The State of Web Vitals

Video and audio hosting sources on React sites

Among sites embedding <video> or <audio> media, 85.5% (1,574) stream from dedicated external media CDNs and reach 86% good LCP (1.4s median), while the 15.9% (293) serving media directly from their own origin record 69% good LCP (1.8s median).

Field data PhoneDesktopAll Scope All sites October 2026 edition · Desktop field outcomes · React sites only
React Scoped to 9,570 sites out of 210,902 analyzed (frameworks) Compare with all sites →

85.5% of React sites use CDN-hosted media video and audio media source, and 86% of those sites have a good LCP, against 79% of all React sites.

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 1,979 with desktop field data · 1,840 sites with video and audio media sourceBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
1

LCP pass rate

Sites with CDN-hosted media video and audio media source have a good LCP most often: 86%, against 79% of all React sites. Sites with self-hosted media media source have it least often, at 69%.

SitesGood, needs improvement, poor LCPMedian
All React sites1,97979%1.5s
External media CDN / host 85.5%31286%1.4s
Self-hosted (same origin) 15.9%12269%1.8s
GoodNeeds improvementPoorSites: with Chrome field data
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 1,979 with desktop field data · 1,840 sites with video and audio media sourceBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
2

Video and audio media source usage

CDN-hosted media is the most used: 85.5% of React sites.

Sites using each option (sites can use more than one) 1,840 sites
External media CDN / host 85.5% Self-hosted (same origin) 15.9%
External media CDN / host 85.5% Self-hosted (same origin) 15.9%
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 1,979 with desktop field data · 1,840 sites with video and audio media sourceBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
3

LCP phase breakdown by video and audio hosting source

Across the four LCP sub-parts in Chrome's field data, the largest gap between CDN-hosted media and self-hosted media sits in time to first byte (TTFB): 442 ms median for CDN-hosted media against 1132 ms for self-hosted media. Overall median field LCP is 1.4s for CDN-hosted media (TTFB 442 ms, load delay 495 ms, load duration 208 ms, render delay 152 ms) versus 1.9s for self-hosted media.

Median LCP phase breakdown (Chrome field p75) Load delay Median LCP
React sites with video and audio media source 263607 ms469 ms469 mslab 465 ms1.5s
Self-hosted (same origin) 841132 ms313 ms246 ms313 mslab 377 ms1.9s
External media CDN / host 185442 ms495 ms208 ms495 mslab 481 ms1.4s
TTFB Resource load delay Resource load time Element render delay
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 1,979 with desktop field data · 1,840 sites with video and audio media sourceBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
4

Video and audio media source per platform

Wix sets the video and audio media source to CDN-hosted media on 100% of its sites, and 92% of Wix sites have a good LCP, against 79% of all sites. WordPress sets the video and audio media source to self-hosted media on 77% of its sites, and 66% of WordPress sites have a good LCP.

PlatformVideo and audio media source on its sitesGood LCP
React sites with video and audio media source 1,840 sitesExternal media CDN / host 86%Self-hosted (same origin) 16%79%
Wix 1,405 sitesExternal media CDN / host 100%92%
WordPress 344 sitesSelf-hosted (same origin) 77%External media CDN / host 30%66%
External media CDN / host Self-hosted (same origin)
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 1,979 with desktop field data · 1,840 sites with video and audio media sourceBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
5

Media hosting source or the platform

Why streaming large video files from the primary origin saturates LCP bandwidth

Unlike small images or fonts, a single hero <video> file often weighs several megabytes. Serving heavy MP4/WebM streams from the same origin (15.9% of media-using sites, 293) can saturate origin bandwidth and contend with critical CSS and hero poster images, resulting in 69% good LCP (1.8s median). Offloading video streams to a dedicated media CDN (85.5% of media-using sites, 1,574) lifts good LCP to 86% (1.4s median).

The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 1,979 with desktop field data · 1,840 sites with video and audio media sourceBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
6

Understanding video and audio hosting sources

Serve <video> files from a dedicated edge CDN with HTTP range-request streaming, set preload="none" or preload="metadata" on non-hero videos, and provide a lightweight WebP/AVIF poster image for above-the-fold videos. Across all media-using sites, 85.5% use external media CDNs (86% good LCP) versus 15.9% self-hosting on origin (69% good LCP).

Go fix it Perfect YouTube Core Web Vitals →
The State of Web Vitals · October 2026 · React: 9,570 crawled sites · 1,979 with desktop field data · 1,840 sites with video and audio media sourceBy Arjen Karel · corewebvitals.io/state-of-cwv
Related signals font-display strategy → Preloaded fonts → Uses @import → Stylesheet loading mix → By Arjen Karel · 9,570 crawled React sites (1,979 with desktop Chrome field data, 1,840 sites with video and audio media source, October 2026) · How we measured