John: the one-like-per-ten-views ratio will probably not hold for this video (2020)
prediction · status: came true · last event: predicted (2020-02-25) · owner: John · last mentioned: 2026-09-15
In February 2020 John asked viewers to like a video to test whether the channel's one-like-per-ten-views ratio was real, guessing it probably was not. Within a day the video had about one like per 2.2 views, and he declared the ratio dead.
Told alongside: John asks viewers to like his video to test the one-like-per-ten-views ratio (2020) · John: the Vlogbrothers like-to-view ratio will revert to the mean (2020) · John: not ask viewers to like a video again for years (2020)
About: YouTube
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-02-25 | came true | In comment updates John reports the 1:10 ratio is dead: at 17 hours the video had 107,000 views and 47,000 likes, about 1:2.2, with views about 35% above normal. | A weird YouTube thing? |
| 2020-02-25 | predicted | Feeling as nervous as if asking someone to prom, John asks viewers to click like to break the cycle or find the ratio is real; probably not, but he asks them to like it so he can disprove the theory. (hedged) | A weird YouTube thing? 00:03:20 |
| 2026-09-15 | recalled | John says the ratio holds only if you don't ask people to like your video, which the brothers don't, because there are more interesting calls to action. | YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 00:00:29 |
What is said about it
8 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2026-09-15 · YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 — John says he could estimate a video's earnings by multiplying its likes by 30: ten viewers per like, and about $3 per thousand views. — 00:00:58
- 2026-09-15 · YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 — John says that over the last year or so the ratio started to change because fewer people like the videos they watch. — 00:00:58
- 2026-09-15 · YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 — John gives reasons for fewer likes: watching on TVs or phones, perhaps feeling less like a participant than in the old days, and never being told to smash the like button. (hedged) — 00:01:27
- 2026-09-15 · YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 — John says that in the last month YouTube, borrowing from Instagram and TikTok, began counting a view when anyone watches any frame, instead of after an unknown number of seconds. — 00:01:27
- 2026-09-15 · YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 — John says view counts across YouTube have skyrocketed in the last month; his most recent video received 1.2 million-ish views. — 00:01:56
- 2026-09-15 · YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 — John says the analytics' engaged-views tab shows that video received about 380,000 views the old way, so about two-thirds of its views would not have counted a month ago. — 00:02:26
- 2026-09-15 · YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 — John says the extra views bring no more revenue or deep community engagement: most are 'trash views', as on Instagram and TikTok. — 00:02:26
- 2026-09-15 · YouTube Says This Video Has 683,183 Views, It Actually Has 312,584 — John says 1,000 views no longer means $3 in revenue; these days it means about 90 cents. — 00:02:26