Spam indicator
High video:subscribers ratio
What it checks
How many public videos the channel has for each subscriber.
The exact rule
- It fires (100%) when the channel has more than 20 public videos per subscriber, and when it has videos but 0 subscribers.
- It reads 0% when the channel has no videos, or at least as many subscribers as videos.
- It is N/A when the channel has videos and hides its subscriber count.
- YouTube rounds public subscriber counts to three significant figures, so the ratio is exact for small channels and approximate for big ones.
Why it can point to spam
Upload farms post hundreds of videos that nobody subscribes for. A large pile of videos with almost no subscribers is what that looks like from outside.
When it fires on a legitimate channel
A new channel that posts every day can have 21 videos and one subscriber. Channels used as a personal archive, for game clips, lessons for a class or security camera uploads, collect videos without trying to collect subscribers.
How to change it
If you run the channel, it changes as subscribers arrive. Old test uploads or personal clips that don't need to be public can be set to private or unlisted in YouTube Studio (Content, then the video's Visibility), which lowers the public video count. Don't buy subscribers to fix it: that breaks YouTube's fake engagement policy.