On 10 November 2021, YouTube officially announced the removal of dislike counts on all videos across their platform. The company stated that the new move was intended to help limit and control targeted harassment towards its creators.
The dislike count was a useful indicator that helped gauge the quality, but also the reliability factor of a video. Example – tutorials. Since the update, a lot of YouTubers and viewers have spoken up about its flaws and believe that the feature should have been left untouched.
Luckily, there are some browser extensions that will show the like/dislike ratio and other metrics, even if they have been disabled by YouTube:
vidIQ
vidIQ is a third-party analytical website that is used by a large number of creators on YouTube. The site offers tips on growing one’s channel and provides detailed statistics based on public interactions on videos. In order to see the dislike count, users will have to install a vidIQ extension that is currently available only on Chrome and Firefox browsers.
Step 1: Search up “vidIQ extension” on your preferred browser and head over to the official website. At the top, you will see a list of options – click on “Extension.”
Head over to the “Extension” tab at the top. (Screenshot)
Step 2: On the new page, you will see a button asking you to install the extension. Clicking on it will take you to the Add-Ons page, where you can install it.
Install the extension. (Screenshot)
Step 3: Once that’s done, your browser will automatically open an unlisted YouTube video that gives you a brief rundown on the app. On the right-hand side, you should see a panel that asks for login credentials. You can either create a dedicated account for vidIQ or log in through Google as well.
You can create a vidIQ account or log in through Google. (Screenshot)
Step 4: The app might ask for permission to access and change information on your YouTube account, but that’s completely normal. It’s a trusted application that’s used by many content creators, so just agree to all of that.
Step 5: After the setup phase, open a YouTube video and hit refresh so the app fully configures itself. Now, on the same right-hand side panel, you should be able to see a ton of information ranging from like/dislike ratio, engagement rate, SEO score, etc.
The right-hand side panel will display the like/dislike ratio and other statistics. (Screenshot)
Keep in mind that the app hasn’t fully adapted to YouTube’s latest changes, so the metrics might glitch out at some points. But it’s nothing that a simple refresh won’t fix.
Return Youtube Dislike Stats
Created by Dmitry Selivanov, this third-party browser extension quite “literally” returns the ability to see dislike statistics on YouTube. The plugin scours through YouTube’s official Data API to fetch scrapped dislike stats and estimates from user data to present a near-approximate value. The app is open-source as well and can be accessed via their GitHub page.
Step 1: On your preferred browser, search up “return youtube dislike GitHub” and click on the first link updated on 10 November 2021. Alternatively, you can click here to access the page as well.
Step 2: Right beside it, in the about section, you should see a link (returnyoutubedislike.com). Click on it.
Click on the link to the official website on the ‘About’ section. (Screenshot)
Step 3: This should take you to their official website where you can hit install and pick between Chrome or Firefox. Once on the official extensions page, you can add it to your browser.
Visible dislike count. (Screenshot)
Step 4: All you need to do now is open a YouTube video and hit refresh once. The dislike count should be visible at the bottom as it did before the update.
