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Datasets:
ScriptSmith
/
sponsorblock-youtube-metadata-2024

Tasks:
Text Classification
Feature Extraction
Text Generation
Modalities:
Image
Tabular
Text
Formats:
parquet
Languages:
English
Russian
Hindi
Size:
10M - 100M
Tags:
youtube
video-metadata
sponsorblock
subtitles
engagement
viewer-behavior
Libraries:
Datasets
Dask
Polars
License:
Dataset card Data Studio Files
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metadata 
pretty_name: SponsorBlock YouTube Metadata
license: cc-by-4.0
language:
  - en
  - ru
  - hi
  - pl
  - pt
  - de
  - fr
  - es
  - vi
  - multilingual
annotations_creators:
  - machine-generated
language_creators:
  - machine-generated
source_datasets:
  - original
task_categories:
  - text-classification
  - feature-extraction
  - text-generation
tags:
  - youtube
  - video-metadata
  - sponsorblock
  - subtitles
  - engagement
  - viewer-behavior
  - captions
  - transcripts
size_categories:
  - 10M<n<100M
configs:
  - config_name: video_metadata
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: video_metadata/*.parquet
    default: true
  - config_name: subtitles
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: subtitles/*.parquet
  - config_name: channel_playlists
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: channel_playlists/*.parquet
  - config_name: heatmaps
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: heatmaps/*.parquet
  - config_name: live_chat
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: live_chat/*.parquet
dataset_info:
  - config_name: video_metadata
    features:
      - name: id
        dtype: string
      - name: title
        dtype: string
      - name: fulltitle
        dtype: string
      - name: description
        dtype: string
      - name: upload_date
        dtype: string
      - name: timestamp
        dtype: int64
      - name: duration
        dtype: int64
      - name: view_count
        dtype: int64
      - name: like_count
        dtype: int64
      - name: comment_count
        dtype: int64
      - name: channel
        dtype: string
      - name: channel_id
        dtype: string
      - name: channel_url
        dtype: string
      - name: channel_follower_count
        dtype: int64
      - name: channel_is_verified
        dtype: bool
      - name: uploader
        dtype: string
      - name: uploader_id
        dtype: string
      - name: width
        dtype: int64
      - name: height
        dtype: int64
      - name: fps
        dtype: float64
      - name: vcodec
        dtype: string
      - name: acodec
        dtype: string
      - name: dynamic_range
        dtype: string
      - name: aspect_ratio
        dtype: float64
      - name: age_limit
        dtype: int64
      - name: availability
        dtype: string
      - name: live_status
        dtype: string
      - name: was_live
        dtype: bool
      - name: is_live
        dtype: bool
      - name: language
        dtype: string
      - name: playable_in_embed
        dtype: bool
      - name: media_type
        dtype: string
      - name: license
        dtype: string
      - name: location
        dtype: string
      - name: categories
        dtype: string
      - name: tags
        dtype: string
      - name: thumbnail
        dtype: string
      - name: chapters_json
        dtype: string
    splits:
      - name: train
        num_examples: 154536
  - config_name: subtitles
    features:
      - name: video_id
        dtype: string
      - name: language
        dtype: string
      - name: full_text
        dtype: string
      - name: segments_json
        dtype: string
    splits:
      - name: train
        num_examples: 62819
  - config_name: channel_playlists
    features:
      - name: id
        dtype: string
      - name: title
        dtype: string
      - name: description
        dtype: string
      - name: duration
        dtype: int64
      - name: view_count
        dtype: int64
      - name: timestamp
        dtype: int64
      - name: upload_date
        dtype: string
      - name: live_status
        dtype: string
      - name: availability
        dtype: string
      - name: channel
        dtype: string
      - name: channel_id
        dtype: string
      - name: channel_url
        dtype: string
      - name: channel_is_verified
        dtype: bool
      - name: uploader
        dtype: string
      - name: uploader_id
        dtype: string
      - name: playlist
        dtype: string
      - name: playlist_id
        dtype: string
      - name: playlist_title
        dtype: string
      - name: playlist_count
        dtype: int64
      - name: playlist_index
        dtype: int64
      - name: playlist_channel
        dtype: string
      - name: playlist_channel_id
        dtype: string
      - name: thumbnail
        dtype: string
    splits:
      - name: train
        num_examples: 20800000
  - config_name: heatmaps
    features:
      - name: video_id
        dtype: string
      - name: start_time
        dtype: float64
      - name: end_time
        dtype: float64
      - name: value
        dtype: float64
    splits:
      - name: train
        num_examples: 15000000
  - config_name: live_chat
    features:
      - name: video_id
        dtype: string
      - name: message_id
        dtype: string
      - name: timestamp_usec
        dtype: int64
      - name: video_offset_msec
        dtype: int64
      - name: author_name
        dtype: string
      - name: author_channel_id
        dtype: string
      - name: message
        dtype: string
      - name: message_type
        dtype: string
    splits:
      - name: train
        num_examples: 5000000

SponsorBlock YouTube Metadata Dataset

A dataset of YouTube video metadata collected from a subset of videos in the SponsorBlock database. This dataset contains metadata, subtitles, engagement heatmaps, live chat, and channel playlist information for popular YouTube videos.

