Data · October 2026
Typical engagement rates on TikTok and YouTube Shorts (October 2026)
How many likes and comments a typical public post gets for every 1,000 views, by platform and by account size. We read every post ourselves, logged out, and publish the figures with their sample sizes and their gaps.
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75
Typical TikTok likes per 1,000 views
Middle half of posts: 34 to 122 · 385 posts from 207 accounts
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12
Typical YouTube Shorts likes per 1,000 views
Middle half of posts: 8,0 to 19 · 404 posts from 110 accounts
Aggregates only: no account names, links or single posts.
By platform and account size
Likes per 1,000 views. Median, the middle half of posts (25th to 75th percentile) and the 10th to 90th percentile. Likes per view differ about sixfold between the two platforms, so compare a post only with its own platform. Account size moves the typical figure far less than the spread between single posts does.
TikTok
| Account size (followers) | Posts | Accounts | Median | Middle half | 10th to 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All accounts | 385 | 207 | 75 | 34 to 122 | 19 to 185 |
| Under 50K | 197 | 133 | 76 | 34 to 130 | 20 to 211 |
| 50K to 500K | 42 | 26 | 76 | 34 to 113 | 23 to 184 |
| 500K to 5M | 96 | 31 | 68 | 31 to 114 | 18 to 137 |
| Over 5M | 50 | 17 | 84 | 46 to 123 | 18 to 159 |
YouTube Shorts
| Account size (followers) | Posts | Accounts | Median | Middle half | 10th to 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All accounts | 404 | 110 | 12 | 8,0 to 19 | 5,0 to 26 |
| Under 50K | 199 | 56 | 12 | 8,1 to 18 | 5,0 to 26 |
| 50K to 500K | 163 | 43 | 12 | 7,4 to 20 | 5,0 to 27 |
| 500K to 5M | 31 | 8 | 12 | 9,2 to 15 | 6,6 to 21 |
| Over 5MThin sample: read with care | 7 | 2 | 15 | 8,0 to 19 | 6,8 to 25 |
Comments per 1,000 views
Comments are rarer and vary far more from post to post than likes, so they make a weaker check on their own.
| Account size (followers) | Posts | Accounts | Median | Middle half | 10th to 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | 385 | 207 | 0,92 | 0,37 to 2,59 | 0,14 to 7,17 |
| YouTube Shorts | 336 | 105 | 0,12 | 0,05 to 0,40 | 0,02 to 1,20 |
How we collected it
TikTok accounts came from random pages of a public web archive's index (so not chosen by size), from a list spanning niches and countries, and from YouTube creators with the same name on TikTok. YouTube channels were found through hashtag pages across niches and languages. We then read up to 4 recent posts per account from its own page.
We kept posts with at least 500 views that were at least 48 hours and at most 365 days old, and YouTube Shorts of 60 seconds or less. Posts found through trending or top-post pages were left out, so popular posts aren't over-represented.
Posted between 11 oct. 2025 – 9 oct. 2026. Counts read on 11 octombrie 2026.
Every count was read by WhichPost itself, from what anyone can see without logging in. No third-party dataset, no logins, nothing bypassed.
What this data can't tell you
- Instagram Reels aren't included: Instagram doesn't show view counts to visitors who aren't logged in.
- No figures per country yet. The TikTok accounts span 45 countries, but no single market has enough accounts to publish on its own; YouTube channels don't state a country.
- All counts were read on a single day, so they describe posts at different ages, and a post's likes keep growing for a while after its views do.
- Most TikTok accounts carry no niche label, so the figures are a cross-section, not a per-niche typical.
- Cells with fewer than 30 posts are marked thin.
- Engagement isn't sales. A post with typical engagement can still bring no customers.
How to use it
Check one post: the bought views check compares a post's likes per 1,000 views with these figures and can watch its views for 48 hours.
Then see what the real views brought: WhichPost measures the paying customers each creator's posts brought, with a range.
Cite this data
WhichPost, “Typical engagement rates on TikTok and YouTube Shorts (October 2026)”, https://whichpost.app/ro/data/short-video-engagement-rate-2026. Licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a link back.