Gen Z Users Want Short-Form Content, Spend 4 Hours On Social Media Daily, Like Superheroes: What The Latest Survey Results Say

A new survey showed what top video games, film franchises and social media networks were for Americans between the ages of 13 and 25.

The poll results for Gen Z users could indicate what trends are coming and where companies should be making moves.

Gen Z Video Games: One of the most popular video games for Gen Z users was released in 2011. Now owned by Microsoft Corp MSFT, “Minecraft” has remained in demand and was among the bestselling video games.

Of the Gen Z Americans polled, 71% identified as fans of “Minecraft,” more than double the 32% of the overall American population polled that identified as fans.

These were the top-10 most loved video games:

Minecraft

Grand Theft Auto, owned by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc TTWO

Call of Duty, owned by Activision Blizzard Inc ATVI

Among Us

Roblox, owned by Roblox Corp RBLX

Fortnite

Animal Crossing, owned by Nintendo ADR NTDOY

Assassin’s Creed, owned by Ubisoft UBSFY

Red Dead Redemption

Halo

The poll did not include sports franchises, which left games such as FIFA and Madden out of the results.

Gen Z Prefers Short-Form Content: One of the questions from Morning Consult, the company that did the survey, asked what the ideal length for movies and television series was. The results showed Gen Z preferred shorter-length content.

Ideal television episode length:

15 minutes or less: 5%

30 minutes: 34%

45 minutes: 35%

1 hour: 16%

1 hour, 15 minutes: 9%

Of the Gen Z users polled, only 25% selected episodes to be one hour or longer, compared to 52% of the overall adult population. The most popular answer for the overall population was one hour, selected by 42% of respondents.

Ideal movie length:

1 hour or less: 4%

1 hour, 30 minutes: 37%

2 hours: 39%

2 hours, 30 minutes: 16%

3 hours: 4%

Related Link: The Fastest Growing Brands In 2022: How Crocs, Apple, Zelle And More Stack Up Across Boomers, Gen Z, Gen X, Millenials

Favorite Actors and Content Creators: Gen Z users preferred actors from popular superhero franchises and showed strong support for content creators on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.

The top 10 actors in the poll were:

Dwayne Johnson: 65%

Tom Holland: 58%

Johnny Depp: 56%

Robert Downey Jr.: 52%

Emma Watson: 49%

Chris Hemsworth: 45%

Samuel L. Jackson: 45%

Tom Hanks: 44%

Chris Evans: 43%

Scarlett Johansson: 39%

Of the top 10 favorite actors, seven played a superhero at least once on the big screen.

The top listed creators in the poll were Mr. Beast (Jimmy Donaldson), Zach King, PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg), KSI (Oajide Oltunji) and Emma Chamberlain. Seven of the top 10 content creators made content around video games of some form.

Social Media Usage: Gen Z consumers were born between the years 1997 and 2012, according to Morning Consult, which means they were alive during the digital generation and had access to internet and smartphones for most of their lives.

Here’s a look at how long Gen Z users spent on social media on a daily basis:

Less than 1 hour: 4%

1 hour: 9%

2 hours: 14%

3 hours: 17%

4 hours: 16%

More than 4 hours: 38%

Do not use: 2%

The top selected answer was more than four hours getting 38% of the responses. Over half of Gen Z users (54%) said they spent at least four hours on social media daily.

The most popular answer for time spent online was YouTube, the video platform owned by Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL.

Here are the top-used social media platforms for Gen Z:

YouTube: 88%

Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms META: 76%

TikTok: 68%

Snapchat, owned by Snap Inc SNAP: 67%

Facebook: 49%

Twitter: 47%

Discord: 35%

Movie Trends: Gen Z users heard about movies from social media or while watching videos and relied less on recommendations from friends and family or traditional media. Seventy-seven percent of Gen Z users said they relied on advertisements on social media for movies and 74% said they used ads seen while watching tv, movies and video.

Gen Z users selected Despicable Me as their favorite franchise, which saw a boost from a TikTok trend for the latest movie in the series. Other popular franchises included Jumanji, Marvel, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, Stranger Things and Ghostbusters. The Netflix Inc NFLX hit Stranger Things was the only non-movie to rank in the top 10.

Comedy was the most popular genre for Gen Z users with 38% of those polled selecting it as one of their three favorites. Horror ranked second with 32% of the vote from Gen Z.

Read Next: Minecraft Hits 1 Trillion Views On YouTube, How The Game Has Maintained Its User Base 

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