Quick Stats

Metric Value
Total videos 154,536
Videos with subtitles 62,819 (41%)
Videos with heatmaps ~92%
Videos with chapters ~32%
Livestream recordings 4,300
Unique channels 20,061
Channel playlist entries ~20.8M
Average video duration 28.6 minutes
Average view count 1.6M views

Collection Period

Data Type Collection Date Content Date Range
Video metadata Aug 9 - Sep 30, 2025 May 2019 - Dec 2024
Channel playlists Oct 2-5, 2025 Varies by channel

Note: All metrics (view counts, likes, subscriber counts) are snapshots from the collection date and do not represent historical data.

Data Source

Videos were selected from a subset of the SponsorBlock database, a crowdsourced browser extension for skipping sponsor segments. The subset was created by sorting all videos by their SponsorBlock vote count (total upvotes on submitted segments) and selecting the top ~167K video IDs. This selection method biases the dataset toward:

  • Highly-engaged SponsorBlock content — videos with many user-submitted and upvoted segments
  • Popular videos with large, active communities
  • Gaming, tech, and entertainment content (common SponsorBlock categories)
  • Videos with sponsor segments (brand deals, mid-roll ads)
  • English-language content primarily, with significant Russian, Hindi, and European language representation

Note: This dataset does not represent a random sample of YouTube or even a random sample of SponsorBlock. Videos were specifically selected for having high engagement within the SponsorBlock community.

Category Distribution

Category Percentage
Gaming 15%
Entertainment 11%
People & Blogs 8%
Science & Technology 6%
Education 5%
Other 55%

Language Distribution

Language Percentage
English (en, en-US) 25%
Russian 16%
Hindi 2.5%
Polish 2%
Other 54.5%

Dataset Configurations

video_metadata

Full metadata for 154,536 individual YouTube videos.

Column Type Description
id string YouTube video ID (11 characters)
title string Video title
fulltitle string Full video title
description string Video description (may be truncated)
upload_date string Upload date (YYYYMMDD format)
timestamp int64 Unix timestamp of upload
duration int64 Duration in seconds
view_count int64 Number of views at collection time
like_count int64 Number of likes at collection time
comment_count int64 Number of comments at collection time
channel string Channel display name
channel_id string YouTube channel ID (24 characters, starts with UC)
channel_url string Full channel URL
channel_follower_count int64 Subscriber count at collection time
channel_is_verified bool Whether channel has verification badge
uploader string Uploader name (usually same as channel)
uploader_id string Uploader handle (@username)
width int64 Video width in pixels
height int64 Video height in pixels
fps float64 Frames per second
vcodec string Video codec (e.g., vp9, av01, avc1)
acodec string Audio codec (e.g., opus, mp4a)
dynamic_range string SDR or HDR
aspect_ratio float64 Width/height ratio
age_limit int64 Age restriction (0 = none, 18 = adult)
availability string public, unlisted, or private
live_status string not_live, is_live, was_live, is_upcoming
was_live bool True if video was a livestream
is_live bool True if currently live
language string Detected video language (ISO 639-1)
playable_in_embed bool Whether embedding is allowed
categories string JSON array of YouTube categories
tags string JSON array of video tags
thumbnail string URL of highest quality thumbnail
chapters_json string JSON array of {title, start_time, end_time}

subtitles

Extracted subtitles for 62,819 videos (41% coverage).

Column Type Description
video_id string YouTube video ID
language string Subtitle language code
full_text string Concatenated plain text of all subtitles
segments_json string JSON array of {start, end, text} segments

Note: These are auto-generated captions from YouTube, not human-created subtitles.

channel_playlists

Video entries from 20,061 channel upload playlists (~20.8M total entries).

Column Type Description
id string YouTube video ID
title string Video title
description string Video description
duration int64 Duration in seconds
view_count int64 Number of views
timestamp int64 Unix timestamp
upload_date string Upload date (YYYYMMDD)
channel string Channel name
channel_id string Channel ID
playlist string Playlist name (usually "Uploads from [Channel]")
playlist_id string Playlist ID
playlist_count int64 Total videos in channel's upload playlist
playlist_index int64 Position in playlist (1 = newest)
thumbnail string Thumbnail URL

Use cases: Channel growth analysis, upload frequency patterns, content strategy analysis.

heatmaps

Viewer engagement heatmaps showing which parts of videos are most watched. ~92% of videos have heatmap data, with ~100 segments per video.

