claim many times, but obviously can't go dig up all the instances.

"Most of the people who watch Youtube happen to be young men"
Link to quote in video

"Youtube is a male domain primarily ..."
Link to quote in video

I've found the following information.

8.YouTube’s male-to-female ratio is about 1:1

Many sources speculate that majority of YouTube users are male, however, studies conducted by Google and Nielsen actually found that the gender demographic is evenly split, with female viewership in the slight majority. While YouTube's total user base might be closer to 50/50, studies have found that men make up the majority of viewers in 90% of YouTube’s content categories. The most male-dominated categories are in gaming, sports, and virtual worlds. Female dominated categories are make-up and cosmetics, skin and nail care, and weight loss.
Mediakix, claiming to be a marketing agency on their site (written March 24, 2017)

An article from from two years earlier gives this information:

While it attracts an even split of women and men, YouTube is still fairly male dominated. Men spend 44 percent more time on the site per month, and of 51 categories of YouTube content measured by OpenSlate, men make up the majority of viewers in 90 percent of them.
The demographics of YouTube, in 5 charts (written April 24, 2015)

Not sure how much things change since 2015 or 2017. A reminder that both quotes made by Peterson were made this year. Those charts from the second source do show that there are some major differences in video subject matter that males and females tend to watch. Also, I don't understand the second source when it says there's an even split of males to females, yet males spend 44% more time on the site per month. Wouldn't spending more time on the site mean you're watching more Youtube videos?

The most recent quote, from HARDtalk, which was said just two months ago in August is the one which claims "most viewers happen to be young men." As a general statement is it reasonable to doubt that more males watch Youtube than females? Also, how about when we add qualifier "young" to males?

Also, I'd like to point that he's mentioned in the past that most watchers of his own channel are male, but I find it nearly impossible for him to have derived the general conclusion from having extrapolated his own channel's data to the whole world. So I wonder where he's got this information.

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Zebrafish
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  • The problem with this question is that "most" just means >50% but is generally understood to mean some larger percentage, and "primarily" is similarly vague but usually suggests more than a simple majority. Peterson is deliberately vague and imprecise to avoid being debunked, while still misleading his audience. – dont_shog_me_bro Jan 17 '19 at 13:30
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    @dont_shog_me_bro "Peterson is deliberately vague and imprecise to avoid being debunked, while still misleading his audience." Do you have any evidence that that was his motivation for phrasing the sentences the way he did? I find it much more likely that they were off-the-cuff statements about his own experience in combination with sources (for example possibly the Omnicore source cited in the accepted answer) that he came across. Regardless of whether he is right or wrong, saying that his statements were an intentional act to avoid future debunking seems pretty conspiratorial... – James Jan 26 '19 at 17:38
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    @James only his well established pattern of behaviour, e.g. how he refuses to be pinned down on what "promoting monogamy" and "redistribution of sex" mean. – dont_shog_me_bro Jan 27 '19 at 12:19
  • @dont_shog_me_bro Many people accuse him of being vague, and I think it's a fair accusation. However in many other instances he explains statistics and details exactly. "Enforced monogamy", what you called "promoting monogamy" he explains exactly what he means. He spends about 13 minutes discussing it with Joe Rogan; believe me, Rogan definitely pins him down. Because of the wording of "enforced" people have jumped at the chance to misrepresent his point a la Cathy Newman. Though if you want to make the statement that he's generally vague, I'm not going to dispute that in general terms. – Zebrafish Jan 27 '19 at 13:01
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    @dont_shog_me_bro Of possible interest regarding "enforced monogamy" I was able to find: https://jordanbpeterson.com/media/on-the-new-york-times-and-enforced-monogamy/ – James Jan 27 '19 at 17:45
  • @James that's actually a great example of what I'm talking about. He doesn't explain what "social enforcement" actually means. Are we talking about slut shaming, shunning people who have sex outside marriage, attaching greater stigma to getting divorced? – dont_shog_me_bro Jan 28 '19 at 09:24
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    @dont_shog_me_bro I find this strange. If someone says something like "We should promote responsible use of alcohol among teens" you'd never ask "But what exactly do you mean by that?" It's just as vague. Do you caution them? Do you punish them? Just how drunk are they allowed get? Happy-drunk, tipsy, unsteady? If you demand an absolute hypothetical/role-playing scenario (which I think shows a double standard anyway), watch the end of his discussion with Rogan. He says if my boy comes to me and says "Dad, I've been cheating on my wife, sleeping with lots of women," etc. – Zebrafish Jan 28 '19 at 09:44
  • @dont_shog_me_bro I think ill leave it at that as this isn't the best place to continue this (genuinely) interesting discussion (nor am I trying to convince you one way or the other). All I can say is that I do not think you will find simple answers to complicated phenomena. I personally find that it is very easy for me to dislike and "debunk" some ones position if that was my goal from the start. – James Jan 28 '19 at 14:53
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    @Zebrafish That's exactly what we criticise politicians for - statements that make good soundbites but contain little to no actual policy information. Peterson is worse though, he refuses to really elaborate when asked repeatedly. His comments at the end of that interview are ridiculous, what person would confess their infidelity to their parents? It's also ineffective, as if thus confronted most parents would discourage infidelity already and it hasn't had the effect he wants. He won't say because the real answer is awful and he knows it. – dont_shog_me_bro Jan 28 '19 at 23:54
  • Note: youtube analytics will show you the gender breakdown of your channel viewers as a rough percentage, based on what youtube thinks they are. (from advertising data) This is not entirely accurate, even with accounts which have male/female set. – bobsburner Feb 19 '20 at 13:20
  • 'male domain primarily' - what does that even mean, how would something like that be tested? if all statistics lean male, ok - but realistically not all will, and as soon as any statistic is leaning female, who is to say that that isn't the dominating factor? number of comments? number of answers to comments? total viewing time? total ad-viewing time (thereby incentivising YT to cater more to that demographic that flushes more money into their coffers)? number of creators? some weird first-past-the-post measure of gender in views per minute per category? something even more involved? – bukwyrm Jun 20 '23 at 12:24

1 Answers1

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According to Omnicore, a digital marketing agency:

62% of YouTube users are Males.

