YouTube Engagement Benchmarks
What counts as a good like-to-view ratio? These numbers come from real public videos observed through the Voclify extension, not surveys or estimates. Compare your videos against the medians below.
2,920 videos across 1,734 channels. Videos with at least 1,000 views and a recorded like count. Updated 2026-08-30.
1.96%
Median like rate, long-form videos
1.97%
Median like rate, Shorts
3.49%
Top-quartile threshold, long-form
2.21%
Median channel-level engagement rate
Like rate falls as views grow
The clearest pattern in the data: the bigger a video gets, the lower its like rate. A video in the 1K to 10K range earns roughly 3.7x the like rate of a video past a million views. Viral reach pulls in viewers with no attachment to the channel, and they like far less often.
1K to 10K views
404 videos
3.3%
10K to 100K views
793 videos
2.55%
100K to 1M views
784 videos
1.99%
Over 1M views
652 videos
0.89%
Where does your video stand?
Quartiles split the dataset into four equal parts. If your like rate beats the 75th percentile, you are in the top quarter of all videos we track.
| Segment | Bottom quartile | Median | Top quartile | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-form videos | 1% | 1.96% | 3.49% | 2,633 |
| Shorts | 1.29% | 1.97% | 3% | 287 |
| Channel-level average | 1.24% | 2.21% | 3.7% | 948 |
Methodology. Like and view counts are public YouTube data, observed on video pages through the Voclify browser extension and refreshed continuously. Only videos with at least 1,000 views and a recorded like count are included, so rates are never computed on noise-level samples. The dataset leans toward faceless and commentary niches, where Voclify creators are most active, and medians are reported instead of averages so a handful of outliers cannot skew the benchmarks. Cite these numbers freely with a link to this page.
Common questions
What is a good like-to-view ratio on YouTube?
Across 2,920 real videos in this dataset, the median like-to-view ratio for long-form videos is 1.96%. Anything above 3.49% puts a video in the top quarter, and below 1% is the bottom quarter. Channel size matters: smaller videos routinely earn higher like rates than viral ones.
Do YouTube Shorts get higher engagement than long-form videos?
Not in likes. In this dataset the median like rate on Shorts is 1.97%, against 1.96% for long-form. Shorts reach many passive viewers through the feed, and passive reach converts to likes at a lower rate than an audience that clicked a title on purpose.
Why do viral videos have lower like rates?
The data shows a clear decay: videos with 1K to 10K views hold a median like rate of 3.3%, while videos past 1M views drop to 0.89%. As a video travels beyond the channel's core audience, more viewers arrive with no attachment to the creator, and casual viewers like far less often.
Where does this data come from?
From public like and view counts observed across 2,920 videos on 1,734 channels through the Voclify browser extension. Only videos with at least 1,000 views and a recorded like count are included. The sample leans toward faceless and commentary niches, where Voclify creators are most active.
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