Column Type Description
video_id string YouTube video ID
start_time float64 Segment start in seconds
end_time float64 Segment end in seconds
value float64 Relative engagement score (0.0 - 1.0)

How to interpret: Values represent relative rewatch/skip behavior. Higher values indicate segments that viewers replay or don't skip. Values near 0 indicate frequently skipped segments (often intros, sponsor reads).

Use cases: Identifying engaging content patterns, sponsor segment detection, intro/outro detection, content quality analysis.

live_chat

Chat messages from 4,300 livestream recordings.

Column Type Description
video_id string YouTube video ID
message_id string Unique message ID
timestamp_usec int64 Message timestamp in microseconds
video_offset_msec int64 Video playback time when message appeared
author_name string Display name of message author
author_channel_id string Author's YouTube channel ID
message string Message text content
message_type string text, paid (Super Chat), membership, gift

Use cases: Chat sentiment analysis, community engagement patterns, Super Chat analysis.

Raw Data Archives

In addition to the processed parquet files, the complete raw yt-dlp output is available as compressed archives in the raw/ directory:

Archive Contents Compressed Uncompressed
video_metadata.tar.zst 154K .info.json files 1.6 GB 56 GB
subtitles.tar.zst 62K .vtt files 2.5 GB 12 GB
live_chat.tar.zst 4K .live_chat.json files 897 MB 14 GB
channel_playlists.tar.zst 20K channel .json files 3.4 GB 48 GB
Total 8.2 GB 130 GB

Extracting Raw Data 

# Extract with zstd
tar -I zstd -xvf raw/video_metadata.tar.zst

# Or with explicit zstd command
zstd -d raw/video_metadata.tar.zst -c | tar -xvf -

Additional Fields in Raw Data

The raw JSON files contain fields not included in the parquet files:

  • formats - All available streaming URLs and quality options
  • thumbnails - All thumbnail resolutions
  • automatic_captions - Caption availability for 150+ languages
  • subtitles - Manual subtitle availability
  • requested_formats - Selected format details
  • http_headers - Request headers used

Usage Examples

Basic Loading 

from datasets import load_dataset

# Load video metadata
videos = load_dataset("ScriptSmith/sponsorblock-youtube-metadata-2024", "video_metadata")
print(f"Loaded {len(videos['train']):,} videos")

# Load with streaming for large configs
playlists = load_dataset(
    "ScriptSmith/sponsorblock-youtube-metadata-2024",
    "channel_playlists",
    streaming=True
)

Analyzing Engagement Patterns 

import json
from datasets import load_dataset

videos = load_dataset("ScriptSmith/sponsorblock-youtube-metadata-2024", "video_metadata")
heatmaps = load_dataset("ScriptSmith/sponsorblock-youtube-metadata-2024", "heatmaps")

# Find videos with high early drop-off (bad intros)
# Join on video_id, look for low values in first 30 seconds

Working with Subtitles 

import json
from datasets import load_dataset

subtitles = load_dataset("ScriptSmith/sponsorblock-youtube-metadata-2024", "subtitles")

# Parse segments
for row in subtitles['train']:
    segments = json.loads(row['segments_json'])
    for seg in segments:
        print(f"{seg['start']:.1f}s: {seg['text']}")

Channel Analysis 

from datasets import load_dataset
from collections import Counter

playlists = load_dataset("ScriptSmith/sponsorblock-youtube-metadata-2024", "channel_playlists")

# Count videos per channel
channel_counts = Counter(row['channel_id'] for row in playlists['train'])
print(f"Most prolific: {channel_counts.most_common(10)}")

Known Limitations

  1. Temporal snapshot: All metrics are from collection time (Aug-Oct 2025) and don't reflect current values or historical trends.

  2. Selection bias: Videos come from SponsorBlock, biasing toward sponsored content and certain genres (gaming, tech).

  3. Missing data: Not all videos have subtitles (41%), heatmaps (92%), or chapters (32%).

  4. Deleted content: Some videos may have been deleted or made private since collection.

  5. Auto-captions: Subtitles are YouTube's auto-generated captions, which may contain transcription errors.

  6. Truncated descriptions: Very long descriptions may be truncated.

  7. Regional availability: Some videos may be region-locked; metadata reflects availability from the collection location.

License

This dataset is released under CC-BY-4.0. The underlying video content belongs to the respective creators. This dataset contains only metadata, not the actual video/audio content.

Citation 

@dataset{sponsorblock_youtube_metadata_2025,
  title={SponsorBlock YouTube Metadata Dataset},
  author={Smith, Adam},
  year={2025},
  url={https://huggingface.co/datasets/ScriptSmith/sponsorblock-youtube-metadata-2024},
  note={Metadata for 154K YouTube videos from the SponsorBlock database}
}

Acknowledgments

  • SponsorBlock for the video ID database
  • yt-dlp for metadata extraction
  • YouTube creators whose content is represented in this dataset