They do not provide a methodology, so these numbers may be inaccurate, but they are probably in the ballpark.

It depends on the genre and content of the videos:

Males are primarily watching soccer or strategy games.

Females are primarily watching beauty videos.

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  • I made a significant edit to this answer. – Oddthinking Oct 02 '18 at 04:35
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    It is worth to note that there is _very large_ difference in the gender declared on youtube accounts and the _actual viewer_. As an example, my living room's TV is connected to my Youtube account, but who uses it mostly is my SO and my kids - all female. – T. Sar Oct 02 '18 at 11:31
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    Oddthinking, why would you make an edit like that? You took out the vast majority of what I posted and condensed it down to data that is far less useful with little context. – Foobucket Oct 02 '18 at 17:15
  • @Foobucket: I tried to explain in the edit comment, but there wasn't much room there. – Oddthinking Oct 03 '18 at 00:42
  • Much of what I deleted was unreferenced and opinion which is off-topic here. Another chunk was based on the Digiday article that was referenced in the question - it wasn't contributing to the answer, it was just repeating what the OP asked about. – Oddthinking Oct 03 '18 at 00:45
  • On top of that, I did a copy-edit - inlining the URL into a link, quoting the parts of the source that supported what you said, simplifying phrases like "in the ballpark range of being correct" to "in the ballpark". – Oddthinking Oct 03 '18 at 00:47
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    However, the thought that computer games are intrinsically a male thing has been debunked by "Adam ruins everything": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i08CVkBxvBM – Make42 Apr 13 '21 at 08:03
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    @Make42 One needs to discount Adam's (and his screenwriters) bias. I don't think the video is authoritative. Also, "computer games" is too broad. As a single example, would you consider "cookie clicker" a computer game? One could argue it's not. I've seen idle games being called "computer toys". – Mindwin Remember Monica Jun 14 '23 at 14:59
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    @MindwinRememberMonica: I would have considered cookie clicker a game, as I would have "Universal Paperclips". I also consider Ludo to be a game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludo#Mensch_%C3%A4rgere_dich_nicht - which, compared to Chess, looks like a clicker game compared to Eve Online. – Make42 Jun 15 '23 at 08:23
  • @Make42 One of the differences between a game and a toy is that the former has a chance of loss. All competitive play are games, Ludo included. Complexity has nothing to do with it. In the basic Cookie Clicker, do you have a way to lose? you click, you gain. The only losing move is not to play. - - - Of course I'd be disingenuous if I left out the fact that *competitive* Cookie Clicker (i.e. speedrunning) is, in fact, a game. But with a time constraint it is no longer the same thing as before. – Mindwin Remember Monica Jun 15 '23 at 12:09
  • Your link now says "4% of global YouTube users are male." and "6% of global YouTube users are female." Hardly a credible source. –  Jun 16 '23 at 09:06
  • @MindwinRememberMonica The Wikipedia article on games has many, many definitions of games by various people, some of which do include a chance of loss and some of which don't. You're stating as facts things that are merely disputed definitions. – prosfilaes Jun 16 '23 at 22:41
  • @MindwinRememberMonica: Coming from a mathematics background myself, actually, I find your reasoning in your latest post convincing. And sure, Adam does have a worldview - like every human being - but that does not necessarily mean he is wrong. I re-watched the episode I linked and Cookie Clicker was not to be found and all I saw were games using your understanding. So, overall I fail to see your argument. – Make42 Jun 17 '23 at 12:50
  • @Make42 Regarding Adam: Let me clarify. I never called them WRONG. I called them **non-authoritative**. Worldview = opinion - - - - - - - - Regarding games v. toys: Both are *played*, but the latter does not include the option of losing. Vanilla cookie clicker is the latter. You might take some time, but you'll will reach the end regardless of any drawbacks. There's no "game over" in cookie clicker. You **always** win. That's my point. – Mindwin Remember Monica Jun 19 '23 at 14:24
  • @MindwinRememberMonica: 1. Fair, you did say non-authorative. 2. You had me already convinced that cookie clicker is not a game, no need to repeat yourself. 3. I am not sure why you bring cookie clicker into the discussion at all, because nobody mentioned it - that was my question. 4. Most sources that could be quoted go through the worldview lens of the reporting entity. What source would you consider authoritative? Can you quote one and add to the discussion? – Make42 Jun 19 '23 at 14:44
  • Not stepping on that landmine. You define what is an authoritative source, and it'll work from there. From the top of my hand, exclude: Any source leaning to either side on the political spectrum. Any who blatantly fails to address (or debunk) some facts and counterarguments. Any whose results are not replicable, double blind, peer-reviewed, hyped, yadda yadda. Basically, the vast majority of all the speakers out there. Caveat emptor. – Mindwin Remember Monica Jun 19 '23 at 14:56