I think most top YouTubers are considered "creators" more than "influencers". It takes a substantially different set of skills to create videos people want to watch than photos people want to view, and intuitively you'd expect the latter to tilt more towards first-impression attractiveness. Instagram fits more closely with the way this guy used his Twitter account (pictures and text), I can't seem to find an authoritative list of independently-famous Instagram influencers, but the lists I've seen consist primarily of models.

Almost every guy in that list is pretty damn handsome. The notable exception is Luisito Comunica, who I'm guessing makes up for it by being exceptionally interesting.

"Pretty handsome" is relative. Pewdiepie is a good-looking guy, but his analogues on Instagram are 1000x more so. And I can't imagine someone like Casey Neistat becoming remotely as big an Instagram star as he is on YouTube.

It's also telling how male the list is.

Very true. Casey is an odd-looking dude but damn can he churn out masterfully edited and interesting videos.

When people say “influencer” they’re usually referring to the long-tail of people with 10k+++ followers who don’t really create anything other than a curated snapshot of their life. They’re usually on platforms like Instagram and Twitter where the bar to post content is very low. They make their money by posting sponsored content, because they have no other way of monetizing their audience (they have no skills except for building audiences).

The top 26 list of YouTubers is filled with influential people, and many people would say that they’re influencers, but they’re not typical examples.

> (they have no skills except for building audiences).

And that "skill" is based almost entirely on being attractive.

And these days, with camera and video filters, even that's not necessary any more.

I follow a lot of rock climbing on insta, and the top men definitely have more followers than the top women, but if it's a pic of an average climber on an average climb, it'll get way more likes if the climber is a woman.

In the old world of professional climbing, when the magazines decided who was worthy of attention and accolades, sponsorships were generally handed out according to merit.

Now days, sponsorship is shifting more and more to climbers who are media friendly and good at drawing attention to themselves. Top tier climbers are now refashioning themselves into mediocre youtube celebrities, with mixed results.

to dominate the top of leaderboards, whether it's Youtube or Starcraft, takes a single-minded obsession that is more common with men.

Pewdiepie was obsessed with having the most subscribers. Mr. Beast did little else than obsess over the Youtube algorithm for many years on end.

It's worth noting that platforms tend to have a gender(sex? sorry I'm bad with the terminology), bias that skews male/female. I seem to recall hearing that Youtube skews male (in viewership) and IG female. (if someone has links to stats, thanks in advance)

I wonder if this is at play with these two cases?

Now do Instagram and Tiktok

Tikthot