Controversial opinion incoming, but I don't think Yuzuru Hanyu is the greatest male figure skater of all time. Highly influential? Absolutely. One of the best skaters of his time? Also absolutely. But I don't think he's the greatest.
I'm not sure who I would consider the greatest. It's somewhere between Dick Button, Ulrich Salchow, and (much to my dislike) Evgeni Plushenko. (Seriously I have hated Plushenko since he first started skating, but I cannot deny his skill and I cannot deny his influence) Yuzuru is likely in the next group along with Kurt Browning, Brian Orser, and Ilia Malinin. Still up there definitely in the top ten and probably within the top five. I definitely place him ahead of Ilia as of 2026. Later... Who knows
From what I have observed over the past 10+ years, I think a lot of Yuzuru's fan base give him extra points/extra credit for being a very pretty man. And I see this glazing not just with Yuzuru but with other conventionally attractive skaters. And the fans are not alone in this, this credit/glazing even shows up in their scores... Aka the judges are not immune to a pretty face. Most humans aren't. So this isn't a slam on his fans, it's just a thing that needs to be acknowledged.
It's well known in the figure skating community that the more conventionally attractive is skater is the better they score compared to an equally skilled but less conventionally attractive skater... And that includes body shape as well as things like if a skater has acne, braces, a receding hairline, or not. (Look at the recent discussions regarding body shape that Josephine Tallegard or Natalie Tashlerova have put out... Or the whole Tonya Harding versus Nancy Kerrigan crap (athletic vs elegant)) There is also an unfortunate tendency in many parts of the internet (and in Western society in general) to fetishize people of Asian descent. I saw it over and over and over again when I was working conventions. I saw it when I was the vice president of the Asian cultural association at my University. (People would come and join the group just to try to hook up with the Asians... Particularly the East Asians... And it was a legitimate problem). And I see it in figure skating. I've been part of the figure skating fan community since the 1980s. I did LTS prior to the '84 Olympics (so many figures!). This isn't a new thing. East Asian Fetishizing is a thing. As is a huge propensity for parasocialization... Especially since the rise of social media. Both of which I feel affect how some people perceive Yuzuru Hanyu.
I also find that people tend to rank Olympic medalists higher than they should. The Olympic games are cool and all, but they are honestly just one competition (for example I adore Shaidorov, but he is not the current best male singles skater in the world. And his influence isn't totally known yet. I have high hopes he will propel Kazakhstan forward. But I'm not sure of his global influence.) Additionally I think "greatest of all time" is a metric that is skewed toward recency bias. And this has much more to do with our ability to watch events in real time and the elimination of things the average viewer finds boring like figures or compulsory dances. But it also has to do with changes in equipment and ice quality. What you can do on an outdoor rink is very different than what you can do on a well climate controlled one. Ice quality matters. Additionally for much of the time figure skating existed as a sport, the skates did not have the same support that modern skates do. This also applies to the costumes themselves. Drag is a thing. Which by that token also applies to the jumps themselves because leg wrapping was considered more aesthetically pleasing for earlier jumps because it highlighted the jump... Nowadays leg wrapping is considered bad technique.
So honestly, I tend to look at a few things when I consider the greatest of all time. I consider longevity which Yuzuru has. I consider innovativeness which he also has. I consider post career influence... And here, in my opinion, Yuzuru takes a hit... He is not a coach nor is he a commentator who brings figure skating to the masses. His ice shows are honestly very niche. They are very much location gated and class gated. They are not accessible to the average fan. No ice show is unless it is televised... Not streamed but televised. And finally I consider something that a lot of people don't in the IJS system, I consider overall consistent program cleanliness. And Yuzuru was never consistently clean. And falls, stumbles, and other bobbles tend to ruin a performance for me. Because it throws me out of the illusion and the story that the skater is trying to tell. I grew up in the 6.0 system where cleanliness mattered.
So that's my opinion. I do not consider Yuzuru Hanyu the GOAT. He's great but not the greatest.
And it's okay for people to disagree.
