YouTube is the platform kids watch the most, and when they’re on it, they’re mostly watching cartoons, according to new data from Precisify (formerly Precise TV). 

The US research research firm did an online survey of 2,000 kids ages two to 12 and their parents to gather data for its January 2026 Precisify Kids Report, and here’s what it found about kids’ favorite shows and channels on YouTube. 

The top shows 

There’s a lot of overlap between boys and girls’ favorite channels, with preschoolers in both demos liking Bluey, CoComelon and PAW Patrol. Six- to nine-year-olds then both move into watching Nickelodeon, SpongeBob and MrBeast. And then when kids are 10 to 12, their interests are still pretty much aligned, with both boys and girls listing MrBeast, Nickelodeon, LEGO and SpongeBob among their top five favorites. At that age, the only difference in their top five is that girls are into the DisneyHits playlist (which features songs from animated and live-action Disney movies), while Ryan’s World rounds out the boys’ top five.  

Grils favorite YouTube channels and shows across demos. Both graphs are courtesy of Precisify.

Favorite gaming channels 

As kids age up, more of them are drawn to content focused on gaming. While cartoons are younger kids’ favorite things to watch, by the time they’re 10 to 12, gaming-related videos edge out cartoons. Among that demo, 43% say they’re watching gaming-related videos, compared with 37% who watch cartoons. (Both genres are eclipsed by music (47%) and comedy (53%) at this age, but the report doesn’t go into kids’ favorite channels in those categories.) 

Girls and boys share four of their top six favorite gaming channels: Flamingo, Lankybox, Craftee and GamingWithJen. Boys’ faves also include EthanGamer and Unspeakable, while girls prefer BigSchool and FGTV. 

Second-screening 

So that’s what kids are watching—but what about how they’re watching? Precisify also found that when kids are watching content, many of them are second-screening (looking at mobile phones while also watching TV). It’s a trend kids research has been tracking more and more, and this latest report paints more of a picture of what that looks like for children. 

Almost half of kids (47% of two to fives and 49% of six to nines) are second-screening. When they’re watching TV they’re also watching YouTube (45%), playing games (45%), watching YouTube Shorts (32%) and watching TikTok (23%).

However, this could be behaviour kids are picking up from adults, since 39% of parents are second-screening to play mobile games and 36% are watching YouTube. 

The full report is available via Precisify’s website. 

Top image courtesy of Vidmir Raic from Pixabay.