# UGC citation channels: Reddit, YouTube, Wikipedia — powerful and volatile

**Confidence: [M]** (large citation analyses; mix shifts fast)

The citation economics as of early 2026: **YouTube overtook Reddit** as the
#1 social source in LLM answers (16% vs 10% of answers — a reversal from
2025); Google AI Overviews still cite Reddit in ~21% of responses; Perplexity
remains Reddit-heavy (one study: 46.7% of its top citations);
Wikipedia+Reddit exceed 25% of US ChatGPT citations. Reddit citation share
grew 73% in commercial categories (Tinuiti Q1 2026). Volatility warning: one
Google parameter change dropped ChatGPT's Reddit share 60%→10% in six weeks.

**How to apply:** legitimate Reddit presence and transcribed, demonstrative
YouTube video are _citation channels_, not just social channels — YouTube
mentions are the single strongest AI-visibility correlate (0.737,
[[mentions-beat-backlinks]]). Spammy Reddit seeding is being filtered;
authentic participation only. Re-sample the mix quarterly
([[engine-divergence]]).

**Evidence:** https://searchengineland.com/ai-search-engines-cite-reddit-youtube-and-linkedin-most-study-473138 ·
https://wellows.com/blog/social-media-ai-citations-report-2026/ ·
https://contently.com/2026/04/29/top-sources-llms-cite/
