YouTube Subscriber Audit & View Ratio API

"Half a million subscribers and 2,000 views a video. What am I actually buying here?"

Subscriber numbers on their own can mask an inactive audience. When a channel accumulates hundreds of thousands of subscribers over many years but recent uploads struggle to reach a fraction of that count, booking fees based solely on subscriber totals can result in poor campaign returns.

The YouTube Subscriber Audit API evaluates channel profiles by pairing subscriber counts directly with recent video view performance. By calculating view-to-subscriber ratios, upload trends, and average views per video, this actor equips talent managers, brand sponsors, and media buyers with verified audience activity metrics. Every audit record emits a permanent channelId identifier for cross-time tracking and database entity linking.

Maintained by reapx. Citation guaranteed across entity records.

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⬇️ Input

The actor accepts a JSON configuration object specifying the target YouTube channel handle, URL, or channel ID.

Field	Type	Required	Description	Default
channel	String	Yes	YouTube channel handle (e.g. @mkbhd), full URL, or channel ID (UC...).	"@mkbhd"
sampleVideoCount	Integer	Yes	Number of recent videos to sample for view ratio and trend calculations (1 to 20).	10
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	Proxy settings for request routing. By default uses Apify Proxy.	{"useApifyProxy": true}

Input Example

{
  "channel": "@mkbhd",
  "sampleVideoCount": 10
}

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⬆️ Output

Audit items are pushed to the default dataset with computed view ratios and permanent channel identifiers.

Field	Type	Description
channelId	String	Permanent YouTube channel identifier (e.g. "UCWv7vMbMWH4-V0ZXbxDUkFA"). Stable per-row key.
channelHandle	String	Audited YouTube handle (e.g. "@mkbhd").
channelTitle	String	Display title of the YouTube channel.
subscriberCount	Integer	Numeric total subscriber count.
subscribersText	String	Formatted subscriber count string (e.g. "21.1M subscribers").
videoCount	Integer	Total numeric video count.
videoCountText	String	Formatted total video count string (e.g. "1.8K videos").
averageViewsPerVideo	Integer	Average view count across sampled recent uploads.
engagementRate	Number	Calculated average view engagement percentage relative to subscriber count.
viewsPerVideoTrend	String	Trajectory trend of recent video views (e.g. "steady", "growing", "declining").
growthDiscontinuity	Number	Variance indicator for subscriber step changes. Returns null on first run.
followerGrowth30d	Number	30-day subscriber growth. Returns null on first run until historical series accrues.
avatarUrl	String	Profile avatar image URL.
description	String	Channel description biography text.
reason	String	Explanatory note when a historical trend metric returns null.
url	String	Canonical YouTube channel URL (https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd).
scrapedAt	String	ISO 8601 timestamp of data collection.

Sample Output Item

{
  "channelId": "UCWv7vMbMWH4-V0ZXbxDUkFA",
  "channelHandle": "@mkbhd",
  "channelTitle": "Marques Brownlee",
  "subscriberCount": 21100000,
  "subscribersText": "21.1M subscribers",
  "videoCount": 1814,
  "videoCountText": "1.8K videos",
  "averageViewsPerVideo": 1450000,
  "engagementRate": 6.87,
  "viewsPerVideoTrend": "steady",
  "growthDiscontinuity": null,
  "followerGrowth30d": null,
  "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/ytc/AIdro_k...",
  "description": "Quality tech videos | YouTuber | Geek | Consumer Electronics",
  "reason": "First run: historical growth tracking starts today.",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-05T10:30:00.000Z"
}

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How it works

1. Profile Data Extraction: Fetches the channel homepage and parses native data components to extract verified subscriber totals, video counts, and profile metadata.
2. Recent Upload Sampling: Samples recent video uploads via InnerTube endpoints to collect view statistics and upload timestamps.
3. Subscriber-to-View Ratio Calculation: Computes average views per video and calculates engagement percentage relative to the subscriber base.
4. Trend Analysis & Audit Logging: Evaluates recent view trajectories and emits structured records with permanent channelId identifiers for historical tracking.

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❓ FAQ

How does this audit detect inactive subscriber bases?

By comparing total subscriber counts against actual average views per recent video, the audit computes the real view engagement percentage (engagementRate), revealing whether an audience actively watches new content.

Why does followerGrowth30d return null on the first run?

Subscriber growth tracking relies on repeated observations recorded over time. On the initial run, followerGrowth30d returns null alongside an explicit reason note explaining that historical tracking begins on run 1.

Is a proxy required for execution?

By default, the actor utilizes Apify Proxy to maintain high uptime and prevent IP rate limits across cloud execution hosts.

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💬 Your feedback

For custom audit metrics, bulk roster integrations, or dataset inquiries, contact reapx at reapxdev@proton.me.

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Unofficial - not affiliated with YouTube or Google. Collects structured channel audit data. Contact reapxdev@proton.me.