Youtube subscriber count with Youtube Data Api V3

Question

So previously i was getting a youtube channel subscriber count with youtube data api v2.

I used the following (I am using TED channel for demo purposes)

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/TEDtalksDirector?alt=json&callback=jQuery111202977260369807482_1433828589506&jsonp&_=1433828589507

However with the new v3 api, there is no subscriber count in the result.

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/subscriptions?part=snippet%2CcontentDetails&channelId=UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug&key=fhjfshdjfhsjdhfjshdjfhsjdfhsjdhfjshdjfhsjdhs

Is there a way in which I can get the subscriber count value?

Answer 1

Use it like this:

https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=statistics&id=channel_id&key=your_key

You can try your API request here: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/channels/list#try-it

Answer 2

One other thing to be aware of is that there is a boolean: Statistics.HiddenSubscriberCount. If set to true then SubscriberCount will be null.

An example channel is CBS New York:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNZyLULUQBp5e9Q1cKtvk6Q/

I don't know why somebody would want to hide their subscriber count - usually it's a badge of honour. I'd guestimate that 7% of channels hide subscriber count, so it might really confuse you if you're testing your API calls on a channel that does!