Here’s Why Everyone Is Commenting “Ratio” on TikTok Videos
Published Jan. 12 2021, 5:43 p.m. ET
Depending on how much time you spend on TikTok, you might encounter several new trends, challenges, and dances every day. Over time, you also start to get a hand on the lingo, too. Remember when you didn’t know what “fyp” meant? That was ages ago! Remember when you thought “accountants” referred to the people who do your taxes? That was a confusing time.
Recently, we’ve noticed another TikTok mystery to solve when it comes to the word “ratio.” On some TikTok videos, you might see a ton of comments from people saying, “Ratio me” or “Ratio me 1:1.” So what does that mean? Here’s what we found out.
What does “ratio” mean on TikTok?
On Twitter, a tweet is said to be “ratioed” when it receives more quote tweets or retweets than it does replies or likes. That usually indicates that someone has shared a supremely bad take, and everyone is talking about them rather than engaging with the tweet itself. It’s not a good look.
When it comes to TikTok, though, it seems as though “ratio” takes on a slightly different meaning and is actually a good thing. Here’s how it generally works. One person will leave a comment on a video saying “Ratio me 1:1.” It’s basically a call-to-action for other TikTok users to make sure that the “likes” on that particular comment match the “likes” on the video itself. So if a video has exactly 5,234 likes, someone commenting “Ratio me 1:1” is hoping their comment will also get exactly 5,234 likes.
Sometimes, it works like a dream. Other times, the TikTok hivemind decides a comment is unworthy of the ratio treatment, and the comment doesn’t get any likes. And in extreme cases, someone might reply to that comment and then that reply will get all of the likes instead — if you care about TikTok likes, that’s basically the ultimate punishment.
Just to make things a bit more confusing, it seems like some people use “ratioed” when a reply to a comment blows up, or when a top-level comment receives more likes than the video itself. Still with us?
Things reach yet another level when someone comments something like “Ratio me 1:1:1:1.” This means that they want their comment, as well as three replies to their comment, to each have the same number of likes.
If you catch a ratio thread early enough, you can see the TikTok hivemind in action as thousands of users somehow work together to decide which comments or replies are worthy of “likes,” and which are destined to go unnoticed. It’s quite the sight to behold.
If you’re still confused, don’t worry — you’re definitely not alone. In fact, that’s another thing we’ve noticed in the TikTok ratio comment threads. There are usually a bunch of people asking for an explanation of what ratio means only to have their own comment “ratioed” instead. “This,” someone will reply, and then that reply will get a bunch of “likes.” We hope this explanation helped a bit, though!
